LAGOS, Nigeria — Soldiers have barricaded key roads in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos as the president offered a concession to halt fuel price protests that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy.

Troops and police also blocked entrances to protest venues in Nigeria’s second-largest city of Kano on Monday, including a park near a university and a square in the city center.

Faced with declining enrollment, aging facilities, and a brutal fiscal situation, Philadelphia School District officials on Wednesday recommended closing nine schools and making grade changes at 17 others.

“We need to aim for a more efficient footprint reflecting the times and the demographics of the city,” said acting Superintendent Leroy Nunery II. “We need to align our resources in a way that benefits the education of our students.”

But the School Reform Commission – which will vote on the recommendations early next year – signaled that perhaps the changes did not go far enough.

“We need to do more,” acting Chairman Wendell Pritchett said.

With a student population now less than 150,000, the district has lost more than 50,000 pupils in the last decade, many to a growing charter-school movement. Officials have estimated there are 70,000 empty seats citywide.

As the U.S. economy began to tank, the number of abused kids landing in the hospital with severe brain injuries spiked, a new study shows.

Anecdotes linking child abuse to the recession have surfaced before,
but there had been no hard data to back the connection until now.

“It’s definitely disturbing,” said Elizabeth Gershoff, a psychologist who studies parenting but was not involved in the study.

Although there is no proof that financial hardship itself is causing
the uptick in abuse, earlier research has tied parental stress to child
maltreatment.

“Living in poverty for parents can be very stressful,” Gershoff, of
the University of Texas at Austin, told Reuters Health. “And that in
turn leads to harsher parentin

The Obama administration committed more than $500 million in taxpayer money to a maker of solar power panels despite repeated red flags about the company’s viability, NBC News’ Lisa Myers reported Wednesday.

The FBI raided the Silicon Valley headquarters of the company, Solyndra, last week, investigating whether the government was misled when it loaned the company $535 million in taxpayer funds. Solyndra officials say they are cooperating with the investigation.

Solyndra received the loan guarantees in 2009 as part of President Barack Obama’s promise to create millions of so-called “green” jobs. But last month, Solyndra declared bankruptcy, laying off all 1,100 workers.

Budget bickering and brinkmanship in Washington this summer are getting much of the blame for the recent slowdown in an already weak U.S. economy. Now, the two-year-old stalemate over Europe’s debt problems threatens to bring on another recession.

The crisis in Europe has already sapped the confidence of consumers there and slowed the region’s economy to a standstill. Gross domestic product rose just 0.2 percent in the second quarter. In Germany, the Eurozone’s largest economy grew at only a 0.1 percent pace; France’s GDP was flat.

NEW YORK — Wall Street’s wild week continued Thursday with a 423-point surge for the Dow Jones industrial average. Stocks shot higher after investors saw small signs that the economy might not be headed into another recession.

With a 400-plus point move for the Dow, Thursday’s close marks the first time in history that the index has moved more than 400 points in four straight trading days. On Monday, The Dow plunged 634 points only to gain 429 points Tuesday and then sink 519 points Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and congressional leaders worked Monday to align lawmakers from both parties behind their formula for averting a financial meltdown and halting the government’s prolific spending habits. Despite resistance from both liberals and conservatives, momentum appeared to be building in support of the compromise deficit-reduction plan.

In an apparent show of confidence, leaders in the House said they planned to bring the plan to the floor for a vote Monday afternoon. Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said there would be an hour of debate before moving to a vote.

SEATTLE — Craving a gourmet meal on the fly? Food trucks plying American streets are delivering increasingly varied and sophisticated fare to the urban palate. Mobile kitchens offer hamburgers made from grass-fed cows, artisan breads, ethnic blends like Korean tacos and gourmet dishes that stand up next to fine fare from the brick-and-mortar sector.

NEW ORLEANS — BP is arguing that victims of last year’s Gulf oil spill should not be paid any more claims for future losses because the areas affected by the spill have recovered and the economy is improving.

The British oil company makes its case in a 29-page document filed
with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which administers the $20 billion
fund for victims.

It criticizes several aspects of the fund’s policies and claims that
at some times it has paid victims more than is allowed under the federal
Oil Pollution Act.

DETROIT – With a few computer keystrokes in an office at its headquarters, Chrysler Group LLC sent $7.6 billion to the U.S. and Canadian governments on Tuesday, paying off most of the bailout money that saved the company from financial disaster just two years ago.

The repayment — expected for weeks — is a huge step in the automaker’s unlikely comeback. Chrysler went from a company that almost ran out of cash and survived a 2009 bankruptcy to one that is revamping its aging lineup and last quarter posted its first net profit in five years, a modest $116 million.