Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria's military said on Friday that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents.
Islamist fighters captured the town in Yobe state in August last year as the group seized swathes of territory in the crisis-hit northeast.
The military announced that it had wrested back control last Saturday.
Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that search operations in the area led to the discovery of the bomb-making factory manufacturing improvised explosive devices or IEDs.
"A large quantity of IEDs, including those commonly used by suicide bombers were recovered from the site," he added in an emailed statement.
"The factory, which was located in a fertiliser company, has also converted some of the materials therein for production of all types of IEDs.
"Troops are still evacuating the materials which include a large quantity of suicide bomber vests from the facility to their base."
Boko Haram has increasingly used suicide attacks in its six-year campaign to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
Women and young girls with explosives vests strapped to their bodies have been sent into crowded markets and bus stations, causing mass casualties.
Roadside bombs -- a tactic seen widely in Iraq and Afghanistan by Al-Qaeda-linked militants -- have also been found buried in the ground.
Olukolade said four soldiers were killed by IEDs during the operation to retake Buni Yadi and the advance was delayed because the devices were planted on the road leading into the town.
Nigeria's military, assisted by soldiers from Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as South African mercenaries, have made major gains against Boko Haram in recent weeks.
The operation is designed to secure and stabilise the northeast in time for elections to take place in two weeks' time at which President Goodluck Jonathan is seeking re-election.
Olukolade said the discovery of the bomb-making factory "is expected to degrade the capability of terrorists in the production of explosives, which they have been using lavishly in the area".
Johannesburg (AFP) - A South Africa court dismissed Friday an attempt by Oscar Pistorius's lawyers to stop an appeal that could see the fallen Paralympian hero spend significantly more time behind bars for killing his model girlfriend.
Pistorius's defence had sought to block prosecutors from appealing the double-amputee athlete's culpable homicide conviction in order to seek a murder verdict that carries more time in prison.
But Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over Pistorius's trial, criticised the athlete's lawyers and rejected their application.
The 28-year-old Paralympian was last year found guilty of culpable homicide -- a charge akin to manslaughter -- and sentenced to five years in prison for shooting Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013.
State prosecutors were granted permission in December to appeal against the verdict, arguing that Masipa misinterpreted the law when she ruled Pistorius did not intentionally kill Steenkamp when he shot four times through a locked toilet door.
Pistorius's legal team countered that his conviction was based on facts presented during the trial and therefore could not be appealed.
Masipa on Friday said Pistorius's lawyers should argue their point in the appeals court itself, adding there was "nothing new" in their application.
"Before I gave my finding in December, both counsel had an opportunity to argue whether the points raised at the time were points of fact or points of law," Masipa told the court.
"Procedurally it would be wrong to grant or refuse this application... I strike off the application."
- State appeal -
Masipa's decision paves the way for the prosecution's appeal to go ahead.
"The court today has confirmed, or agreed with the NPA, that this matter should not be entertained," National Prosecution Authority spokesman Velekhaya Mgobhozi said after the hearing.
"We will be going to the Supreme Court (of Appeal)."
Pistorius's lawyer Barry Roux shook his head when the decision was announced.
During the trial, Pistorius testified that he shot Steenkamp believing she was an intruder who had broken into his house in a gated Pretoria community.
The state argued he deliberately killed the 29-year-old law graduate and reality television star after an argument.
If an appeals court finds him guilty of murder, the athlete -- known as the "Blade Runner" for his prosthetic legs he wears on the track -- could face at least 15 years in jail.
Pistorius has been serving his sentence in a central Pretoria prison since October.
Due to his physical disability, he is being held in the hospital ward of the prison, shielding him from the often brutal overcrowded cells, known for gang violence.
Pistorius was jailed after a sensational months-long trial that made world headlines.
On Tuesday, Reeva's mother June said she was launching an anti-abuse organisation in her daughter's memory.
She refused to be drawn on the appeal process, saying it was "in the hands of the law".
