Nicki Minaj wears see-through top to the airport

You can almost see her nipples in the first pic. She was photographed at LAX airport this week wearing that net top without a bra. Guess the semi-nudity is not only reserved for music videos and red carpets

Court freezes Dangote’s accounts in 20 banks

No, not Aliko Dangote but his younger brother, Sani Dangote. According to reports, a Federal High Court in Lagos today September 4th ordered 20 Commercial banks in Nigeria to dishonour all withdrawal cheques from Sani Dangote and his companies, Dansa Foods Limited and Bulk Pack Services Limited until September 11th. 

According to Punch, the high court judge, Justice Okon Abang, gave the order while presiding over a case brought against Dangote by Union Bank. Union Bank had dragged him and his companies to court over alleged refusal to pay up the N5.2bn loan granted his company since September, 2008. 

 

The bank, through its lawyer, Mr. Chukwudi Enebeli had instituted suits seeking an order of mareva injunction to restrain all the defendants’ banks in Nigeria-  Access, CITI, Diamond, Ecobank, Enterprise, Fidelity, Keystone, Mainstreet, Skye, Wema, Heritage, Sterling, Unity, Zenith Banks,  First Bank, First City Monument Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered Bank and United Bank for Africa - from allowing Mr Dangote and his companies to withdraw funds from their accounts pending the determination of the suits.

In the affidavits in support of its suits, Union Bank Plc urged the court to urgently grant the mareva order  because in a bid to evade payment of the loan, Dangote has been making frantic efforts to deplete the funds in the accounts of his companies, and that the bank’s investigations revealed that the defendants had started diverting the funds to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Canada and Switzerland.

An official of the bank, Olufunmilola Ayoola, while speaking about the suit said the failure of Mr Dangote's companies to pay up the loan had negatively affected the Nigerian economy, a development which the bank claimed necessitated the suits. She said this has made the bank handicapped in supporting small scale businesses because of the lack of Funds.

When the case was called up for hearing, the counsel to Dangote and his companies told the court that that they had filed objections challenging jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit. Officials of Diamond and Zenith banks who were present revealed that Mr Dangote was owing them as well.  Zenith Bank specifically said Dangote was indebted to the bank to the tune of seven million euros.

In view of the defendants’ objections contesting jurisdiction, the judge said the matter would be adjourned  till September 11, 2014 to be able to take all the applications.

Red carpet photos from 2014 Nigeria Entertainment Awards

The Nigerian Entertainment Awards held this past Sunday in New York. See red carpet and show pics after the cut...

 

Photo Credit: AdeWest Media

Al-Qaeda leader announces India wing

Central & South Asia

Ayman al-Zawahiri says his armed group will "raise the flag of jihad" across parts of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Ayman al-Zawahiri called on the Muslim nation "to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land" [AP]

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has announced the formation of an Indian branch of his global armed group that he said would spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the subcontinent. In a video spotted in online "jihadist" forums on Wednesday by the SITE terrorism monitoring group, Zawahiri said the new force would "crush the artificial borders" dividing Muslim populations in the region. Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where its surviving leadership are thought to be hiding out, but Zawahiri said the group would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. "This entity was not established today but is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian sub-continent into a single entity," he said. Founded by Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan by US commandos in May 2011, al-Qaeda has long claimed leadership of the self-declared jihadists fighting to restore a single caliphate in Muslim lands. But since the death of its figurehead, it has been somewhat eclipsed, first by its own offshoots in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and now by the so-called "Islamic State" fighting in Iraq and Syria. While still regarded as a threat to the West, the group has never managed carry out another attack on the scale of the September 11, 2001 attacks by hijacked airliners on New York and Washington. But, in launching "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian sub-continent," Zawahiri may be attempting to recapture some of the limelight for his group and to exploit existing unrest in Kashmir and Myanmar. "It is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving imam, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may Allah have mercy upon him," Zawahiri said. 'Waging jihad' Zawahiri called on the "umma," or Muslim nation, to unite around "tawhid," or monotheism, "to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate." He said the group would recognise the overarching leadership of the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and be led day-to-day by senior Pakistani fighter Asim Umar. The 55-minute video begins with stock footage of the late bin Laden giving a sermon, before cutting to a satellite map of southwest Asia, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and the Horn of Africa. Then it cuts to a white-bearded Zawahiri, in a white turban and glasses, against the backdrop of a brown floral curtain and desk with hardback books and a tin holding ballpoint pens and prayer beads. Umar also speaks in the video - using the Urdu language of Pakistan rather than the Egyptian doctor Zawahiri's native Arabic - along with a new group spokesman identified as Usama Mahmoud. The video is produced by Al-Qaeda's usual media arm, the As-Sahab Media Foundation - "The Cloud" - and SITE reported that it had been widely distributed on jihadist online forums. 'Policy statement' Meanwhile the Pakistan Taliban has distanced itself from the recently formed splinter group Jamaat-ur-Ahrar and the Islamic State. In a new "policy statement" released on Thursday, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid termed both groups "suspicious" and "a conspiracy". He said TTP has expelled its former Mohmand Agency commander Omar Khalid Khorasani or Abdul Wali, who founded the Jamaat-ur-Ahrar recently. The Pakistan Taliban reiterated its allegiance to the Afghan Taliban and its leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar in a statement that comes on the same day as al-Qaeda announcing the formation of its new franchise in South Asia.

US to pursue IS group to 'gates of hell'

Vice president Joe Biden says US will "bring armed group to justice" after beheading of two American reporters in Iraq.

The fight against the IS group has given unlikely allies like the US and Shia armed groups a common cause [AFP]

Joseph  Biden, the US vice president, has said his country will follow the IS group "to the gates of hell" following the beheading of two American journalists by the group in Iraq. Biden vowed to hunt down and defeat the IS group, while stepping up efforts to recruit an international coalition to join in the fight. "The American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy can fully understand," Biden said in a speech on Wednesday. "When people harm Americans, we don't retreat, we don't forget." A videotape showing Steven Sotloff's murder was broadcast on Tuesday, two weeks after the same group released a video showing Foley's killing. "We take care of those who are grieving and when that's finished, they should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice," the US vice president said. "Because hell is where they'll reside." The speech came as US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said dozens of US citizens are joining the Islamic State group. "We are aware of over a hundred US citizens, who have US passports, who are fighting in the Middle East with ISIL [IS] force," Hagel said in a television interview. "There maybe more, we don't know, we can't take a chance." Earlier on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama called for an international front against the IS, as US allies Britain and France weighed possible military action. "We know that if we are joined by the international community, we can continue to shrink ISIL's sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing, its military capabilities," said Obama. "And the question is going to be making sure we've got the right strategy, but also making sure that we've got the international will to do it," he said during a visit to Estonia's capital Tallinn. 'Medieval savagery' Britain, with one of its nationals also under threat of beheading, said it would not rule out taking part in air strikes if necessary. "I can assure you that we will look at every possible option to protect this person," UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said. French President Francois Hollande likewise raised the possibility of a military response to the threat posed by the IS. "The head of state underlined the importance of a political, humanitarian and if necessary military response in accordance with international law" to fight against IS, the French presidency said. Obama will lead a UN Security Council session on the threat of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria on September 25, a US official said on Wednesday. US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed he was working to forge a global coalition to fight the "medieval savagery" of the Sunni armed group which has taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq. Tribute to Sotloff Meanwhile in the US, Sotloff's family paid tribute for the first time since his death to the 31-year-old reporter, remembering a gentle soul with a fondness for junk food and golf who was fiercely committed to giving "a voice to those who had none". Barak Barfi, a friend of Sotloff who is serving as family spokesman, said Sotloff was "torn between two worlds," the statement said, but "the Arab world pulled him." "He was no war junkie ... He merely wanted to give voice to those who had none," Barfi said outside the family's home in a Miami, Florida. Barfi ended the statement with off-the-cuff remarks in Arabic, saying: "Steve died a martyr for the sake of God." He then challenged IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to debate Islam, saying, "Woe to you. You said the month of Ramadan is the month of mercy. Where is your mercy?" "God does not love the aggressor," added Barfi, who is an Arabic scholar and research fellow at the New America Foundation think tank in Washington.