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Iraq Sunnis in western city end protest after deal

An Iraqi government spokesman says Sunnis in a flashpoint western city have ended their months-long protest after a deal with the country’s Shiite-led government. Mohammed al-Askari says police in the city of Ramadi on Monday dismantled the protesters’ tents and removed their sit-in site along a main highway linking Baghdad with neighboring Jordan. Al-Askari says there was no violence during the police action. He says the Ramadi Sunnis agreed late on Sunday to end the protest after the authorities warned their gathering was sheltering al-Qaida fighters. The protest organizers were not immediately available to comment. Since last December, Iraq’s Sunni minority has been staging protests against what they claim is second-class treatment at the hands of the Shiite majority, demanding an end to some laws they believe unfairly target them. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera TV's 4-member crew

Egypt’s Interior Ministry says security forces have arrested journalists working for the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera network over alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood, the leading Islamist group that was last week branded as a "terrorist" organization. The network said Monday that four of its Cairo team – correspondent Peter Greste, producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, and cameraman Mohamed Fawzy – are in custody since Sunday night. Al-Jazeera says it’s demanding their immediate release. The ministry says only two Al-Jazeera staff were arrested, an Australian journalist and a second person, a Brotherhood member. It says they were meeting at a five-star Cairo hotel that is used to "spread rumors harming national security." Egypt’s military-backed government has long accused Al-Jazeera of bias because Qatar is perceived to have supported the Brotherhood. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten […]

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Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera TV’s 4-member crew

Egypt’s Interior Ministry says security forces have arrested journalists working for the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera network over alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood, the leading Islamist group that was last week branded as a "terrorist" organization. The network said Monday that four of its Cairo team – correspondent Peter Greste, producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, and cameraman Mohamed Fawzy – are in custody since Sunday night. Al-Jazeera says it’s demanding their immediate release. The ministry says only two Al-Jazeera staff were arrested, an Australian journalist and a second person, a Brotherhood member. It says they were meeting at a five-star Cairo hotel that is used to "spread rumors harming national security." Egypt’s military-backed government has long accused Al-Jazeera of bias because Qatar is perceived to have supported the Brotherhood. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten […]

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Saudis Pledge $3 Billion to Support Lebanon's Army

Saudi Arabia pledged $3 billion to bolster Lebanon’s armed forces, in a challenge to the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia’s decadeslong status as Lebanon’s main power broker and security force. Lebanese President Michel Sleiman revealed the Saudi gift on Lebanese national television Sunday, calling it the largest aid package ever to the country’s defense bodies. The Saudi pledge compares with Lebanon’s 2012 defense budget, which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute put at $1.7 billion. Lebanon would use the Saudi grant to buy "newer and more modern weapons," from France, said Mr. Sleiman, an independent who has become increasingly critical of Hezbollah. It followed what he called "decades of unsuccessful efforts" to build a credible Lebanese national defense force. As a direct challenge to Hezbollah, the Saudi gift—and the Lebanese president’s acceptance—has potential to change the balance of power in Lebanon and the region. It also threatens to raise sectarian and […]

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Saudis Pledge $3 Billion to Support Lebanon’s Army

Saudi Arabia pledged $3 billion to bolster Lebanon’s armed forces, in a challenge to the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia’s decadeslong status as Lebanon’s main power broker and security force. Lebanese President Michel Sleiman revealed the Saudi gift on Lebanese national television Sunday, calling it the largest aid package ever to the country’s defense bodies. The Saudi pledge compares with Lebanon’s 2012 defense budget, which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute put at $1.7 billion. Lebanon would use the Saudi grant to buy "newer and more modern weapons," from France, said Mr. Sleiman, an independent who has become increasingly critical of Hezbollah. It followed what he called "decades of unsuccessful efforts" to build a credible Lebanese national defense force. As a direct challenge to Hezbollah, the Saudi gift—and the Lebanese president’s acceptance—has potential to change the balance of power in Lebanon and the region. It also threatens to raise sectarian and […]

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Cyprus: “On the Verge of Significant Energy Production”

Cyprus In his introduction of Nicos Kouyialis, Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, Cyprus , panel moderator John Roberts characterized Cyprus as a country “on the verge of significant energy production," an incredibly apt description, among others, at the 2nd Annual Frankfurt Gas Forum . “The discoveries of substantial quantities of natural gas open up new perspectives and gives a new impetus to the role the Eastern Mediterranean region can play in the global and European energy markets,” he began.  “Our vision is to establish Cyprus as a regional energy hub, utilizing its own indigenous hydrocarbon resources, eventually additional quantities from the neigboring countries,” added Minister Kouyialis. In order to fulfill this vision, he said the basic objectives of the government of Cyprus were “To […]

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China arable land area above food security red-line

– Although China’s latest national land survey showed better-than-expected arable land figures, the country’s growing population, accelerating urbanization and pollution are eroding the country’s arable land and threatening food security. According to the results of the second national land survey released on Monday, China’s arable land totaled 2.03 billion mu (about 135.4 million hectares) at the end of 2012, 227 million mu more than the "bottom line" set by the government to ensure food security. The total arable land area was larger than in the previous land survey. However, the actual available arable land was just slightly above the government’s red-line after deducting land arranged for forest and pasture restoration or land deemed not suitable for farming because of pollution, said Wang Shiyuan, vice minister of land and resources at a press conference. The three-year survey showed that China’s per capita arable land area shrank […]

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Special Report: Japan's homeless recruited for murky Fukushima clean-up

Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men. He isn’t a social worker. He’s a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan’s nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head. "This is how labor recruiters like me come in every day," Sasa says, as he strides past men sleeping on cardboard and clutching at their coats against the early winter cold. It’s also how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the $35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong. Almost three years ago, a massive earthquake and tsunami leveled villages across Japan’s northeast coast and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Special Report: Japan’s homeless recruited for murky Fukushima clean-up

Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men. He isn’t a social worker. He’s a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan’s nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head. "This is how labor recruiters like me come in every day," Sasa says, as he strides past men sleeping on cardboard and clutching at their coats against the early winter cold. It’s also how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the $35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong. Almost three years ago, a massive earthquake and tsunami leveled villages across Japan’s northeast coast and […]

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Thailand's Oil Fund administrator says LPG, diesel subsidies should be scrapped

Thailand’s retail subsidies for diesel and LPG are coming under increased pressure and should be scrapped, the director of the country’s Energy Fund Administration Institute said last week. The subsidies as they currently stand are a "time bomb if you keep them going," said Chainoi Puenkosum, who heads EFAI, an "independent public organization" under the Energy Ministry that manages the receipts and payments of the country’s Oil Fund, from which the subsidies are paid. Subsidies are costing the country Baht 165 million/day ($5 million/day) at current levels, according to the EFAI. The subsidies keep diesel pump prices under Baht 30/liter, well below international prices, and LPG at staggered rates that are as low as one-third of international prices. The price of LPG for cooking is fixed at Baht 19/kg and accounts for 32% of consumption, and at Baht 21/kg for automobiles that consume 24% […]

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