Nigeria steps up hunt for 39 kidnapped students

Nigerian security forces stepped up efforts yesterday to rescue dozens of students who were abducted from their hostels in northwestern Kaduna state in the latest attack on schools, police and officials said. Gunmen stormed the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Mando at the outskirts of the state capital, Kaduna city, late Thursday and took 39 students away while the military rescued 180 after a fierce battle. The Kaduna college was said to have some 300 male and female students -- mostly aged 17 or  older -- at the time of the attack.  Heavily-armed gangs in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and pillaging.