Nigeria Bomb Blast Rips Through Kano GSM Market

Barely 24 hours after 32 were killed in a bomblast in Yola,a  large blast ripped through a busy Kano GSM mobile market on Wednesday.
Two traders,Nafiu Mohammed and Suleiman Haruna told AFP  the explosion "deep inside" the Farm Centre market happened shortly after 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) and that rescuers were on the scene dealing with casualties.

Hackers vs. terrorists: ISIS says Anonymous are ‘idiots’ for declaring war

While it sounds like a mobile game you’d play to kill time, hackers vs. terrorists is sadly a real war. The hacker collective that goes by the name “Anonymous” recently posted a video on YouTube declaring war on ISIS in response to the attacks on Paris that left 129 dead and hundreds injured on Friday night. Anonymous wants to “launch the biggest operation ever” against the terrorist group, and ISIS is apparently taking notice – though the organization apparently believes Anonymous are “idiots” for even considering digital warfare.

 “Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. We will launch the biggest operation ever against you,” a masked person said in the hackers’ video. “Expect massive cyberattacks. War is declared. Get prepared.” In response, a Telegram channel that is believed to be affiliated with ISIS hackers sent out a warning message in Arabic and English, telling others how to thwart Anonymous hacks.

“The #Anonymous hackers threatened in new video release that they will carry out a major hack operation on the Islamic state (idiots),” the statement said, according to Business Insider.

“What they gonna hack?” ISIS asked, noting that so far, hackers have only managed to hit ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts and email addresses.

The message on the Telegram channel, an encrypted chat service that may have been used to help plot the Paris attacks, also says that followers should not open any links unless they’re sure of the source, change IP addresses “constantly,” and “not talk to people [you] don’t know on Telegram” or through Twitter direct messages.

This isn’t the first time Anonymous has set its sights on ISIS. Following the January Charlie Hebdo attacks, hackers tried to identify ISIS social media accounts and take down extremist websites.

By Chris Smith

Jordan: King Warns Of 'World War' Against Humanity

Jordan's King Abdullah II warned Tuesday of a "third world war against humanity", describing the Islamic State group as "savage outlaws of religion" in the wake of the Paris attacks.

During an official visit to Kosovo, Abdullah said both Europe and Islam were under attack from the "scourge" of terrorism that could strike anywhere and at any time.

"We are facing a third world war against humanity and this is what brings us all together," he told a press conference.

"This is a war, as I've said repeatedly, within Islam," he said, stressing the high number of Muslim victims of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Abdullah said groups such as IS "expose themselves daily as savage outlaws of religion, devoid of humanity, respecting no laws and no boundaries".

"So therefore we must act fast and holistically to tackle and respond to the interconnected threats whether it is in this region, Africa, Asia or in Europe," he said.

In France's worst-ever terror attacks, IS gunmen and suicide bombers murdered 129 people in coordinated onslaughts in Paris on Friday night.

Muslim-majority Jordan is, like France, a member of the US-led coalition battling the group, which controls swathes of land in its neighbours Iraq and Syria.

On Sunday, Abdullah said fighting extremism was "our fight as Muslims against those who aim to turn our societies and future generations towards fanaticism and extremism".

Jordan says it has taken in 1.4 million Syrians fleeing the war there since it broke out in 2011, but the UNHCR puts the figure at 600,000.

At least 250,000 people have died in more than four years of conflict in Syria.

Nigeria: Tips On How To Tackle Boko Haram

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, yesterday gave some tips on how to tackle terrorism in the country.

Nigeria must focus on rebuilding the socio-economic life of citizens, particularly those  living in the Northeast where terrorism thrives, he said after he was installed as the Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI) at the institution’s 67th Foundation Day in the Oyo State capital.

Reeling out staggering data on the deplorable state of socio-economic life in the North, Alhaji Abubakar said there were more than 2.5 million out-of-school children (popularly called Almajiri) in some states in the North.

He explained that the figure is higher than those enrolled in school in some states.

In the Sultan’s view, poor socio-economic factors help terrorism thrive because the youth are not gainfully engaged and their minds are not developed.

According to him, insurgency has left over two million people displaced, with implications on health, social infrastructure and security.

To overcome the challenge, the UI Chancellor said Nigeria must focus on increasing school enrollment, training youths in acquisition of skills and opening up opportunities for skilled labour.

Emphasising that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, Alhaji Abubakar described terrorists as “deluded individuals who are hiding under religion to perpetrate evil”.

He urged the UI to lead in the training of youths in character building and researches that can expose practical steps in dealing with society’s challenges.

The Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ayelari Emilolorun , who read the valedictory speech of the outgoing VC, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said the institution awarded 456 doctorate degrees from 12 faculties and institutes this year. According to him, the figure is unrivalled in Africa.

He said his administration focused on staff welfare, infrastructural development and security to enable the university deliver on its mandate of quality training and research.

Adewole said there were already 219 linkages with several universities all over the world with 19 others in the pipeline.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, stressed the need to move energy source thermal to solar, saying the government was arranging with some companies in the United Kingdom (UK) to achieve solar energy production.

Buhari added that there were plans for self-sustenance in rice production to achieve food security instead of relying on importation.

The main focus of his administration, he said, is the common man.

Buhari urged universities to be sensitive to developments around the world to enable them key into them to make better impacts.

The Sultan and Emeritus Prof. Ayo Banjo were awarded honorary doctoral degrees.

After its founding in 2002, Boko Haram’s increasing radicalization led to a violent uprising in July 2009 in which its leader was summarily executed. Its unexpected resurgence, following a mass prison break in September 2010, was accompanied by increasingly sophisticated attacks, initially against soft targets, and progressing in 2011 to include suicide bombings of police buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja. The government’s establishment of a state of emergency at the beginning of 2012, extended in the following year to cover the entire northeast of Nigeria,

Nigeria: Professor Solved 156-Year-Old Maths Problem

Has the the Riemann Hypothesis – perhaps math’s most famous problem, which gone unsolved for 156 years – finally been cracked?

A Nigerian professor claims to have found the answer – and now could be in line to win a $1million (£658,000) prize. 

Academic Dr Opeyemi Enoch, above, from the Federal University of Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) in Nigeria, says he was persuaded by his students to tackle it. 

The hypothesis, which was proposed by mathematician Bernard Riemann in 1859, concerns the distribution of prime numbers.

It one of seven Millennium Problems in Mathematics, puzzles chosen by The Clay Mathematics Institute that carries a prize of £658,000 if solved. 

But Enoch, who claims to have made the breakthrough in 2010, says it was the challenge itself, not the money, that made him devote his time to it. 

“The motivation was because my students trusted that the solution could come from me – not because the financial reward and that was why I started trying to solve the problem in the first place,” he told the BBC.

“Dr Enoch first investigated and then established the claims of Riemann,” said a statement from FUOYE.

“He went on to consider and to correct the misconceptions that were communicated by mathematicians in the past generations, thus paving way for his solutions and proofs to be established.

"He also showed how other problems of this kind can be formulated and obtained the matrix that Hilbert and Poly predicted will give these undiscovered solutions. He revealed how these solutions are applicable in cryptography, quantum information science and in quantum computers.”

However, the professor revealed that he has faced some bizarre criticism: “[Some people asked] if this man can solve the Riemann problem…why should he not be able to provide solutions to Nigeria’s problems?“ Dr Enoch said.

“Some guys celebrated it, some criticised it – saying what has that got to do with putting food on the tables of Nigerians.”

3 Paris Attack Suspects Already known

At least three people believed linked to Friday's Paris terror attacks were previously known to Belgian authorities, Belgian prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt told CNN on Tuesday.

Two of those three suspects are dead and one remains at large. Ibrahim Abdeslam reportedly blew himself up in the attacks. Bilal Hadfi was one of the suicide bombers who struck outside the Stade de France, according to several sources. And Abdeslam's 26-year-old brother, Salah Abdeslam, is the target of an international manhunt.

Van Der Sypt told CNN's Ivan Watson that police questioned the Abdeslam brothers in February.

"Ibrahim tried to go to Syria and was sent back by the Turks in the beginning of 2015," Van Der Sypt said. "It was after that that we questioned him." Both brothers were released, the federal prosecutor said, after they denied wanting to go to Syria.

He said Belgian authorities were also trying to keep an eye on Hadfi. "We knew he was in Syria," Van Der Sypt said. "But what we didn't know is apparently he was back, as he blew himself up in Paris. But we had no knowledge of the fact that he was back in Europe."

A black Renault Clio found in Paris' 18th district Tuesday morning had been rented by Salah Abdeslam, multiple French media outlets reported, citing police sources.

Before the Paris attacks, France and its allies had tried to target a prominent ISIS member who is believed to have planned the assault on the French capital, a French source close to the investigation said.

Western intelligence agencies had attempted to track Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian citizen thought to be in Syria, but they weren't able to locate him, the source told CNN on Tuesday.

Abaaoud had been implicated in the planning of a number of terrorist attacks and conspiracies in Western Europe before the Paris attacks. ISIS claimed responsibility for the slaughter, in which men armed with assault rifles and suicide vests killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

Believed to be close to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Abaaoud was linked to a plan to attack Belgian police that was thwarted in January. He has since been featured in ISIS' online English-language magazine. His current whereabouts are unknown.