Mohamed Meziane, president of Algeria’s energy parastatal Sonatrach, meeting with US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in Washington, said he wants to triple natural gas exports to the US from 4 billion to 12 billion cubic metres per year by 2015…. Read moreAlgeria seeks closer US energy ties
Tuareg rebel leader Moktar Roman of the Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la Justice (MNJ) spoke to the UN news agency IRIN May 17 about the reasons behind the resurgence of armed attacks in the north of Niger this year. “The… Read moreNiger: Tuareg rebel leader speaks
A bomb exploded in a historic mosque in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. At least nine people have been killed and fifteen injured in the Mecca Mosque, where over one thousand people had gathered for Friday prayers [May 18]…. Read moreIndia: historic mosque bombed in Hyderabad
Big Oil went on the defensive May 16, getting grilled before a House Judiciary Committee antitrust panel and denying accusations that mismanagement and a lack of competition are the reasons behind this spring’s record gasoline prices. Gas prices hit $3.10… Read moreHouse anti-trust panel grills Big Oil
From the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), May 15: The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its… Read moreIraq: oil workers threaten strike
The Maldives coastguard opened fire on a vessel suspected of carrying members of the Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka [May 17], after a 12-hour stand-off. The boat was sunk and five people on board detained. [Maldivian authorites say the vessel… Read moreTamil Tigers in naval battle with Maldives?
Conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have taken to criticising the US-financed Middle East television channel, al-Hurra, for having broadcast “friendly coverage of camera-ready extremists” (The Wall Street Journal) such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Al-Hurra was set up in 2003 in… Read moreUS Congress condemns al-Hurra coverage
At least 14 people have been killed, and dozens more injured, amid clashes between police and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro over the past two weeks. Vila Cruzeiro favela, one of the impoverished districts hardest hit by the violence,… Read moreRio de Janeiro: police, drug gangs turn favelas into war zones
The heads of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—Vladimir Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov—met in Turkmenistan May 12 and formalized a decision to build a new gas pipeline along the coast of the Caspian Sea. The new pipeline will carry gas… Read moreRussian pipeline deal kills trans-Caspian plan?
In one of his boldest moves since his swearing-in three months ago, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has sacked a top security official who helped build the oppressive regime of the late Saparmurat “Turkmenbashi” Niyazov. Official media announced that Akmurad Rejepov,… Read moreDeturkmenbashization for Turkmenistan?
New satellite analysis shows that at least once in the past several years, masses of unusually warm air—up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit—pushed to within 300 miles of the South Pole, melting surface snow across an expanse the size of California…. Read moreSatellites detect interior Antarctic melt zone
On May 15, wealthy landowner Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura was given the maximum sentence, 30 years, for being one of the masterminds of the February 2005 murder of US-born nun Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old defender of the Amazon rainforest and… Read moreBrazil: rancher guilty in slaying of Amazon activst
