MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — A new refugee camp with 2,500 temporary homes is being built in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri for a few of the hundreds of thousands of refugees there who fled the Boko Haram uprising, officials said.

The camp — another sign that few expect the conflict to end soon — will house refugees occupying public schools, allowing classes to resume, hopefully next month, officials said.

Hundreds of thousands of children have not been to school for more than 18 months in Maiduguri and elsewhere in northeast Nigeria, where authorities closed all schools as they were targeted by the Islamic insurgents. Boko Haram is a nickname meaning "Western education is sinful."

No one knows how many refugees there are because most live with friends, family and strangers who have taken pity on them. Public grounds and the compounds of mosques and churches also provide refuge.

Some Nigerian officials have said there are about 200,000 refugees in Maiduguri, but Doctors Without Borders put the number at 1 million in August with hundreds arriving each week.

The U.N. agencies for refugees and children are building the camp along with Borno state government to house about 20,000 people. Mohammed Tejan-Cole of the U.N. refugee agency told a ground-breaking ceremony Thursday that the camp will include wells, toilets, a clinic and classrooms.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said he wants all Boko Haram camps destroyed by the end of the year. Even if that happens, the militants are expected to continue deadly hit-and-run raids and suicide bombings. Some 20,000 people have died in the 6-year-old uprising.

A man waves a rainbow flag while observing a gay pride parade in San Francisco, California June 28, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

By Peg McEntee

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - The Mormon Church has deemed married same-sex couples to be apostates of the faith and their children ineligible for baptism in a reaffirmation of opposition to gay marriage months after endorsing fair housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation.

The new policy was approved by Mormon leaders - the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles - to instruct local clergy how to proceed in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in June legalizing same-sex marriage and similar moves in other countries.

The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon faith is formally known, claims more than 15 million members and 85,000 missionaries worldwide.

Mormon officials said church doctrine has long regarded marriage as a union solely reserved for a man and a woman. And while the church has staunchly opposed extending marriage rights to same-sex couples, it has welcomed celibate, single gay men and lesbians to the religion.

Under the policy approved on Thursday, same-sex marriage was added to the list of acts considered to be a renunciation of the Mormon faith and thus subject to church discipline, including excommunication.

The new policy also prohibits natural or adopted children of same-sex married couples from receiving a naming blessing or from being baptized or confirmed in the faith until they turn 18, leave their parents' home and personally disavow same-sex marriage or cohabitation.

The same conditions would apply to children of same-sex couples recommended for missionary service.

The move seemed at odds with the church earlier this year giving its support to legislation signed into law by Utah Governor Gary Herbert in March barring discrimination in the workplace or housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“This is a difficult event to witness," the group Affirmation, an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Mormons, said in a statement. It said its leaders had "received a flood or reactions from LGBT Mormons, and family members and friends including grief, shock, disbelief and spiritual confusion."

Troy Williams, executive director of the gay rights group Equality Utah and a former member of the faith, said all churches have the right to welcome or exclude whomever they choose.

Still, he added, “We know that children of same-sex parents are treasures of infinite worth. In our universe, all God's children have a place in the choir.”

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Bill Trott)

Taipei (AFP) - Hundreds of angry protesters massed outside Taiwan President Ma Ying-Jeou's office Saturday, condemning his warm exchange with China's leader in a summit that has fuelled fears the democratic island will be swallowed up by its giant rival.

The talks have been hailed as a historic opportunity to end decades of hostility between the two sides which split after a civil war, but there has been a backlash among Taiwanese suspicious over Ma's rapprochement policy.

Angry demonstrators tried to storm parliament overnight and 27 were arrested at the airport Saturday as Ma headed to a summit his opponents say is a sell-out to Beijing which is bent on expanding its influence.

Later, up to 500 protesters, representing an array of groups including farmers, rights activists and environmentalists, raged over the cordial get-together at a Singapore hotel where Ma told China's leader Xi Jinping that they already "feel like old friends".

"How can he... without any negotiation go to meet with the leader of our enemy? I believe this is getting to the level of treason," said Lin Hsiu-hsin, vice chairman of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.

Protest leaders were infuriated by Xi's comments that the two sides are "a family" that can never be divided -- a reference to the mainland's unchanging position that Taiwan is a breakaway province awaiting reunification.

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Pro-Taiwan independent activists from the New Power Party protest outside the Parliament in Taipei, …

"Xi Jinping said we belong to one China. Can you accept it?" Lee Ken-cheng from the Beijing-sceptic environmentalist Green Party bellowed to the crowd.

"No!" they roared back.

- Suspicion over motives -

Ties with China have blossomed under Ma, a lame-duck leader as presidential elections loom in January, but the economy remains in the doldrums and critics say a raft of trade deals has benefited only big business, not ordinary Taiwanese.

There are deep suspicions over the reasons for the summit, declared less than a week ago, and fears a meddling China is trying to secure another victory for Ma's Kuomintang party which is lagging badly in the polls.

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Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou attends a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Taipei, …

"We are worried they may sign some secret agreement. This president with only nine percent popular support doesn't represent us. We are afraid of being part of China," said Peggy Wu, a 28-year-old researcher.

In an island with a strong sense of its own identity, Wu was among those furious over the summit protocol. The two leaders were to address each other as "mister" instead of "president" in a nod to the fact that neither formally recognises the other.

"China doesn't see us as an independent nation. Their positions are unequal. We should be addressed as president, not mister," she said, holding a handmade sign declaring "Go to hell, 'One-China' policy."

- Singapore detentions -

In Singapore, there were also reports that three members of the anti-China Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) were escorted by police from a hostel.

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A demonstration in Taipei on November 7, 2015 against the historic summit in Singapore between Chine …

A TSU spokesman in Taipei said legislative candidate Hsiao Ya-tan was "taken away by police" along with two of her assistants.

Police in Singapore -- a city-state where public protests are banned -- said they were interviewing five Taiwanese nationals amid a security clampdown at the summit venue but did not say if they were the same group.

At Taipei's Songshan airport where Ma gave a brief address to reporters before boarding his flight Saturday, protesters tried to burn images of the two leaders with slogans calling Xi "Chinese dictator" and Ma a "traitor".

The 27 were arrested after they attempted to push their way through a guarded side gate.

They included student leader Chen Wei-ting, a key figure in last year's Sunflower Movement which occupied parliament for almost a month over a controversial trade pact with China.

Television footage showed Chen dragged into a police van while officers with riot shields scuffled with protesters.