Talented and good looking Flavour in a grand performance at Hush Night Club doing what he knows how to do best. It is indeed an intriguing concert as he left his fans thrilled and asking for more.
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Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Latest news emerging from the camp of the Music Video Production (MVP) reality show is that award winning singing sensation and African Queen Crooner 2face Idibia, Funke Akindele a.k.a Jenifa and African China are to storm the camp of the MVP reality show.
The MVP reality television show will feature 50 well spirited and ambitious individuals who will be camped in a house for the duration of 21 days. The aim of this reality show is expose the 50 individuals to the nitty gritty involved in producing a very decent and quality music video. For the first time in the history of the Nigerian music industry, a reality television show is been devoted to the art of music video production. The likes of NTA network, STV, AIT, OGTV, BTV, STAR TIMES, GALAXY and TVC will cover the final camp moments.
The likes of 2face Idibia, Funke Akindele and African China will be at the MVP camp as guests and will share their respective success stories and how they all made it to the top while also sharing the various challenges that beset them at one time or the other.
To register for the reality show, individuals are to pay the sum of N5, 000 and are also enjoined to visit the reality show’s website at www.mvpcampng.com for more details.
This reality television show is open to aspiring musicians, dancers, choreographers, models, actors, actresses, video directors, cameramen, editors, production assistants, graphic artists, make up lines, set designers, welfare and caterers. To add pep to the MVP, seasoned and experienced music video producers will be on hand at the reality TV show to impact their knowledge on the house mates and also help in developing inherent qualities in them. These music video producers are the industry’s greats: Clarence Peters, DJ Tee, Patrick Ellis, Afam D Man and AK One.
It is common knowledge that these producers dominate their industry in no particular order and their various works also speak for them wherever they are, hence the reason why the organizers decided to let them participate actively at the MVP camp.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Whitney Houston‘s funeral packed the inside of Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church Saturday. But one notable person who was absent from the crowd was her ex-husband Bobby Brown.
A witness tells Us Weekly that Brown “was allowed to go in, pay his respects and then he had to leave. He was red-eyed going up to the casket and then left. He was there for 15 minutes.”
Addressing the speculation that he was thrown out, turned away and rumors that he didn’t show at all, Brown, who’s schedule to perform at a concert Saturday, has released an official statement, explaining the situation in full.
“My children and I were invited to the funeral of my ex-wife Whitney Houston. We were seated by security and then subsequently asked to move on three separate occasions. I fail to understand why security treated my family this way and continue to ask us and no one else to move. Security then prevented me from attempting to see my daughter Bobbi Kristina. In light of the events, I gave a kiss to the casket of my ex-wife and departed as I refused to create a scene. My children are completely distraught over the events. This was a day to honor Whitney. I doubt Whitney would have wanted this to occur. I will continue to pay my respects to my ex-wife the best way I know how.”
Earlier this week, a source told Us that there is still underlying tension between Houston’s relatives and Brown, who married Houston in 1992. Their divorce was finalized in 2007.
“There are family members who felt Bobby drove Whitney into drugs,” one source explained. “But now Bobby is clean and Whitney has unfortunately passed. So there’s resentment.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to bring down Northwest flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 with an underwear bomb, said he was was “proud to kill in the name of God” before he was sentenced to multiple life sentences today in a Detroit courtroom.
“Today is a day of victory and God is great,” said Abdulmutallab, 25. He also said that al Qaeda would one day be victorious, and that acts like his will continue until “the righteous servants of Allah inherit the world.”
“The defendant has never expressed doubt or remorse about his mission,” said Judge Nancy Edmunds in imposing four life sentences plus 50 years. “To the contrary, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cathleen Corken had asked Judge Edmunds to impose the maximum sentence allowable for Abdulmutallab‘s “cold-blooded, calculated plan to kill everyone aboard the plane.”
“We ask the court to impose the maximum sentence on each count,” said Corken, “to ensure that he never again will have the chance to harm an American citizen.”
Earlier, five passengers who had been on flight 253 each got a chance to speak. Shama Chopra of Montreal told Abdulmutallab, “You had no right to take my life,” but then handed Abdulmutallab’s lawyer a rosary to give to the 25-year-old Nigerian, who is a devout Muslim.
New York immigration lawyer Theophilus Maranga told Abdulmutallab, “My family prays for you.” He also told the judge he is now afraid to fly. Maranga is suing Delta Airlines and KLM-Air France for injuries he says he sustained while subduing Abdulmutallab.
Northwest flight attendant Lamare Mason put out the flames ignited by Abdulmutallab’s bomb. He told the judge that he wakes up in night sweats, and that Abdulmutallab had robbed him of “the pleasure of going to work.” Kurt Haskell, a Michigan lawyer, praised Mason for damping the flames and also criticized what he characterized as lax security that allowed Abdulmutallab to get on the plane. Haskell, who has long promoted a conspiracy theory that asserts the U.S. government was complicit in the attack, repeated his assertion. “I am convinced that Umar was given an intentionally defective bomb by a U.S. agent to stage a false terrorist attack.”
Then the federal government showed a 52-second videotape showing the effect of 200 grams of PTN exploding on a sheet of aluminum. The government estimates that Abdulmutallab’s original bomb contained at least 200 grams of PETN.
The life sentence was mandatory after Abdulmutallab pled guilty last year to eight charges, including attempted murder, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism.
Prosecutors asked for consecutive life terms, calling him “an unrepentant would-be mass murderer who views his crimes as divinely inspired and blessed.”
He is expected to be sent to the federal “supermax” pentitentiary in Florence, Colorado. The prison, widely considered the most secure in the U.S., already houses other notorious inmates, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, and 1993 World Trade Center bombing conspirator Ramzi Yousef.
Abdulmutallab refused to see his parents, who traveled to the U.S. and tried to visit him at the federal prison in Milan, Michigan.
Abdulmutallab: Underwear Bomb Was A ‘Blessed Weapon”
Abdulmutallab went to trial last October, but stopped the proceedings on the second day by suddenly changing his plea to guilty on all counts.
He called the failed explosives he had hidden in his underwear a “blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims” and said he had attempted to bomb Northwest flight 253 “because of the tyranny of the United States.” “The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah,” Abdulmutallab told the court. “I carried the device to avenge the killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters… Unfortunately, my actions make me guilty of a crime.”
“The United States should be warned that if they continue to persist and promote the blasphemy of Mohammad and the prophets,” said Abdulmutallab, “the United States should await a great calamity that will befall them through the hands of the mujahedeen soon.”
“If you laugh with us now, we will laugh with you later on the day of judgment,” he said. Abdulmutallab also said he had been “greatly inspired” by Anwar al-Awlaki and insisted that Awlaki, who had been killed in a U.S. drone strike just weeks earlier, was still alive.
Lead prosecutor Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tuckel said he was “very surprised” by Abdulmutallab’s decision to plead guilty, as was FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit field office Andy Arena.
“I didn’t see this one coming,” Arena said.
An attorney working with Abdulmutallab, Anthony Chambers, told reporters it was Abdulmutallab’s decision to switch his plea even though Chambers disagreed.
“No lawyer worth his weight in salt would agree,” Chambers said. “I thought the evidence was lacking… I don’t think there was any damage to that plane.”
On Christmas Day, 2009, Abdulmutallab flew from Ghana to Amsterdam and boarded Northwest flight 253, bound for Detroit.
As the plane prepared to land in Detroit, Abdulmutallab spent an extended period in the bathroom, and then returned to his seat, where he covered himself with a blanket. When he tried to detonate the bomb in his underwear, passengers heard a popping, and saw flames spreading from his crotch. A Dutch passenger leapt on top of Abdulmutallab and flight attendants stopped the fire with fire extinguishers.
Abdulmutallab was found to have white powder packed into his underwear, as well as a plastic syringe to administer a liquid that was supposed to activate the explosives.
Taken into custody, he was treated for burns to his hands, leg and genitalia.
After the incident, Abdulmutallab told Customs and Border Protection officer Marvin Steigerwald that he obtained the device in Yemen and that he hid it in his underwear. When he was questioned later by two FBI agents, Abdulmutallab said he went to Yemen to become involved in jihad and that he was influenced by a man named Abu Tarak to undertake a suicide operation, investigators said.
Intelligence officials said that while in Yemen, Abdulmutallab also met with Anwar al-Awlaki. In March 2010, Awlaki released a tape praising Abdulmutallab. He addressed the “American people and said that nine years after the 9/11 attacks, “you are still unsafe even in the holiest and most sacred of days to you, Christmas Day.”
“Our brother Umar Farouk has succeeded in breaking through the security systems that have cost the U.S. government alone over $40 billion,” said Awlaki.
U.S. officials say that Awlaki was in electronic communication with Abdulmutallab repeatedly prior to the bombing of Northwest flight 253.
After Abdulmutallab’s arrest, his family in Nigeria released a statement saying they had been so concerned about his political extremism that they had reported him to Nigerian authorities and to “foreign security agencies” months before the bombing.
The statement said that Abdulmutallab’s recent behavior was “completely out of character and a very recent development, as before then, from very early childhood, Farouk, to the best of parental monitoring, had never shown any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern.”
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that Abdulmutallab’s father told the U.S. embassy in Nigeria his son had become radicalized and could pose a threat to the U.S.
Abdulmutallab Trains with Al Qaeda
More than 100 chat room posts traced to his e-mail account by ABC News show the course of his radicalization. In high school Abdulmutallab described himself as “very ambitious and determined.”
He was concerned he would not get into college at Caltech, Stanford or Berkeley because of his test scores.
“I tried the SAT. It was a disaster!!! I didn’t practice well and I got 1200.” Abdulmutallab attended college in London between 2005 and 2008.
He wrote of being lonely and sought friends on-line. “Can you be my friend?” he wrote. “I get lonely sometimes because I have never found a true Muslim friend.”
Later, he wrote of joining protests against the war in Iraq, asking “when is lying allowed to deceive the enemy?” Still later he wrote of heading to Yemen.
“The Obama administration has been admitting lately, that Yemen is the new Afghanistan,” said Clarke. “It is the new sanctuary. The new al Qaeda base, where people from around the world, who want to be trained are sent. No longer to Afghanistan, but to Yemen.”
Videos released by al Qaeda in 2010 showed Abdulmutallab and others in his training class in Yemen firing weapons at a desert camp whose targets included the Jewish star, the British Union Jack and the letters “UN.” The tape also included an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic from the then 23-year old justifying his actions against “the Jews and the Christians and their agents.” He says, “the enemy is in your lands with their armies, the Jews and the Christians and their agents.” He reads several passages from the Koran and adds, “God said if you do not fight back, He will punish you and replace you.”
U.S. officials believe Abdulmutallab left Yemen in mid-December of 2009 on his suicide mission.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation may soon be forced to shut down a number of key Domain Name System (DNS) servers, which would cut Internet access for millions of Web users around the world, reports BetaBeat. The DNS servers were installed by the FBI last year, in an effort to stop the spread of a piece of malware known as DNSCharger Trojan. But the court order that allowed the set up of the replacement servers expires on March 8.
In November of last year, authorities arrested six men in Estonia for the creation and spread of DNSCharger, which reconfigures infected computers’ Internet settings, and re-routes users to websites that contain malware, or other illegal sites. DNSCharger also blocks access to websites that might offer solutions for how to rid the computer of its worm, and often comes bundled with other types of malicious software.
By the time the FBI stepped in, DNSCharger had taken over computers in more than 100 countries, including half-a-million computers in the US alone. To help eradicate the widespread malware, the FBI replaced infected servers with new, clean servers, which gave companies and individuals with infected computers time to clean DNSCharger off their machines.
Unfortunately, DNSCharger is still running on computers “at half of the Fortune 500 companies,†and at “27 out of 55 major government entities,†reports cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs. These computers rely on the FBI-installed DNS servers to access the Web. But if the court order is not extended, the FBI will be legally required to remove the clean servers, which would cut off the Internet for users still infected with DNSCharger.
Companies or other agencies that are unsure whether their systems are infected with DNSCharger can get free assistance here. And private users can find out if they are infected using instructions provided here.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
As Libya marks the first anniversary of its revolution on Friday, the dozens of well-armed militia groups operating across the vast country have slipped well out of the control of the nascent government in Tripoli, making the country ever more fractured as well as dangerous to ordinary Libyans attempting to adjust to the end of Muammar Gaddafi‘s 41-year dictatorship.
That assessment came on Thursday from Amnesty International, whose latest research on the country documents at least 12 Libyans who have died in militia custody since September, allegedly after being beaten, suspended upside down and given electric shocks. In a chilling 38-page report published on the eve of the anniversary, Amnesty describes a wave of terror and widespread abuse by militia groups, whose members in recent months have dragged hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Libyans from their homes or from roadside checkpoints into makeshift jails on suspicion of being Gaddafi sympathizers or having fought alongside the regime’s forces during the civil war. (PHOTOS: Libya’s New Regime: The Fight for Gaddafi’s Hometown)
Libya should be celebrating on the anniversary of the revolution, which saw scrappy fighters crush one of the world’s longest-serving regimes in just eight months after drawing NATO allies into the sole Western military intervention of the Arab Spring. The revolution erupted Feb. 17, 2011, when hundreds of protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi stormed into the streets demanding the end of Gaddafi’s rule — an extraordinarily brave act at the time. The demonstrations spread rapidly, engulfing eastern Libya within weeks, then catapulting the country into all-out civil war once NATO began its bombing campaign in mid-March. The revolution ended in the stunning collapse of the dictatorship in August.
But this Feb. 17 is likely to be a far less joyous milestone. Last week, Gaddafi’s son Saadi announced from his exile in neighboring Niger that a pro-Gaddafi insurgency was readying itself for battle across Libya. And militia groups, many of which led the rebel forces during the war, have now settled into semipermanent power arrangements in areas across the country, with no signs of disarming. The National Transitional Council (NTC), the administration in Tripoli, has set several deadlines for the groups to give up their weapons and join a national army, all of which have gone unheeded. Instead, says the Amnesty report, the groups operate independent of authorities in Tripoli — including inside the capital itself — with little fear of prosecution. “After the great wave of hysteria last year of mass detentions, there is now a more pernicious hunting down of people,” Donatella Rovera, senior crisis-response adviser for Amnesty in London, tells TIME. (VIDEO: Libya to Citizens: Give Up Your Guns)
Over the past two months, Rovera visited numerous detention facilities controlled by militia groups, interviewing detainees in Arabic, alone in closed rooms. She says that since she was often given little time to talk to them, detainees ripped off their shirts the moment the door was closed, eager to show her bruises and cuts from interrogations. After presenting the evidence to NTC officials in Tripoli, she says she came to believe that the council lacked both the willingness and the capability to wrest control from armed groups — perhaps because the task could require a major confrontation at a time when officials are attempting to stabilize the battered economy and prepare the country for June elections. Rovera believes the delay has only worsened the situation. “The lack of political will has contributed to making the militias more and more powerful, and more and more difficult to control,” she says.
The report outlines the grim detentions in fairly close detail, adding to mounting evidence of abuse. In December, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had visited about 8,500 prisoners in 60 detention facilities over the previous year. And in late January, Doctors Without Borders shut its clinic in Misratah after its staff treated 14 torture victims who had been taken to an interrogation center nearby. The group said the militia in charge of the prison refused to allow 13 of the prisoners to be given further medical treatment and then took them back to the interrogation center. (PHOTOS: Libya Celebrates Liberation)
The most chilling details in Amnesty’s new report involve those whose detentions ended in death. One of those was Fakhri al-Hudairi al-Amari, a police officer from the Tripoli suburb of Tajura. Al-Amari, a 31-year-old with two children, was hauled from his home with his four brothers by a group of armed men last October, days before Gaddafi was killed in Sirt. The brothers were detained in Tajura, and all except al-Amari were soon released. More than a month after al-Amari’s arrest, the staff at Tripoli’s Abu Salim Hospital phoned family members to say he had been admitted with severe injuries; he died later that day. The hospital’s postmortem exam found two missing fingernails, marks from electric shocks, burn marks on his forehead, arm and wrist, and bruises across his body.
Despite several such cases, Amnesty says no prosecutions have taken place and high-profile reports of killings — including, for example, the deaths of some 65 apparent Gaddafi supporters in Sirt immediately after Gaddafi’s death — have not resulted in any arrests. In several places, Amnesty was told that investigations were being done by ad hoc “judicial committees,” whose members told the organization “that they had to take on the task of prosecutors because the judicial system was not working.” (READ: Libya’s Army Tries to Reassert Itself as Militias Have Their Way)
That raises the question about how Libya’s most high-profile detainee — Gaddafi’s powerful son Saif al-Islam — may be tried. Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted Saif for crimes against humanity, Libyan officials say they do not intend to transfer him to the Hague, where the ICC is based. Under the rules of the ICC, Libya would need to petition the court to try Saif inside Libya by arguing that the country is capable of giving him a fair, thorough trial. On Jan. 23, Libya’s new Justice Minister, Ali Humaida Ashour, told reporters that Saif would be “held in Libya under Libyan law,” prompting the ICC to issue a statement saying that no decision had yet been made about where the country’s most famous prisoner would ultimately be tried.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has donated N100 million to the Kano State Government for onward delivery to victims of the recent Boko-Haram bomb attacks in the state.
CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, presented the N100 million cheque to the Kano State Deputy Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, during his condolence visit to the Kano Government House yesterday.
Curiously though, Sanusi has not made donations with CBN funds to any state or other victims of Boko Haram’s attack other than this present donation to the people of Kano and he does so not with his funds but with government funds. This was also the complaint of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) who complained that Sanusi was using government funds to promote Islamic banking.
There have been previous killings and attacks by Boko Haram. In fact, Boko Haram killed over 500 people last year and on Christmas day attacked the St. Theresa’s church Madalla, Niger state and killed over 40 people but there was no solidarity visit or donation from Sanusi.
Sanusi explained that the donation is part of its contribution to assist the state government to alleviate the suffering of direct victims of the violence and their families.
“We are here to commiserate with the government and people of the state on the recent violent incident that claimed the lives and properties of victims and present the contribution of the bank to the state.
“The incident, from all indications, has deeply shocked the country and the world at large. Our pray is that Almighty Allah will grant those who lost their lives mercy and comfort their families†he said.
Responding, Ganduje expressed appreciation to the management of the apex bank for the gesture, pointing out that it would go a long way in assisting the victims.
He said the incident had greatly affected the state in many respects, adding that “the state government requires the support of patriotic Nigerians to bring comfort to those affectedâ€.
“On behalf of his Excellency, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and the good people of the state, we wish to thank you for this contribution which is a demonstration of the bank`s concern over what has happened.
It will be recalled that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been suspected of having a presidential ambition come 2015 and many are speculating that he is trying to present himself as the Northern candidate to beat hence his recent comments that the derivation paid to some states in the Niger Delta is depriving some states in the North of money and this may be the reason why there is Boko Haram.
Many are now asking if Sanusi who studied in the Sudan between 1991 and 1997 and is reported to have met both Hassan El-Turabi and Osama Bin Laden who was hosted by Hassan El-Turabi while he lived in the Sudan between 1992 and 1996.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Additional U.S. sanctions on Iran are more significant for their timing than their immediate effect on Iran’s economy, coming as the United States and its allies are arguing that Israel should hold off on any military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities to allow more time for sanctions to work.
The U.S. ordered tough new penalties Monday to give U.S. banks additional powers to freeze assets linked to the Iranian government and close loopholes that officials say Iran has used to move money despite earlier restrictions imposed by the U.S. and Europe.
Israelis officials have been open about their worry that Iran could be on the brink of a bomb by this summer and that this spring offers the last window of opportunity to destroy bomb-related facilities. Many Israeli officials believe that sanctions only give Iran time to move its nuclear program underground, out of reach of Israeli military strikes.
Nonetheless, the sanctions were endorsed Tuesday by Israel’s hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
“We appreciate the very crucial decision regarding the sanctions,” Lieberman told reporters in Washington, in between meetings with U.S. senators. “We are awaiting that the Iranians, they will give up their nuclear ambitions,” said Lieberman, who also met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the sanctions are not doing enough. “We are pleased to see increasing sanctions but so far they have not been deterred from their course,” he said of Iranian leaders.
Like previous economic penalties, these are intended to persuade Iran to back off what the West contends is a drive to build a nuclear bomb. Israel increasingly is concerned that sanctions will never be enough to make Iran drop what has become a national priority for a clerical regime that has vowed to wipe Israel off the map.
The faster and more effectively the sanctions can be seen to work, the better the case to shelve any plan by Israel to bomb Iran, a pre-emptory move that could ignite a new Mideast war. Taking this initial step against the Iranian Central Bank, the first time the U.S. has directly gone after that major institution, is one way the Obama administration can show momentum now.
In Tehran, Ramin Mehmanparast, the foreign ministry spokesman, dismissed the sanctions as “propaganda.” He said Iran’s central bank has no financial transactions with the United States and would not be affected by the measures. “Many of these (U.S.) activities are in the sphere of psychological war and propaganda, and they cannot affect our work,” he said.
“Many of these (U.S.) activities are in the sphere of psychological war and propaganda, and they cannot affect our work,” he said.
Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy and has vowed to prevent it from going nuclear. But an Israeli official in Jerusalem on Monday said the country’s prime minister has told Cabinet members not to be so outspoken about the possibility of attacking Iran.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a closed meeting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself often has commented about keeping all options on the table in dealing with Iran.
The new, stricter sanctions, authorized in legislation that President Barack Obama signed in December, will be enforced under an order he signed only now.
The U.S. and Europe want to deprive Iran of the oil income it needs to run its government and pay for the nuclear program. But many experts believe Iran will be able to find other buyers outside Europe.
The European Union announced last month it would ban the import of Iranian crude oil starting in July. The U.S. doesn’t buy Iranian oil, but last month it placed sanctions on Iran’s banks to make it harder for the nation to sell crude. The U.S., however, has delayed implementing those sanctions for at least six months because it is worried about sending oil prices higher at a time when the world economy is struggling. Iran exports about 3 percent of the world’s oil.
White House spokesman Jay Carney denied that Monday’s unexpected announcement of new banking sanctions was a sign of heightened worry about an Israeli attack.
“There has been a steady increase in our sanctions activity and this is part of that escalation,” he said.
Carney said U.S. sanctions on Iran already are squeezing Iran’s economy and have exacerbated tensions within the Iranian leadership.
“There is no question that the impact of the isolation on Iran and the economic sanctions on Iran have caused added turmoil within Iran,” he said.
Iran is the world’s third-largest exporter of crude oil, giving its leaders financial resources and leverage to withstand outside pressure. Last year, Iran generated $100 billion in revenue from oil, up from $20 billion a decade ago, according to IHS CERA, an energy consulting firm.
If Iranian oil is prevented from getting to market, other suppliers could make up the difference. The U.S. has been pressuring other Middle East and African nations to step up production for sale to Europe. Saudi Arabia has said it could increase production to make up for any lost Iranian crude.
Iran’s disputed nuclear program became a global concern more than five years ago, when the extent of the country’s research and uranium enrichment began to be known. Since then a web of international economic and other sanctions have failed to stop Iran’s progress toward a point when it could build one or more nuclear devices.
U.S. intelligence agencies say Iran is indeed close to that ability but has not yet decided to go ahead. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and denounces sanctions as aggression.
The White House previously had said it would take months to evaluate the likely effect on the fragile global economy before taking the next large steps, including new penalties on the Central Bank.
Now, U.S. institutions are required to seize any Iranian state assets they come across, rather than rejecting the transaction involved.
The value of Iranian assets affected by the new order was not clear. Iran does almost no direct business with the United States after three decades of enmity, but its money moves through the world financial system and its oil is sold in dollars.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The head of the secret police in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, ravaged by violence claimed by the Islamist Boko Haram group, said Wednesday its members wore police uniforms to launch attacks.
“The sect members disguise as policemen… to launch attacks on police personnel and make it look like policemen are sent to kill their colleagues,” Bassey Eteng told journalists.
Eteng showed reporters three police uniforms, three forged police ID cards, 11 police rifles and boots allegedly recovered on Monday in an army raid on a Boko Haram hideout in which eight suspected sect members died.
Home-made bombs, ammunition, bomb-making tools and guerilla warfare manuals in the local Hausa language were also recovered and displayed to reporters.
Boko Haram members took police uniforms and rifles in raids on the police headquarters in the northeastern Yobe state last November.
They launched multiple suicide and bomb attacks in the state capital Damaturu killing 150 people, Eteng said.
The state security service (SSS) Wednesday arranged a tour of the suspected sect hideout raided in Kano’s Mariri neighbourhood for select journalists under military escort.
Residents said they were accustomed to seeing people in police uniform in the neighbourhood who they thought were genuine policemen.
Boko Haram’s insurgency has included both small and large-scale attacks, which have mainly targeted the police and other symbols of authority.
The group has claimed assaults that have killed more than 200 people already this year, including a sophisticated series of gun and bomb attacks in Kano on January 20 that claimed at least 185 lives — its deadliest attack yet.
Rumours have been making the rounds in Kano that the sect had recruited a police killer squad and pays 500,000 naira ($3,000) for each policeman killed.
The SSS chief said authorities were considering dialogue with the sect.
“Even in Kano, the state government and security agencies have started some overtures to make sure that an opening for dialogue is made possible,” Eteng said.
“We are not ruling out dialogue which will in the final analysis resolve the problem we are now facing”, he said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
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