Twelve young men were arrested in the north Nigerian city of Kano for allegedly planning a gay wedding, the Islamic law-enforcement agency, the Hisbah, said on Tuesday.

The suspects, most of them teenagers, were detained on Monday at a popular resort on the outskirts of the city, said the head of the Hisbah, Aminu Daurawa.

A city-wide curfew was lifted Monday in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, following a weekend Boko Haram attack that prompted the state governor to urge residents to stay and fight any future assaults.

The restive capital of Borno State was locked down on Sunday morning, after the Islamist militants launched a dawn raid that was later repelled by the military.

Boko Haram fighters on Sunday overran a strategic town in northeastern Nigeria and seized a military base, as Secretary of State John Kerry pledged further U.S. support for the counter-insurgency.

The Islamists captured the town of Monguno in Borno State, which lies about 125 kilometers (80 miles) north of the state capital Maiduguri, which was targeted in a simultaneous dawn raid.

Boko Haram fighters have killed 15 villagers near Maiduguri, the epicenter of the Islamist group's six-year insurgency where President Goodluck Jonathan is to hold an election rally Saturday.

The killings near the embattled city took place Friday, eve of the president's visit, security sources and residents said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set out his vision for the fight against Islamist violence on Friday in an impassioned speech in Davos where he also announced a visit to Nigeria.

Kerry spoke at length of the horrors inflicted by Boko Haram, the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda and promised a packed room at the World Economic Forum that the fight against terrorism would be unrelenting.

Nigeria's top security official on Friday ruled out the need for a United Nations or African Union-backed force to fight Boko Haram, saying the country and its partners could handle the threat.

Possible "enhanced international support" against Boko Haram will be discussed on the sidelines of an AU summit later this month, given fears about the group's threat to regional stability.

Nigeria's national security adviser said on Thursday that next month's presidential and parliamentary elections should be postponed because not all voter cards had been distributed.

Sambo Dasuki's suggestion came just three weeks ahead of the polling date, during a question and answer session at a conference at the Chatham House international affairs think-tank in London.

Sikh activists said they filed a lawsuit Wednesday in New York demanding the United States blacklist as a terrorist organization a hardline Hindu group linked to India's ruling party.

The federal court issued a summons for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to respond to the suit within 60 days, according to court papers sent to Agence France Presse by U.S.-based advocacy group "Sikhs For Justice."

Nigeria on Wednesday confirmed that five states have been hit with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of poultry but no human cases.

Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina said the first cases were confirmed on a commercial farm in the northern city of Kano and at a live bird market in Lagos State on January 8.

The head of Boko Haram -- the enigmatic Abubakar Shekau -- has openly taunted the countries being menaced by the armed Islamist group as they call for a united effort to crush it.

In a video claiming responsibility for the bloody attack on the Nigerian town of Baga in early January, Shekau poured contempt on the presidents of Chad, Cameroon and Niger, goading Chad's Idriss Deby Itno with the message: "African kings... I challenge you to attack me now. I am ready."