Moving Hong Kong residents considered
LONDON –A bizarre plan to relocate the entire population of Hong Kong to Northern Ireland was considered an option in the uncertain years before Britain handed back the former British colony to Chinese rule, formerly classified government files showed.
Britain’s National Archives on Friday released a 1983 government file called “Replantation of Northern Ireland from Hong Kong,” which showed British officials discussing a far-fetched proposal to settle 5.5 million Hong Kong people in a newly built “city state” between Coleraine and Londonderry.
George Fergusson, an official at the Northern Ireland office, was inspired by a university lecturer’s proposal to “transplant” Hong Kong to Northern Ireland.”
Nigerian militants kill 100 at mosque
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Boko Haram extremists gunned down nearly 100 Muslims praying in mosques in a northeast Nigerian town during the holy month of Ramadan, a government official and a self-defense fighter said Thursday.
The attack Wednesday night on the town of Kukawa came the day after the Islamic extremist group attacked a village 22 miles away and killed another 48 men and boys, according to witnesses who counted the dead.
The people of Kukawa were in several mosques, praying ahead of breaking their daylong fast, when the extremists attacked. They killed 97 people, mainly men, said self-defense spokesman Abbas Gava and a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Associated Press
