Using the 14th amendment as their basis, many courts have treated corporations as people. Usually these rulings are beneficial to corporations and their larger interests, such as in the Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to endorse candidates like individuals. However, a new case will determine whether or not a corporation can be convicted as an accomplice to a crime against humanity. In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Royal Dutch Petroleum and its subsidiary, Shell, are accused of aiding an autocratic regime that brutalized minorities in an oil-rich region of Nigeria.

More than 200 people are now feared to have been killed in a series of bomb attacks and shooting sprees in northern Nigeria. The attacks are believed to be the work of the Islamist group Boko Haram. According to Human Rights Watch, the group has killed nearly 1,000 people over the past three years. Andrew Harding is a reporter with our partner the BBC. He visited the northern cities of Jos and Kano, which have both suffered heavy losses, and sent this report.

One in five African's are Nigerian and it's an underestimate to say that it's a worrying time for the country. This morning, doctors in the city of Kano says the death toll from Friday's bomb attacks by Islamist militants is certain to rise further. 160 people have so far been confirmed dead but bodies are still arriving at the city's mortuaries. So as a reminder Boko Haram, which wants an Islamic state, says it launched theses attacks because the authorities refused to free a group of its members from jail.

An estimated 10,000 people participated in the first day of an indefinite strike against the government on Monday. These protests were motivated by alleged corruption and the elimination of a subsidy that has sent fuel prices skyrocketing in Nigeria. Meanwhile, terrorist attacks by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, who most recently claimed responsibility for a Christmas Day church bombing that killed 37 people and wounded 57, have reached a fever pitch.

It was a deadly weekend in Nigeria. The radical Islamist group Boko Haram staged a series of attacks that the Nigerian Red Cross says has left more than 100 dead in the northeastern part of the country. The terrorist attacks included shootings and suicide bombings, showing the increasing sophistication of a group which, by some counts, has killed as many as 330 people this year alone. On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria warned that luxury hotels in Abuja might be targets of further attacks.

All summer long we’re celebrating the season of relaxing and reading with our book club here at The Takeaway. Some of the novels we'll talk about this summer are escapist in a fantastical way. They’re easy to read and enjoy. Other books are escapist because they are deeply engrossing. They draw us in to a difficult story, making it impossible to look away from the problems the book brings to the surface. Today's book club pick does just that. It’s called "Oil On Water" by Helon Habila. "Oil On Water" tells the story of two journalists who are in pursuit of a scoop in the oil-rich, poverty-stricken Niger Delta.

It's official: millions of people around the world still want to live in the U.S.A. A record-breaking 15,000,000 people have applied to the annual Green Card Lottery for 2012 — an opportunity that is only open to 50,000 winners. We talk to Munkiwe Wadak, a Nigerian marketing officer who has applied for the Green Card three times, about what opportunities he hopes our nation holds for him and his family.

We also talk to Marc Rosenblum, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, about how the whole lottery process works.

Concerns about the safety of airline travel are still running high this morning after a 23-year-old Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, allegedly attempted to detonate explosives aboard Northwest flight 253, flying from Amsterdam to Detroit, on Christmas Day. Authorities credit quick action by passengers and crew and a faulty detonator with preventing what could have been a tragedy aboard the plane. But travelers can expect to see a host of new restrictions on airline flights. Micheline Maynard is covering the story for our partner, The New York Times. 

Many people were surprised to learn that the father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had reportedly approached the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, with concerns that his son was becoming radicalized. That has raised questions of why the young man wasn't subjected to greater scrutiny before boarding the plane to Detroit. For a look at how this incident may change planning and procedure around U.S. airport security we speak to Paul Pillar. Pillar is the director of graduate studies at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies.

Three days of violence across northern Nigeria have left more than 100 people dead. But who exactly is behind the bloodshed? The government is fighting a group of Islamic fighters who some call "The Taliban," who want strict Islamic law put into place. But are they the Taliban? Richard Hamilton, a BBC Africa reporter, joins The Takeaway with more of the story.

Here's Al Jazeera's report on the violence in Nigeria [Warning: some graphic content]: