VISION-WORLD NEWS

(FRANKS..) he bomb attack that killed 20 people at Bangkok's Erawan shrine on Monday was carried out by a "network", Thailand's chief of police has said. Police have released a sketch of the main suspect, a man in a yellow T-shirt who was filmed by security cameras leaving a backpack at the shrine. Police later said two other people seen on CCTV were being treated as suspects. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has described the incident as the worst-ever attack on Thailand. The Hindu shrine, popular with tourists and Buddhists, reopened on Wednesday. 'Hired to plant bomb' Bangkok Bangkok Bangkok Gaysorn Plaza shopping centre Erawan Shrine Erawan Shrine BTS Skytrain Approximate blast area Ratchaprasong Junction 200m Google Reuters 500 feet THAILAND Police chief Somyot Poompanmoung told the Associated Press news agency that the shrine attack was the work of more than one person...

(FRANKS..) Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has pledged allegiance to the new Afghan Taliban chief in an audio message posted online. The pledge to Mullah Akhtar Mansour was issued by al-Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab and was Zawahiri's first message since September last year. There had been speculation about whether Zawahiri was himself dead since the death of former Taliban head Mullah Omar was confirmed last month. Zawahiri offered his condolences. Significant oath Al-Qaeda and Zawahiri considered Mullah Omar to be the leader of the global jihadist movement. This was however contested by al-Qaeda's rival , the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which announced the establishment of a caliphate last year. In the recording released on jihadist websites, accompanied by a still image of the leader, he said: "As emir of al-Qaeda, I pledge to you our allegiance, following the path of Sheikh (Osama) bin Laden and his martyred brothers in their allegi...

(FRANKS..) Russia has blocked access to some parts of social news site Reddit for "promoting" use of banned substances. Several pages on the sites are believed to have been banned over a discussion about how to cultivate hallucinogenic mushrooms. The Russian media watchdog initially planned to block the entire site if it got no response from Reddit. Earlier in the week the same agency threatened to ban Reddit for discussions about growing marijuana. Blogger registry The block was enacted by Roskomnadzor - Russia's Federal service for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media. It had called for a block on pages posted two years ago about the best way to grow psilocybin mushrooms. Roskomnadzor maintains the list of all sites banned in Russia and added Reddit to that roster at the behest of the country's national drug control agency, reported news site Meduza . The agency also posted information about the block to its ow...

(FRANKS..) The massive explosions in China's northern city of Tianjin are now known to have killed at least 50 people. More than 700 have been injured and hospitals are struggling to cope with the number of casualties. The blasts, at a warehouse storing toxic chemicals, destroyed tower blocks and burned out thousands of cars. The fireball could be seen from space. Twelve firefighters are among those who lost their lives; 36 of their colleagues are still missing. Tianjin is one of China's most important industrial centres, and one of the busiest ports in the world. President Xi Jinping has promised a thorough investigation into what happened and "transparent information disclosure to the public," Xinhua news agency reports . What we know about explosions The first explosion occurred at about 23:30 local time (15:30 GMT) on Wednesday in Tianjin's Binhai New Area, a vast industrial zone which houses car factories, aircraft assembly lines and other man...

(FRANKS..) A tanker carrying propane gas has caught fire, shutting the M56 motorway near Chester, with trains and air travel also affected. Firefighters are tackling the lorry fire, which started just before 15:00 BST on the westbound carriageway. The motorway has been closed in both directions between junctions 12 and 15 near Stanlow and Frodsham. Cheshire Police has tweeted there are no casualties, but drivers are being warned to avoid the area. The force said it would remove the central reservation so motorists could turn around and get off the motorway. Residents in Helsby, Hapsford and Elton are advised to stay indoors and close their windows and doors. om Jackson, who is stuck on the motorway, said: "I was about 20 cars back and we just saw the traffic start to slow and then come to a complete standstill. "A huge plume of black smoke and then two small explosions, that may have been tyres, then there was a huge one which was like a giant bunsen burner g...

(FRANKS..) Six members of the security forces have been killed in a series of attacks in Turkey amid rising tension between the government and Kurdish militants. In south-eastern Sirnak province, four police officers were killed by a roadside bomb and a soldier died when gunmen fired on a military helicopter. In Istanbul, a police officer was killed in clashes after a car bombing. Meanwhile, the city's US consulate was attacked by two assailants. A leftist group said it carried out that attack. The outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Army Front (DHKP-C) made the claim in a statement on its website, which described the US as the "chief enemy of people in the Middle East and in the world". One of the two women assailants in the attack on the consulate was wounded and detained, and a rifle and other weaponry were seized, Istanbul's governor said in a statement. The DHKP-C named the detained woman as Hatice Asik. The group previously claimed...

(FRANKS..)   First Bank on Monday donated N1.5 million to the management of the University of Ilorin in support of the university toward a successful hosting of UNILORIN Marathon. The event is scheduled to hold sometime in October. The cheque, presented to the Vice Chancellor, AbdulGaniyu Ambali, by Salami was part of a courtesy visit to university of Ilorin by the top management of First Bank on Monday in Ilorin. The Group Head of the bank, Mr Babatunde Salami described University of Ilorin as a worthy and good partner with the bank. "A university that has come this long way after 40 years of its existence is still breaking grounds in all manners of academic and intellectual pursuits, needed to be supported,"he said. The statement quoted Salami as saying that the bank would not only support the marathon financially, but will also participate in the event by presenting its own team. "I believe that by so doing, we would have shown our suppor...

(FRANKS..) The military yesterday said it captured a Boko Haram commander and freed another 178 hostages taken by the insurgents in some communities. Troops of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, Borno State had continued the offensive against the insurgents’ camps in some communities in Bama Local Government , leading to the arrest of the suspected Boko Haram commander. A total of 178 hostages were also freed during the operation yesterday, Deputy Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Tukur Gusau, said in a statement. “One Boko Haram commander was captured alive and is presently undergoing investigation,” the army said. It said: “Troops successfully cleared terrorists’ camps” at Fadan, Shuwarin, Wulari, Ngoro Dauye, Jidori, Alikashiri, Kalzamari-Shuwa and Kalzamari-Kanuri in Bama Local Government located in the central part of Borno State. “The troops of 21 Brigade in conjunction with elements of 151 Task Force Battalion of 7 Division, Nigerian ...

(FRANKS..)   BY EBERE WABARA Last week, a faceless treble of petitioners on ad hoc institutional platforms unsurprisingly called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to conclude the prosecution of the former governor of Abia State (1999-2007), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, for alleged corruption while in office. The hare-brained petitioners insinuated that the anti-graft agency may have been compromised, hence its lackadaisical and nonchalant attitude to the case. The lack of surprise alluded to in the introduction to this intervention is because The Sun newspapers had been strident on their reportage of petitions by groups demanding the arrest, investigation and indictment generally and interdiction (against senatorship particularly) of the immediate-past governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Ahamefule Orji, and others, for alleged financial improprieties while in office. The coincidence of The Sun information dissemination and the “reminder” to EFCC ...

(FRANKS..) Fake doctor Martin Ugwu Okpe who worked in the federal ministry of health since 2006 received about N17million in salaries and allowances for nine years. Analysis of his pay checks by the Integrated Personnel and Payment Information System (IPPIS) shows that Okpe got N17m. The amount excludes tax and union dues through nine years which were paid to the government, according to IPPIS. The ministry’s permanent secretary Linus Awute said the monies would be retrieved, even though he didn’t explain how. An Abuja high court last Tuesday granted the fake doctor bail application for N1m, but the court will hear the case on October 10.

(FRANKS..)   n this Head to Head  special from Washington DC, Mehdi Hasan challenges retired Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, on the rise of ISIL, the War on Terror, torture, and how to deal with Iran. Flynn was the former head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and a commander of J-SOC, the ghost military unit whose squads hunted Al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan all the way to Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. With no panel or audience, we ask him whether the US is to blame for creating ISIL and whether the War on Terror has become a crusade. We also discuss torture in US bases and why he is opposed to a deal with Iran.    Follow us on:   Facebook and @AJHeadtoHead  Is the US to blame for ISIL? with Michael T. Flynn will be broadcast on Friday July 31 at 2000 GMT,  and will be repeated on Saturday August 1 at 1200 GMT, Saturday August 2 at 0100 GMT and Monday August 3 at 0600 GMT. Head to Head   is Al Jazeer...

(FRANKS..)   Malema was accused of receiving $400,000 from involvement in corrupt road construction projects [Getty] A South African court has thrown out the corruption case against Julius Malema, the leader of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters and a former leader of the ANC youth wing, and his four business associates. The judge said on Tuesday that he would rather dismiss the trial because another necessary postponement would be excessive after several previous delays, Al Jazeera's Fahmida Miller, reporting from the South African city of Polokwane, where the trial was held, said. The trial, which was supposed to begin on Monday after being adjourned in September last year, was again postponed until Tuesday because one of Malema's four associates was too ill to appear at the court. An outspoken critic of corruption, Malema is accused of receiving $400,000 from involvement in corrupt road construction projects. The charges include fraud, corruption, r...

(FRANKS..) A piece of debris that experts believe could be from missing flight MH370 has arrived in Paris from the French island where it was found on Wednesday. The object, believed to be part of a wing, was flown to the French capital from Reunion in the Indian Ocean. From there it will be transported to a defence ministry laboratory in Toulouse for analysis. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished in March 2014. There were 239 passengers and crew on board. Volunteers are searching for more plane debris on the beach in Reunion Since then, an Australian-led search effort has been focused on a vast area of the southern Indian Ocean about 4,000km (2,500 miles) to the east of Reunion, a French overseas department to the east of Madagascar. Experts have said the two-metre (6ft) object washed up on a beach could be a moveable piece of a Boeing 777's wing, called a flaperon. Jump media player Media player help Out of ...