'Rouhani could be a powerful president'

Fareed speaks with Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, about Hassan Rouhani, who will be sworn in as Iranian president Sunday. Rouhani wrote an essay for TIME in 2006 that can be read here.
Let me ask you, Professor Dabashi, about the supreme leader and Rouhani’s power within this very complicated Iranian system that, at least from the outside, very few of us understand. Because the president, if you look at Ahmadinejad, if you look at Khatami before him, the president of Iran does have power, but not ultimate power and not enough, apparently to get his way entirely. So what should we make of that? Will Rouhani have the power to make a deal with the West?

Not entirely on himself. The fact of the matter is, Iran is a very complicated regime consisting of security, intelligence, military and clerical establishments and a network. And it is that network that has to be considered at one and the same time.
However, it is not that Rouhani doesn’t have any power.  He is a consummate insider.  He is far more powerful, he would be [a] far more powerful president than Ahmadinejad would have ever dreamt, or even before him anybody else, even Rafsanjani.
Well, why do you say that?
Because his revolutionary credentials are absolutely impeccable. He’s very close to Khamenei. And he doesn't have to prove – if you were to follow the course of the presidential debates over the last two or three months, he was constantly talking in a language that means that he's very close to not only Khamenei, but also to the security and the military establishment.
And also, he talks from that confidence, because we have to keep in mind that regionally, Iran is in a very delicate position. Iran is in trouble in Iraq. Iran is both involved and in trouble in Syria. The region is in turmoil. So one should shift, Fareed, the context of the nuclear negotiation. In the context of the region and the readiness of Iran, and the fact that even somebody like Rouhani was suggested to become the next president. In order to understand the readiness of the situation as we have now for a resolution, rather than laser beaming whether or not there would be a power struggle between him and Khamenei, one has to look at the larger regional issue, which is now ripe, in my judgment, for a direct negotiation and a resolution.

Japan launches largest warship since World War II

Japan on Tuesday unveiled its largest warship since World War II, an 820-foot-long, 19,500-ton flattop capable of carrying 14 helicopters, according to media reports.

The ship, named the Izumo, is classified as a helicopter destroyer, though its flattop design makes it look like an aircraft carrier.

But the Japanese Defense Ministry says the ship is not intended to be used as an aircraft carrier and will not be used to launch fighter jets, state broadcaster NHK reported.

The launch of the $1.2 billion warship at a Yokohama dockyard comes at a time of increased military tensions between Japan and China over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

"The destroyer is aimed at better responding to various contingencies in waters near Japan," NHK reported.

China on Tuesday warned Japan against any moves of military expansion, according to a report from Global Times.

We are concerned over Japan's constant expansion of its military equipment.
China's defense ministry, Global Times

"We are concerned over Japan's constant expansion of its military equipment. Japan's Asian neighbors and the international community need to be highly vigilant about this trend," the Global Times quoted the Chinese Defense Ministry as saying. "Japan should learn from history, adhere to its policy of self-defense and abide by its promise to take the road of peaceful development."

Both China and Japan claim sovereignty over the rocky, uninhabited islands between Okinawa and Taiwan, which are near important shipping lanes, rich fishing grounds and possible mineral deposits. They are known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

Last year, the Japanese government bought several of the islands from a private owner, angering Chinese authorities and provoking a spate of sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in many Chinese cities.

Chinese government ships have continued to frequently sail near the islands, engaging in maritime games of cat and mouse with Japanese coast guard vessels. Chinese planes have also flown through the area, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets.

Tuesday's launch also came on the 68th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.

Upwards of 60,000 people -- according to various estimates, about one-fifth of Hiroshima's population at the time -- were killed when a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped the bomb on August 6, 1945,

In remembrance ceremonies in Hiroshima on Tuesday, a list of 286,000 atomic bomb victims was presented, NHK reported. In a speech, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on the Japanese people to always remind the world about the consequences of nuclear war, NHK reported.

Groundwork Laid, Growers Turn to Hemp in Colorado

Along the plains of eastern Colorado, on a patch of soil where his father once raised alfalfa, Ryan Loflin is growing a leafy green challenge to the nation’s drug laws.

His fields are sown with hemp, a tame cousin of marijuana that was once grown openly in the United States but is now outlawed as a controlled substance. Last year, as Colorado voters legalized marijuana for recreational use, they also approved a measure laying a path for farmers like Mr. Loflin, 40, to once again grow and harvest hemp, a potentially lucrative crop that can be processed into goods as diverse as cooking oil, clothing and building material. This spring, he became the first farmer in Colorado to publicly sow his fields with hemp seed.

“I’m not going to hide anymore,” he said one recent morning after striding through a sea of hip-high plants growing fast under the sun.

Mr. Loflin’s 60-acre experiment is one of an estimated two dozen small hemp plantings sprouting in Colorado. Hemp cultivation presents a vexing problem for the federal government, which draws no distinction between hemp and marijuana, as it decides how to respond to a new era of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington State.

State agencies have worked quickly to create new rules, licenses and taxes for hemp and recreational marijuana. Many towns have voted to ban the new retailers; others have decided to regulate them. Denver, for example, is proposing a 5 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales.

Colorado has set up an industrial hemp commission to write rules to register hemp farmers and charge them a fee to grow the crop commercially.

“It’s something that can be copied and used nationally,” said Michael Bowman, a farmer in northeastern Colorado who sits on the state hemp commission. “We’re trying to build a legitimate industry.”

The state will also be able to randomly test crops to ensure that they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, far below the level found in marijuana.

Opponents say that hemp and marijuana are essentially the same plant and that both contain the same psychoactive substance. But supporters say that comparing hemp with potent strains of marijuana is like comparing a nonalcoholic beer with a bottle of vodka.

Still, farmers and marijuana advocates worry: will drug agents stand on the sidelines and allow Colorado and Washington to pursue their own experiments with legalization? Or will the federal government crack down to assert its authority over drug policies?

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver said hemp farmers were “not on our radar,” but R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Obama administration’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, has offered stern words against both marijuana and hemp, saying that no matter what states did, the plants were still illegal in the federal government’s view.

“Hemp and marijuana are part of the same species of cannabis plant,” Mr. Kerlikowske wrote in response to a 2011 petition that sought to legalize hemp cultivation. “While most of the THC in cannabis plants is concentrated in the marijuana, all parts of the plant, including hemp, can contain THC, a Schedule I controlled substance.”

Lately, hemp has been tiptoeing toward the agricultural mainstream, gaining support from farmers’ trade groups and a wide array of politicians in statehouses and in Washington. In the Republican-controlled House, a provision tucked into the farm bill would let universities in hemp-friendly states grow small plots for research.

A handful of states, from liberal Vermont to conservative North Dakota and Kentucky, have voted to allow commercial hemp. In Vermont, any farmers who want to register as hemp growers under a new state program have to sign a form acknowledging that they risk losing their agricultural subsidies, farm equipment and livelihoods if federal agents decide to swoop in.

Every year, the federal authorities seize and destroy millions of marijuana plants — a crackdown that has rattled the medical marijuana industry in California — but the pace of seizures has dropped sharply in recent years. In 2012, federal officials reported that 3.9 million cannabis plants had been destroyed under D.E.A. eradication efforts. A year earlier, officials said they had eradicated 6.7 million plants. 

Beyond the risk of federal raids and seizures, Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama administration, said the market for hemp goods is still vanishingly small and questioned whether it could really be a panacea for farmers.  

“Hemp is the redheaded stepchild of marijuana policy, and probably for good reason,” said Mr. Sabet, who is now the director of the Drug Policy Institute. “In a world with finite capacity to handle drug problems, my advice would be for people to think less about an insignificant issue like hemp and more about the very real issues of drug addiction, marijuana commercialization and glamorization, and how to make our policies work better.”

Even without the threat of federal raids, transforming hemp into a cash crop will be like asking a clear sky for rain. Viable seeds are illegal and scarce. Few working farmers or experts in the United States have any expertise in growing hemp. And there is basically no infrastructure to process the plants into legal components like oil, fibers and proteins.

In Colorado, Jason Lauve, the executive director of Hemp Cleans, an advocacy group, said he has spoken with about two dozen small farmers and landowners who are cautiously growing their first hemp crops.

“We’re really walking gently,” Mr. Lauve said. “We don’t want to put people at risk. We want to see how much states’ rights really protect us, versus the jurisdiction of the federal government.”

Even here, farmers like Mr. Loflin are walking a precarious line. Although Colorado voters opened the door to hemp farming last year, the state warned would-be hemp farmers in May that they would not be authorized to plant until early in 2014.

But this spring, Mr. Loflin decided it was time. For years, he had read about how hemp could replenish undernourished soil and be woven and squeezed into a wide array of products. He drinks a shot of hemp oil for his health every day — “It tastes kind of like grass” — and believes the plant could one day lift the fortunes of struggling small farmers.

He spent the winter assembling a seed collection from suppliers in Britain, Canada, China and Germany, where hemp is legal. They entered the country via U.P.S., labeled “bird seed” or “toasted hemp seed.” One bag was seized by customs officials, he said. Some 1,500 pounds of seeds were not.

At the end of June, with more than $15,000 invested in the venture, he planted his crop. He said he alerted his neighbors and has not gotten any complaints from people around Springfield, or from federal officials.

When Mr. Loflin visits the farm from his home in western Colorado, he half-expects to see D.E.A. cars racing down Highway 160 to burn down his crop before harvest. But he believes he can stake a living in hemp’s oily seeds and versatile fibers. He has gotten tired of his day job building ski homes in the mountains. To him, hemp’s outlaw status is just another hazard of starting a business.

“It’s well worth the risk,” he said. “It’s hemp. Come on, it just needs to be done.”

Syria strikes refugee camp in northern Lebanon, state media says

Syria carried out an airstrike on a refugee camp in northern Lebanon Saturday, killing nine Syrians and wounding nine more, a Lebanese state-run news agency reported.

The strike centered on a Syrian refugee camp located near the Syrian border between the towns of Baalbeck and Arsal in the Bekaa Valley, the National News Agency said.

The Red Cross took the casualties to Universal Hospital in Baalbek.

Saturday's strike was not the first by the Syrian government, which has accused rebels of smuggling arms and supplies across the border.

On March 18, two Syrian jets fired three rockets that hit empty buildings near Arsal.

Report: Huge explosion kills 40 in Syria

At the time, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman called the use of fighter jets to fire rockets into Lebanon a "significant escalation."

U.N. commissioner wants to probe into whether Syrian rebels executed soldiers

Also in March, the U.N. Security Council voiced "grave concern over repeated incidents of cross-border fire which caused death and injury among the Lebanese population, incursions, abductions and arms trafficking across the Lebanese-Syrian border, as well as other border violations." The declaration followed a briefing by officials on how the conflict in Syria has spilled into Lebanon.

More than 600,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring Lebanon, a country of about 4 million people, according to a U.N. estimate. But the Lebanese government puts the total at more than 1 million. Whatever the true figure, there is no dispute that the influx has destabilized the area and heightened tensions.

The attack comes as the Syrian conflict is mired in a third year of unrest, which started in March 2011 when President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on peaceful protesters.

Since then, it has evolved into a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 and transformed more than 1 million others into refugees, according to the Red Cross.

Read more: U.N. inspectors heading to Syria to probe chemical weapons reports

Lebanese-Swedish Brothers Die Jihadist Death After Returning To Lebanon To Fight

Two Islamist Lebanese-Swedish brothers who left their Scandinavian home for Lebanon, have died fighting alongside Syrian rebels, their cousin and a local cleric said on Saturday.
Hassan and Moatasem Deeb “were killed Friday in a rebel assault on the Abu Zeid army checkpoint near Qalaat Al Hosn” in Homs province, Shaikh Mohammad Ebrahim said.
Their deaths have devastated their parents, who had already lost a third son Rabih to sectarian fighting in Tripoli last year.
Shaikh Mohammad said Moatasem, 18, blew himself up in a suicide car bomb at the checkpoint, and Hassan, 21, died in the assault that followed.
The youths apparently did not die in vain, as the assault on the checkpoint succeeded, said the cleric.
Cousin Jihad Deeb said that, although the youths had long been “deeply religious,” the news of their deaths hit the family hard.
While still in Sweden just a year ago, Hassan had started his university studies. And had he stayed in Scandinavia, Moatasem would have started his degree this year.
“But they left everything and travelled back to Mankubeen, where their parents have been living for two years now,” said Jihad.
Established to host families from Tripoli during a 1955 flood, Mankubeen later became home to people too poor to afford life in the heart of the northern port city.
Today, Mankubeen is an impoverished area that frequently gets dragged into sectarian clashes pitting Sunnis from the Bab el-Tebbaneh quarter and Alawites from neighbouring Jabal Mohsen.
Tripoli’s sectarian clashes erupt frequently, and their intensity has grown as a consequence of the war raging in neighbouring Syria.
Sectarian tensions in Tripoli see Sunnis generally supporting Syria’s rebels and Alawites, the Shiite spin-off group to which Bashar Al Assad belongs, backing the Syrian president’s regime.

Eighteen months ago, Moatasem and Hassan’s brother Rabih was killed fighting in one of those clashes.
The commitment to jihadist activities among family members goes further.
In 2007, one of the youths’ uncles was killed fighting alongside Islamists in a fierce battle against the Lebanese army in the Palestinian camp of Nahr Al Bared.
Another uncle is in jail in Germany over ties to Al Qaida.
Once they returned to Mankubeen from Sweden, where they had lived for several years, the young men “decided to cross the border and join Jund Al Sham”, said the shaikh, who stressed that no one knew of their plans.
Jund Al Sham is an independent jihadist group set up in 2012 and led by Lebanese radicals.
“Moatasem travelled first. He went to Qalaat Al Hosn eight months ago. Hassan joined him two months later,” Ebrahim added.
Jihad Deeb said “they had no work, and they lived in a poor area that has no state support. Most of us are not radicals, but you see many Al Qaida flags in Mankubeen.”
Asked why he believed his cousins joined the rebels, he added: “Hassan and Moatasem really believed that Sunnis must fight there.
“But their father and mother are devastated. The father is near emotional collapse. And you can imagine how their mother feels; she has lost three sons.”
The family was due to receive condolences from guests on Saturday, who would “congratulate” them for their sons’ “martyrdom” in Syria, said Ebrahim.

'We are killed, we are hunted': Albino activist fights witchcraft murders

Carefully maneuvering around a jumble of slippery rocks, Josephat Torner slowly steps inside a cluster of dark caves in northeast Tanzania.

Ahead of him, leading the trail with an air of assurance, walks a local witchdoctor.

Aided by a couple of artificial lights, the two figures venture deeper into the darkness, running their hands along the cavern's limestone walls for guidance. Bats meandering above their heads, the men enter a vast cave chamber dotted with a handful of rocks.

"What I want to know is," Torner breaks the silence," have you ever seen anyone pray for something evil down here?" he asks the witchdoctor. "So they can get hold of someone? Like an albino?"

An albino himself, Torner has been traveling around Tanzania to debunk the widespread misconceptions about the congenital disorder. Dozens of albinos have been mutilated and slaughtered in the country in recent years, because of rumors being spread that their body parts can bring wealth and good luck.

Read this: Witchcraft in Tanzania

Josephat Torner: Living with albinism

Albino activist fights for equality

Albino rights activist climbs mountain

To stop the atrocities, Torner thought he needed to confront the group he believed was the source of these rumors: witchdoctors.

And that's what brought him to the depths of this cave, face to face with his "enemy."

"We call you a spirit because a white person like you is the devil," readily admits the witchdoctor.

"You're saying I'm a white demon?" Torner hits back, "we are demons?"

The reply: "Yes, because you're white."

'In the Shadow of the Sun'

This dramatic confrontation is one of the most intense moments captured in a new documentary, called "In the Shadow of the Sun."

The independent film, shot by director Harry Freeland, chronicles the life story of Torner and his fight for acceptance of albinos in a country where little is known about the genetic disorder.

"My heart always is still looking the recognition of people with albinism in this world," says Torner, who's been an advocate for albino rights since 2004. "Just to recognize that we are here."

Torner and Freeland spent six years creating the film. The director's inspiration to make a documentary on albinism came nearly a decade ago, when he had one of his first encounters with someone with the disorder in Senegal.

It's my dream in my life that people with albinism are respected and given all rights which other human beings are being given.
Josephat Torner, albino activist

"A woman approached me in the street, held out her child and said 'here, take it back, where it comes from," remembers Freeland. "She had a child with albinism and because I'm white, she thought the child belonged to me in some way -- her husband had left her for having a white child and accused her of sleeping with a white man."

Leading man

People with albinism are born with genes that do not make the normal amounts of the pigment called melanin. Those born with the disorder, which affects people from all races, inherited the genes from their parents who may or may not have any of the associated traits.

But many people don't understand the effects of the condition and as Freeland discovered, in parts of Africa albinos often suffer social stigma, prejudice and even attacks.

Read this: Slave trade ghost town

Keen to make a film documenting the plight of this group of people, Freeland headed to Tanzania, the country reported to have one of the biggest albino populations in the world. There, he came across many amazing stories, but he didn't find his leading man until he met Torner.

"I just heard him speak and instantly, I just knew he was the one to lead the film," says Freeland. "I think so many stories that come out of Africa are negative, and everything about Josephat is positive."

Despite growing up with a disorder that left his skin and hair pale, as well as his strength and eye sight weak, Torner has succeeded in making the best of his situation.

Over the years, he's overcome struggles and discrimination to receive an education and get married. A father of two, Torner' has even climbed Africa's tallest mountain, Kilimanjaro, to prove that albinos can achieve greatness.

"It was really very difficult to climb," he admits. "But I was climbing because at that time I had an agenda behind for what is happening to this world," he adds. "We are killed, we are hunted, we are chopped. So I climbed with a special message ... to the African countries: that we are able. But [also] protect us, give us a chance, don't stigmatize, don't isolate, don't hide us to the darkness room -- just open the way."

'Why are they killing us?'

In Tanzania, there's been 72 reported people with albinism killed over the last five years.
Harry Freeland, director

In 2009, the Tanzanian government embarked on a campaign against the killers of albinos, particularly in the Lake Victoria region. Freeland says at the heart of the problem are witch doctors making claims that albino body parts can bring wealth.

"In Tanzania, there's been 72 reported people with albinism killed over the last five years," says Freeland, noting that the actual number could be higher. "And there's been 34 people left mutilated that have survived attacks."

Some of the victims were people Torner used to know.

"I was angry," says Torner, recalling the moments following his confrontation with the witchdoctor.

"He answered it to me directly, without even trying to hide anything. So I was angry, of course, because I remember my brothers and sisters whom I lost, because I will not see them forever and while he's there he's continually surviving," he adds. "So, you ask yourself, 'what's the problem? Why are they killing us? Why are they hunting us?'"

Torner realizes he may never get a suitable answer to those questions. Yet, this doesn't stop him from doing all he can to bring attention to his message of creating a more inclusive society.

He hopes that his community work and the documentary focusing on his efforts, coupled with the outreach from other organizations and the government, will eventually make Tanzania a place where albinos aren't forced to stay in the shadows.

"It's my dream in my life that people with albinism are respected and given all rights which other human beings are being given," he says.

"This is what is in my heart -- when I would see justice to people with albinism; when I would see the lifespan of people with albinism is increasing, this is still a dream to my life."

Rape and injustice: The woman breaking Somalia's wall of silence

Inside a brightly painted Mogadishu clinic, Salim (not her real name) sits alongside her seven-year-old son, waiting for a check up. Opposite them, a health professional listens to their nightmarish ordeal.

Salim recounts how she was raped and then watched, helpless, as her young son was molested. Too afraid to seek assistance, she did what she thought would help. She washed her son's wounds with hot water and salt for four excruciating days, until they were brought here, the Sister Somalia center.

"There are so many stories; when you hear one, another one is even worse and that makes you think of it all the time," says Fartuun Adan, co-founder of Sister Somalia, the first rape crisis center in the East African country. "I even dream about what I heard during the day."

A champion for women's rights in Somalia, Adan is used to hearing such horror stories. Two years ago, she started Sister Somalia, a group dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual violence with medical services, counseling, education and entrepreneurial advice.

A shelter for Somalia's rape victims

Somalia's woman of courage

Drought victims suffer sexual violence

"Our purpose when they are there (is for them) to feel safe," says Adan. "If you want to cry, if you want to laugh -- support them, (make them) feel at home and that's why we created the center."

'Rape was everywhere'

But in order to provide rape victims with a refuge, Adan had to risk her own safety.

Her mission began in 2007, at the height of a Somali conflict that had been raging for more than 15 years. Until then, Adan was living with her three daughters in Ottawa, having fled to Canada in 1999 three years after the brutal murder of her husband, Somali human rights activist Elman Ali Ahmed.

Read this: Peace concert rocks Mogadishu

But six years ago, Adan took the courageous decision to leave her children behind and return to her motherland to help the Somali women and youth suffering because of the war.

Adan initially focused her efforts on reviving the work of her late husband, a prominent peace activist committed to rescuing young boys from becoming child soldiers. But in 2011, many parts of Somalia suffered from famine, forcing thousands of people to make the grueling trek to Mogadishu where humanitarian organizations were giving out food.

Makeshift camps sprouted all over the capital, providing shelter for the internally displaced. But for many women and children living there, cut off from the protection of their clans, the camps were places of rape and violence.

To deal with the growing crisis, Adan started Sister Somalia, the first organization in the country to come out publicly and talk about the astonishing number of sexual abuse victims.

"Rape was everywhere, Somalia was in denial," she says. "There was a lot of denial and that made it harder."

'Safe place'

Community elders wanted Adan to hide the rapes and Islamist militants and militia men constantly threatened her. But the activist defied the dangers to provide rape victims with a place of healing.

At the Sister Somalia center, women and children receive a holistic approach to care and treatment. Initially, the victims are given short-term anti-retroviral treatment to reduce the likelihood of HIV infection. They also receive drugs to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.

Read this: Chef brings a taste of peace to Mogadishu

We can talk, we can eat, take tea together, having little fun so they forget most of the times and they share the story.
Fartuun Adan, co-founder of Sister Somalia

The women and children are sheltered in safe houses, becoming part of a communal setting that provides victims with emotional support as they go through counseling and treatment.

"This is a very safe place," says Adan, who now runs the group with one of her daughters. "We can talk, we can eat, take tea together, having a little fun so they forget most of the times and they share their story."

World recognition

For her work championing human rights and women's rights in Somalia, often in dangerous conditions, Adan was bestowed in March with the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, an annual prize that pays tribute to emerging women leaders across the world.

"I was happy because of the recognition we got, not only me but all the other women who are doing the job we are doing in Somalia," says Adan, who started Sister Somalia alongside Lisa Shannon, founder of "Run for Congo" and Katy Grant, co-founder of Prism Partnership.

"It's an encouragement for us," adds Adan, who now runs the group with one of her daughters and a few dedicated helpers. An eight-person volunteer support staff based in North America also gives administrative assistance. "I was always thinking how can I help women but I never thought it would be recognized internationally," she adds.

Hope

Rape in Somalia carries huge social stigma, so although an increasing number of women seek help at Adan's crisis center, many more suffer in silence.

"A lot of people know what is going on but they are denying," says Adan. "Even the family, they deny if their girl gets raped because they don't want her to be stigmatized and shamed and that makes it hard."

Read this: Holidays in Somalia, anyone?

But for the first time in a long time, there is a new sense of optimism in Somalia. After more than two decades of war, there is a newly elected president and parliament.

Adan says political leaders now acknowledge rape is a huge issue in the country, and this gives her hope for the future.

"I would like to see peace, justice, development like another country," says Adan. "Just to walk around without worrying and women can go to market and see whatever they want; have education, health, the basic human rights -- that is what I want to see."

Twenty nine fun seekers were feared dead and many injured, Monday night, in the multiple blasts that occurred at Christmas quarters in the Sabon Gari area  in Kano.
The Sabon Gari area of Kano, where four blasts were reported, is full out of outdoor bars and eateries and known for its bustling nightlife.

According to reports  the first blast occurred at  about 9:12 p.m. at Enugu/Igbo Road near International Hotel, while the second blast followed three minutes later, at exactly 9:15 P.M.
The Spokesman of the Joint Task Force, Captain Ikedichi Iweha did confirmed Kano multiple blasts, and warned residents to remain calm as heavily armed security operatives have cordoned off the area as at the time of filling this report.
“We have had some explosions in Sabon Gari this evening. The explosions happened at open air beer parlours, where people were playing snooker,” Kano State Police Commissioner Musa Daura told AFP.
“I can confirm six dead and six others injured,” he said, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.
“There is confusion all over the place,” said Chinyere Madu, a fruit vendor. “There were four huge explosions, so huge that they shook the whole area. Everywhere is enveloped in smoke and dust.”
She told AFP the scene was too chaotic to assess the extent of the damage, but said she “saw one person carrying someone on his shoulders with bleeding legs.”
“My house is not far from there,” resident Kola Oyebanji told AFP. “All my windows are shattered.”
Other residents said that a small church sandwiched between two bars had been among the targets.
The blame was likely to fall on Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgent group which says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly north.
The group, which has carried out waves of bombings across northern Nigeria, has been blamed for coordinated suicide blasts at a bus park in Sabon Gari in March that killed at least 41 people.
Kano has been among the cities hardest hit during the Boko Haram’s insurgency, even if in recent months it had seen a lull in attacks.
Following a massive coordinated gun and bomb assault in January of 2012 that killed at least 185 people, security forces blanketed the city, setting up checkpoints at many roundabouts and intersections.
Nigeria launched a massive offensive against Boko Haram in May, specifically targeting three states to the east of Kano. Since then, the security forces have claimed huge gains against the insurgents, insisting that they have put them on the defensive.
Attacks eased after the offensive was launched but the bloodshed has persisted in some areas.
At least three schools have been attacked in northeastern Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram members.
Over the weekend, a vigilante raid and reprisal attack by Boko Haram members left at least 20 people dead in the village of Dawashe in Borno state.
The insurgency is estimated to have killed more than 3,600 people since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
Aside from churches and other targets linked to the Christian community, Boko Haram has attacked the security forces, Muslim clerics and various symbols of authority.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and top oil producer, roughly divided between a mostly Christian south and predominately Muslim north.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/07/29-feared-dead-in-kano-multiple-blast/#sthash.jlkEz9TL.jOiJ3xIW.dpuf

Twenty nine fun seekers were feared dead and many injured, Monday night, in the multiple blasts that occurred at Christmas quarters in the Sabon Gari area  in Kano.
The Sabon Gari area of Kano, where four blasts were reported, is full out of outdoor bars and eateries and known for its bustling nightlife.

According to reports  the first blast occurred at  about 9:12 p.m. at Enugu/Igbo Road near International Hotel, while the second blast followed three minutes later, at exactly 9:15 P.M.
The Spokesman of the Joint Task Force, Captain Ikedichi Iweha did confirmed Kano multiple blasts, and warned residents to remain calm as heavily armed security operatives have cordoned off the area as at the time of filling this report.
“We have had some explosions in Sabon Gari this evening. The explosions happened at open air beer parlours, where people were playing snooker,” Kano State Police Commissioner Musa Daura told AFP.
“I can confirm six dead and six others injured,” he said, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.
“There is confusion all over the place,” said Chinyere Madu, a fruit vendor. “There were four huge explosions, so huge that they shook the whole area. Everywhere is enveloped in smoke and dust.”
She told AFP the scene was too chaotic to assess the extent of the damage, but said she “saw one person carrying someone on his shoulders with bleeding legs.”
“My house is not far from there,” resident Kola Oyebanji told AFP. “All my windows are shattered.”
Other residents said that a small church sandwiched between two bars had been among the targets.
The blame was likely to fall on Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgent group which says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly north.
The group, which has carried out waves of bombings across northern Nigeria, has been blamed for coordinated suicide blasts at a bus park in Sabon Gari in March that killed at least 41 people.
Kano has been among the cities hardest hit during the Boko Haram’s insurgency, even if in recent months it had seen a lull in attacks.
Following a massive coordinated gun and bomb assault in January of 2012 that killed at least 185 people, security forces blanketed the city, setting up checkpoints at many roundabouts and intersections.
Nigeria launched a massive offensive against Boko Haram in May, specifically targeting three states to the east of Kano. Since then, the security forces have claimed huge gains against the insurgents, insisting that they have put them on the defensive.
Attacks eased after the offensive was launched but the bloodshed has persisted in some areas.
At least three schools have been attacked in northeastern Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram members.
Over the weekend, a vigilante raid and reprisal attack by Boko Haram members left at least 20 people dead in the village of Dawashe in Borno state.
The insurgency is estimated to have killed more than 3,600 people since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
Aside from churches and other targets linked to the Christian community, Boko Haram has attacked the security forces, Muslim clerics and various symbols of authority.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and top oil producer, roughly divided between a mostly Christian south and predominately Muslim north.
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