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Libya may face budget problems unless oil strikes end – PM

Reuters TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya may find it difficult to cover its budget expenditure next month or the one after unless strikes blocking oil ports and fields end, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said on Sunday. A mix of militias, tribes and civil servants seeking political rights or higher pay have seized oil ports and fields across the OPEC producer, knocking down output to a fraction of its capacity of 1.25 million barrels a day. “The budget is based on the assumption that oil revenues flow for the (full) year,” Zeidan told reporters. “From next or the following month, there could be a problem covering expenditures.” Zeidan said the government had given the protesters a week to 10 days to clear the blocked oil fields and ports. “Otherwise, we will take measures,” he said, declining to be more specific. He said the blockage of the Mellitah terminal in Western Libya […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela arrests looters, store bosses in 'economic war'

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro’s government announced arrests of both store managers and looters on Sunday as part of what it calls an "economic war" in Venezuela between the socialist state and unscrupulous businessmen. In a major pre-Christmas campaign reminiscent of the late President Hugo Chavez’s dramatic style, Maduro has sent soldiers to "occupy" one chain of electronics stores and inspectors into scores of others to check for price-gouging. Thousands of Venezuelans have been flocking to electronics stores, hoping to take advantage of new "fair prices" the government is imposing, sometimes half the previous cost. However, scenes of looting on Saturday at a store belonging to the occupied electronics chain, Daka, have left many Venezuelans ashamed and fueled opposition claims that Maduro is stirring chaos rather than defending the poor. Authorities announced that five managers, from the local Daka, JVG and Krash companies, would be prosecuted on charges […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela arrests looters, store bosses in ‘economic war’

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro’s government announced arrests of both store managers and looters on Sunday as part of what it calls an "economic war" in Venezuela between the socialist state and unscrupulous businessmen. In a major pre-Christmas campaign reminiscent of the late President Hugo Chavez’s dramatic style, Maduro has sent soldiers to "occupy" one chain of electronics stores and inspectors into scores of others to check for price-gouging. Thousands of Venezuelans have been flocking to electronics stores, hoping to take advantage of new "fair prices" the government is imposing, sometimes half the previous cost. However, scenes of looting on Saturday at a store belonging to the occupied electronics chain, Daka, have left many Venezuelans ashamed and fueled opposition claims that Maduro is stirring chaos rather than defending the poor. Authorities announced that five managers, from the local Daka, JVG and Krash companies, would be prosecuted on charges […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuelan Soldiers Deployed to Stores

CARACAS, Venezuela — The Christmas shopping season has started with a jolt here, with the socialist Venezuelan government dispatching soldiers to “occupy” a major chain of electronic goods stores, ordering prices slashed there and in other shops that it has accused of price gouging. Huge crowds formed outside stores in several cities over the weekend as inflation-weary Venezuelans showed up hoping for bargains. Others took the government’s order as a license to loot: Some posted cellphone videos online showing large-screen televisions and other items being carted off in Valencia, the country’s third-largest city. The dramatic measures, ordered on Friday by President Nicolás Maduro, were reminiscent of the populist gestures of his immediate predecessor, Hugo Chávez, the country’s longtime leader who died in March . They come as the government grapples with serious economic problems, including inflation of 54 percent a year and shortages of many basic goods, including toilet […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China wary of sourcing too much gas from the US

China wary of sourcing too much gas from the US Concerns that a surge in US gas exports to China could undermine prospects for further expansion of Australian gas sales may be overblown, with the Chinese likely to be wary of sourcing gas from America. A paper by the National Bureau of Asian Research in the US highlights political concerns in Beijing about relying on the US, which will prompt China to look instead to Australia and Canada for additional supplies of gas in volume. Australia will overtake Qatar as the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, which is transported by ships to end markets, from 2017, thanks to burgeoning demand, mainly in north Asia. By that time, Australia will have the capacity to export an estimated 88 million tonnes of LNG annually, which could rise to 130 million tonnes since many projects being developed have ready expansion prospects. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won't be going home

IWAKI, Japan (Reuters) – For many of Japan’s oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, there is a shared understanding on one point – Japan’s government is unable to deliver on its ambitious initial goals for cleaning up the areas that had to be evacuated after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster. "You can’t have a temporary life forever," said Ichiro Kazawa, 61, whose home was destroyed by the tsunami that also knocked out power to the Fukushima plant. Kazawa escaped four minutes before the first wave. Next year, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won’t be going home

IWAKI, Japan (Reuters) – For many of Japan’s oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, there is a shared understanding on one point – Japan’s government is unable to deliver on its ambitious initial goals for cleaning up the areas that had to be evacuated after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster. "You can’t have a temporary life forever," said Ichiro Kazawa, 61, whose home was destroyed by the tsunami that also knocked out power to the Fukushima plant. Kazawa escaped four minutes before the first wave. Next year, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pirates Hijack Tanker Near Singapore in Second Attack in a Month

Pirates hijacked a second tanker in a month off the Malaysian coast near Singapore, Asia’s biggest oil-trading hub, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Ten pirates armed with guns and knives boarded a tanker about 7.3 nautical miles (13.5 kilometers) west of Malaysia’s Pulau Kukup in the Strait of Malacca , forcing the crew to transfer gasoil from the vessel to another ship, the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Center said in a Nov. 7 incident report on its website. The attack was about 34 miles west of Singapore, according to the co-ordinates recorded by the agency. The U.S. Energy Information Administration identifies the Malacca Strait, which connects the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, as one of the world’s two “most strategic chokepoints” for oil trade along with the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. It is the shortest sea route between the Middle East […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Removing Fuel Rods Poses New Risks at Crippled Nuclear Plant in Japan

TOKYO — It was the part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that spooked American officials the most, as the complex spiraled out of control two and a half years ago: the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4, with more than 1,500 radioactive fuel assemblies left exposed when a hydrogen explosion blew the roof off the building. In the next 10 days, the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, is set to start the delicate and risky task of using a crane to remove the fuel assemblies from the pool, a critical step in a long decommissioning process that has already had serious setbacks. Just 36 men will carry out the tense operation to move the fuel to safer storage; they will work in groups of six in two-hour shifts throughout the day for months. A separate team will work overnight to clear any debris inside […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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UN nuclear agency looking at Fukushima contamination

Inspectors from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Japan this week to monitor the ongoing cleanup and look into the continued leaking of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This as the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) , the company nominally in control of the crippled facility, has again postponed the start of procedures to remove highly radioactive fuel rods from a severely damaged storage pool inside what used to be the Fukushima plant’s reactor No. 4.   Three reactors at Fukushima suffered core meltdowns after a massive earthquake and tsunami compromised containment and damaged cooling systems in March 2011. The three molten cores have now likely melted through the floors of their containment buildings and are somewhere underground, though plant and government officials have no clear picture as to exactly how deep. At the time of the Tohoku quake, the reactor at […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple