Mexico
Mexico: at least 37 dead in Pemex explosion
The authorities now blame gas accumulation for a blast that killed at least 37 people at the headquarters of Mexico’s accident-prone state oil monopoly.
Tag: control of oil
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.
Watching the Shadows
Chuck Hagel: revenge of the paleocons?
Leftists are ironically rallying around Chuck Hagel as Obama's apparent pick for Secretary of Defense—a conservative Republican who is wary of the neocons but close to Big Oil.
Planet Watch
National Intelligence Council predicts global climate disaster —again
The US National Intelligence Council issued a report, "Global Trends 2030: Potential Worlds," that emphasizes the rise of China and the risk of catastrophic climate change.
Africa
Protests rock Sudan, South Sudan…
Security forces mixed it up with protesters both in Sudan, hit by a wave of student unrest, and in South Sudan’s West Bahr el-Ghazal state, where 10 were killed by army troops.
East Asia
Anti-China protests: Vietnam’s turn
Anti-China protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City follow a maritime confrontation between Vietnamese naval forces and a Chinese fishing fleet in the contested South China Sea.
Planet Watch
Cornhuskers pack Keystone XL hearing
At the small town of Albion, hundreds of angry Nebraskans packed the state’s only environmental review hearing for the pending Keystone XL Pipeline.
The Amazon
Ecuador: indigenous protests as oil blocs sold
Indigenous protesters blocked Quito’s Marriott Hotel, where a major sale of Amazon oil blocs was underway. Riot police and military troops were brought in to clear the blockade.