Miscellaneous News

Up to 150 drowned, shot dead fleeing Boko Haram in Nigeria


Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Up to 150 people drowned in a river or were shot dead fleeing Boko Haram gunmen who raided a remote village in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe state, local residents said on Tuesday.

Dozens of militants arrived on motorcycles and in a car on Thursday last week and opened fire, scattering terrified residents of Kukuwa-Gari.

"They opened fire instantly, which forced residents to flee. They shot a number of people. Unfortunately many residents who tried to flee plunged into the river which is full from the rain. Many drowned," Modu Balumi, a resident of the village, told AFP.

"By our latest toll we have 150 people either (shot dead) or drowned in the attack. The gunmen deliberately killed a fisherman who tried to save drowning residents of the village."

Balumi said the bodies of many of the drowned were picked out by locals several kilometres away.

News of the attack was slow to emerge because the militants have destroyed telecom masts around the village, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Yobe State capital Damaturu, since the insurgency began in 2009.


Health officials carry the body of a victim of a suicide bomb attack out of an ambulance in Potiskum …

"Most residents, particularly women and children, ran towards the river in confusion," said Bukar Tijjani, another villager, who confirmed the death toll.

"They were pursued by the gunmen who kept firing at them. In the frantic effort to escape they jumped into the river, which was full to the brim."

A local government official confirmed the attack but put the death toll much lower, at around 50.

- Massacre -
The ambush came during the region's peak rainy season, when most waterways in northeastern Nigeria are swollen and can flow with dangerous speed.


Residents stand near a smouldering remains of a bus targeted in a suicide attack in the northeast Nigeria

The village was still reeling from a raid by suspected Boko Haram militants on July 31 when at least 10 people were killed by gunmen who burned homes, food silos and livestock.

‎The Gujba area of Yobe state, where Kukuwa-Gari village is located, has been hit hard by Boko Haram violence in the past but had seen relative calm since troops reclaimed it in March.

In September 2013 scores of students of an agricultural college in the area were massacred as they slept in their dormitories.

In February last year dozens of students of a boarding secondary school in the main town of Buni Yadi were also killed in a gun attack on their hostels.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for both attacks.


Nigeria's military on March 16 said that it had cleared Boko Haram from the northeastern state

The jihadist militia, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, has waged a violent campaign for a separate Islamic homeland in the northeast which has seen more than 15,000 deaths since 2009.

The military under President Muhammadu Buhari's predecessor Goodluck Jonathan was heavily criticised for poor handling of the insurgency and its failure to free more than 200 schoolgirls abducted from the northeastern town of Chibok in April last year.

Nigeria's new leader, who came to power on May 29 vowing to destroy Boko Haram, replaced his military chiefs last week, ordering them to end the insurgency within three months.

- Anti-terror force -
Since May, the militants have stepped up their campaign with a wave of raids, bombings and suicide attacks which have left more than 1,000 people dead in Nigeria alone, according to an AFP count.

The Islamists have also carried out deadly ambushes across Nigeria's borders and in recent weeks suicide bombers, many of them women, have staged several attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad.

A five-nation regional force of 8,700 troops from Nigeria and its neighbours has been set up to fight Boko Haram and is expected to deploy imminently.

Buhari told a national security gathering in Abuja on Monday his government would employ "at least an extra 10,000 police officers" and set up a federal anti-terrorism task force to crush the rebellion.

Chadian leader Idriss Deby declared on August 12 that efforts to combat Boko Haram had succeeded in "decapitating" the group and would be wrapped up "by the end of the year".

Deby told reporters in the capital N'Djamena that Boko Haram was no longer led by the fearsome jihadist commander Abubakar Shekau and that his successor, whom he named as Mahamat Daoud, was open to talks.

But Shekau dramatically rebuffed the claim in an audio recording released on Sunday and authenticated by security analysts, dismissing the Chadian head-of-state as a "hypocrite" and a "tyrant".


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B.I.B. said:

I can recall your own president de Kirchner was.having popularity problems earlier on this year.how are things working out for her.now?

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Social unrest in South America
‘Dilma out!’: Brazil overwhelmed by protests as tens of thousands demand impeachment

Argentines flood the streets to protest against President Cristina Fernandez


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Bangkok bomb: CCTV video shows man leave backpack

Video Link:
Video footage has emerged of a key suspect police want to question in connection with the deadly bomb blast in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

The footage, from a CCTV camera, shows a man in a yellow shirt leaving a backpack in the Erawan Hindu shrine.

At least 20 people died in Monday's blast, about half of them foreigners, and more than 120 were injured.

In a separate attack on Tuesday, an explosive device was thrown at a pier in Bangkok, but no-one was hurt.

Nationals from China, Hong Kong, the UK, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are among the foreigners killed in the attack.



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gCaptain said:

SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Many operations have resumed at China’s Tianjin port, trade sources said, after explosions last week that killed more than 100 people and disrupted business at what is an important oil, gas and bulk import harbour for Asia’s biggest economy.

The explosions on Aug. 12 led to the disruption of all chemical and oil tanker discharges at the port, and imports of iron ore were also affected.

But shipping data from Reuters on Monday showed that tankers were discharging again, with traders and shippers confirming that operations had restarted over the weekend.

Port officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration’s traffic control department said in a statement: “At present, ships apart from those carrying hazardous goods or bunker oil are entering and exiting Tianjin Port’s north section normally. All other berths are operating normally according to sailing plans.”

Reuters spoke to several captains of tankers and dry bulk freighters that are currently in the Tianjin port region, either waiting to discharge or to leave the port, and all said that operations now seemed to be broadly back to normal.

One shipbroker said he had not heard of any problems with oil operations at the port on Monday. “So far, so good,” he said. An oil trader also said he had not heard of any trouble with oil loading at Tianjin on Monday.

Located close to Beijing, Tianjin is one of eastern China’s most important oil and gas terminals, with large commercial and strategic oil storage facilities as well as a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.

It is also an important point of entry for iron ore, a key ingredient for China’s giant steel-making industry.

A spokesman for Australian ore miner Fortescue Metals Group said: “To date, there has been no impact on Fortescue’s iron ore cargoes going through the Port of Tianjin.”

Traders said the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) facility at Tianjin had not been affected by the explosion.

China, the world’s biggest crude oil consumer alongside the United States, imports nearly 60 percent of the crude it consumes. It is constructing vast new oil storage sites to build up its strategic reserves so that eventually it will have 90 days’ worth of import demand in stock.

Although ship entries and exits seemed to be returning to normal, shippers said the blasts had worsened the port congestion Tianjin already suffered from.

China Ocean Shipping Company, China’s largest shipping group, said its ships anchored at Tianjin had not been affected but that some of its facilities in the area suffered varying levels of damage.

Singamas Container Holdings Ltd said its logistics depot had temporarily suspended operation. (Reporting by Asia commodities team; Editing by Alan Raybould)

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Tainjin is far too critical a port to China overall and to Beijing specifically to have operations halted or threatened in a major oway for too long. They are opening what they can as fast as they can.

Equation said:

Perhaps, but even the most militant among each group doesn't have access to such high explosives and the necessary skills to carry out such an attack.

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I agree with Deft on this one.
Apparently they were pipe bombs where the materials are easily obtainable.. The pipe bomb would probably using something with a low explosive force like blackpowder/ gunpowder used in pyrotechnics and this is Asia where after 1000yrs of making fireworks, its in the peoples DNA to make gunpowder

if you require something with a bigger destructive force from easily

obtainable materials

ExplosivesThere are many chemicals that can cause explosion. The list on the ATF web site list (

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) is comprehensive. Let’s look at some of the most common ones used in IED’s:

• Black Powder – fine to course black powder, black to rusty brown in color. Black Powder is used in black powder rifles and is readily available.
• Smokeless Powder – slate grey to black, available in tiny cylinders, rods or wafers
• Dynamite – used for commercial and military purposes – is available in paper, cardboard or plastic wrappings
• Ammonium Nitrate (high content in most fertilizers) – available in white or grey pellets
• Nytroglycerin is a heavy oily liquid that is clear to amber in color. Brown streaks may appear as the liquid turns brown in time.

Ammonium nitrate can be mixed with many different chemicals to create highly explosive mixtures. Some of the most common ones are:

• ANFO – mixed with Fuel Oil
• ANAL– mixed with ALuminum powder
• ANIC – mixed with ICing sugar
• ANNIE – mixed with Nitrobenzine
• ANS – mixed with sugar

The volume in all the above mentioned Ammonium nitrate and mixtures makes this particularly suited to car bombs or VBIED’s (vehicle born improvised explosive devices).

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Actually the whole site is interesting reading

Apparently there had been a second attack in Thailand at a train station involving a suspect throwing grenades. No reported casualties.

Islamic State militants behead archaeologist in Palmyra: Syrian official

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Islamic State (IS) militants beheaded an antiquities scholar in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and hung his body on a column in a main square of the historic site, Syria's antiquities chief said on Tuesday.

IS, whose insurgents control swathes of Syria and Iraq, captured Palmyra in central Syria from government forces in May, but are not known to have damaged its monumental Roman-era ruins despite their reputation for destroying artifacts they view as idolatrous under their puritanical interpretation of Islam.

Syrian state antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said the family of Khaled Asaad had informed him that the 82-year-old scholar who worked for over 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra was executed by Islamic State on Tuesday.

Asaad had been detained and interrogated for over a month by the ultra-radical Sunni Muslim militants, he told Reuters.

"Just imagine that such a scholar who gave such memorable services to the place and to history would be beheaded ... and his corpse still hanging from one of the ancient columns in the center of a square in Palmyra," Abdulkarim said.

"The continued presence of these criminals in this city is a curse and bad omen on (Palmyra) and every column and every archaeological piece in it."

Abdulkarim said Asaad was known for several scholarly works published in international archaeological journals on Palmyra, which in antiquity flourished as an important trading hub along the Silk Road.

He also worked over the past few decades with U.S., French, German and Swiss archeological missions on excavations and research in Palmyra's famed 2,000-year-old ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site including Roman tombs and the Temple of Bel.

Before the city's capture by Islamic State, Syrian officials said they moved hundreds of ancient statues to safe locations out of concern they would be destroyed by the militants.

In June, Islamic State did blow up two ancient shrines in Palmyra that were not part of its Roman-era structures but which the militants regarded as pagan and sacrilegious.

(Reporting by Kinda Makeih in Damascus Writing by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)



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no_name said:

Apparently there had been a second attack in Thailand at a train station involving a suspect throwing grenades. No reported casualties.

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The radio station I was listening to said it was another pipe bomb which failed to go off because it was thrown into the water. However there is some doubt about another bomb exploding at a train station.

Everything is back to normal at the first bomb site.If you are hesitant to visit the temple which was the site of the attack, you can always visit its replica at Caesars palace Las Vegas.

Taxi driver: Suspect in Bangkok shrine bombing was calm, didn't seem Thai
Bangkok, Thailand (CNN)[Breaking news update published at 11:23 a.m. ET]

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha appealed on Wednesday for the chief suspect in the bombing of a shrine in the heart of Bangkok to turn himself in to authorities.

Addressing reporters, Prayuth said he feared the suspect "might be silenced by killing" and that if he wanted to be safe, he should surrender to authorities.

He is "the prime target whom we must capture" and authorities "will find legal means to ensure his safety," the Prime Minister said.

The chief suspect in the deadly bombing of Bangkok's popular Erawan Shrine is "an unnamed male foreigner," according to an arrest warrant issued Wednesday by a Thai court.

A Thai motorbike taxi driver who believes he picked up the suspect shortly after the blast also said he did not seem to be Thai.

Driver Kasem Pooksuwan, 47, told CNN that the man -- who spoke an unfamiliar language on his cell phone during the short ride -- didn't speak to him at all but showed him a piece of paper with the name of a central city park written in English.

"When I dropped him, he still appeared very calm, just like (a) normal customer. He seemed not in a hurry at all," Kasem said.

Thai police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri earlier said police had questioned the motorcycle taxi driver but did not give details of what the man had told them.

Police believe the man suspected of carrying out the deadly bombing in the heart of the Thai capital probably had accomplices.

Examination of surveillance video footage from indicates that at least two others were helping the main suspect in the attack that killed 20 people and wounded more than 120 Monday evening, police officials said at a news conference Wednesday.

Authorities are hunting for the man seen on a surveillance video putting a backpack under a bench in the shrine and then walking away shortly before the blast went off.

Beyond the yellow T-shirt and dark-framed glasses he was wearing, little is known so far about the man who police say they are "very sure" is the bomber.

Here's where things stand with the investigation into the attack, which authorities have described as a deliberate act of terror:

The chief suspect

Police say they don't yet know the suspect's identity but do now appear to have concluded that he's a foreigner.

They are studying more than 10 days' worth of closed-circuit TV footage from the scene.

The surveillance footage shows the suspect in the yellow shirt sitting down on a bench in the shrine at 6:52 p.m. Monday and hiding the backpack under the bench, said Prawut,the police spokesman. The man left without the backpack, and the blast went off minutes after he set it down.

Police have released a sketch of the suspect, who's described as a dark-haired man with glasses and light facial hair.

Police also said the suspect had material wrapped around his forearms, which they say could indicate he had previously suffered some kind of injury.

A reward of 1 million Thai baht ($28,000) is being offered for information leading to the suspect's arrest, he said.

Kasem told CNN he thinks the suspect "is not Thai," although he admitted he did not look at his whole face. He said he remembers a long chin and white pale face very well, however.

"I wish I looked at his face more, but I really didn't know what happened yet at that time. Normally I would not stare at my customer's face," he said.

Kasem, who has been a Bangkok taxi driver for a little more than two years, said he did not think the unfamiliar language spoken by the man was English. He dropped his passenger at Lumpini Park, by which time he was no longer on the phone, he said. It wasn't clear whether he placed the call or received it.



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Low Oil Prices And China Pull The Rug From Under Latin America
By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

The world’s second largest economy is suddenly looking unstable, with economic growth slowing, the stock markets gyrating, and a surprise currency devaluation having taken worldwide markets by surprise. That could be bad news not just for China, but for a lot of countries that depend on exporting to China.

China’s phenomenal growth over the past two decades led to boom times for other countries as well. China is a voracious consumer of all sorts of commodities – oil, gas, coal, copper, iron ore, agricultural products, and more. For countries exporting these goods, the run up in commodity prices since the middle of the last decade has been extraordinary.

Nowhere is that more true than in Latin America. Countries like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia have enjoyed strong economic growth rates because of China’s rapid expansion.

But the boom times are over. Latin America is getting hit with a double whammy: the collapse in commodity prices and the sudden economic turmoil in China.

Low oil prices are hurting Latin America’s exporters. Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex has already for the year, cutting spending from $27.3 billion to $23.5 billion. Pemex has also borne the brunt of government spending cutbacks. And the much-anticipated first auction of Mexico’s offshore oil resources following a historic liberalization of its energy sector produced , as low oil prices scared away bidders.

Brazil has fared worse. Compounded by a colossal corruption scandal, Brazil’s Petrobras is drowning in debt as oil prices have plummeted. In late June, Petrobras it would slash spending by one-third, divest itself of billions of dollars in assets, and it lowered its long-term oil production target to just 2.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) by 2020, down from a previous target of 4 mb/d.

But no oil producer is in deeper trouble than Venezuela. The Maduro government oil prices well over $100 per barrel for its budget to breakeven, and it was struggling even before the collapse in oil prices. Venezuela is suffering from the highest inflation in the world, a crime rate that could be the in the Americas, and ordinary people are struggling to find basic foodstuffs and household items.

Venezuela has stayed afloat with the help of and Chinese loans. The country has borrowed more than $37 billion from China, and pays back part of the loans with at least

However, things could get worse for Latin America. Already hit with falling commodity prices (especially oil), China’s sudden slowdown could further dampen Chinese demand for Latin American commodities. In fact, the slowing Chinese economy, the recent currency devaluation, along with the appreciating dollar (in part due to forthcoming interest rate increases), have all caused the to fall this year. Colombia’s peso is off by 21 percent against the dollar so far this year, Brazil’s real is down by about one third, Chile’s peso has lost 12 percent, and Mexico has seen its peso fall by 10 percent.

For these countries, commodity exports represent a larger share of their economies than other countries, so China’s devaluation and the stock market plunge – which on August 18 – present real economic threats. “These headwinds have really concentrated on Latin American currencies,” Nick Verdi, a foreign-exchange strategist for Standard Chartered Bank, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

Still for much of Latin America, China’s problems will probably cause some economic headaches, but most countries can weather the storm without too much trouble. Venezuela, on the other hand, is facing a real crisis.

Venezuela’s GDP is expected to fall by 7 percent this year, and its foreign exchange has dropped to just $15.3 billion, a 12-year low, Moody’s predicts there is a greater than 50 percent chance that Venezuela will default on its debt in 2016. Oil accounts for 95 percent of Venezuela’s export revenue, so the crushingly low prices are bleeding the government dry.

There are no easy choices for Maduro’s government, and short of a dramatic rebound in oil prices, which most analysts aren’t entertaining, Venezuela’s economy is in for a rough ride over the next year.


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