The Amazon
Ecuador: ‘uncontacted’ Amazon group kills two
Reprisals are feared in a sensitive part of Ecuador’s Amazon following an attack by “uncontacted” tribesmen in which two members of the Waorani people were killed.
Tag: control of oil
Southeast Asia
Burma: pipeline plans behind Rohingya cleansing?
The Burmese port of Sittwe, epicenter of violence against the Muslim Rohingya people, is to be the starting point for the new Shwe pipeline linking Burma’s west coast with China.
Planet Watch
Peak oil apocalyptoids: eating crow yet?
The US Geological Survey estimates there is seven to eight times more oil in the ground than the human race has yet consumed—and this constitutes the real threat to the planet.
Iran
Iran-China pipeline route via restive regions
A new pipeline that would link Iran to China via Pakistan, bypassing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, would pass through the insurgent regions of Baluchistan, Kashmir and Xinjiang.
The Andes
Contradictory legacy of Hugo Chávez
Whether the gains of Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution will survive his passing depends on how genuinely it is based on popular power, not just that of a charismatic leader.
Iraq
Exxon begins explorations in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government announced that ExxonMobil has begun exploring for oil in the region—in a deal rejected by the Baghdad central government as illegal.
The Andes
Colombia: campesino strike in oil zone
The feared riot squad of the Colombian National Police has been mobilized to Arauca to break up peasant blockades of roads leading to Occidental Petroleum’s oilfields.
Africa
East, West Africa top global piracy: report
The International Maritime Bureau hailed progress against Somali pirates, but urged the world’s navies to keep up the pressure—and warned of growing piracy off West Africa.
Watching the Shadows
Obama’s fourth year: a World War 4 Report scorecard
World War 4 Report offers its annual annotated assessment of Obama’s moves in dismantling, continuing or escalating the oppressive apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism.
North Africa
Algeria: army raids gas complex seized by jihadists
Algerian military forces attacked the Amenas gas complex in the interior Sahara, where a breakaway faction of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb took dozens of hostages.
North Africa
Mali poised for multi-sided war
With French troops fighting on the ground in Mali, jihadist militias advance on the capital, while Tuareg rebels pledge to re-establish a separatist state in the north.
Planet Watch
Protesters occupy Keystone XL offices in Houston
More than 100 protesters stormed the lobby of TransCanada's Keystone office in Houston as a new tree-sit was established at the Texas town of Diboll to block pipeline construction.