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Iraq attacks kill 17, army fights to retake town from militants

At least 17 people were killed in attacks across Iraq on Sunday as troops fought to evict Islamist militants from the northern town of Sulaiman Pek, security sources and medics said. Armored vehicles and special police forces with heavy machineguns arrived in Sulaiman Pek to reinforce troops battling there for several days backed by helicopters gunships. "Clashes are continuing today in the town centre," the town’s mayor, Talib Mohammed, told Reuters. "The situation is still unclear. We can’t even look out of the window, as bullets and blasts are not stopping." Militants raised the black flag of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – a hardline Sunni group also fighting in neighboring Syria – over parts of Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, on Thursday. Sunni militancy has been on the rise over the past year, especially in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Bombings in Syria Force Wave of Civilians to Flee

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians have fled rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo in recent weeks under heavy aerial bombardment by the Syrian government, emptying whole neighborhoods and creating what aid workers say is one of the largest refugee flows of the entire civil war. The displaced, as many as 500,000 to date, the United Nations says, have flooded the countryside, swelling populations in war-battered communities that are already short on space and food and pushing a new wave of refugees into Turkey , where in interviews many have described a harrowing journey that left them in desperate condition, broke, hungry and, in many cases, sick or wounded. Much of the human tide flowing out of northern Syria has crashed on this once-quiet border town, where Syrians now nearly outnumber the original […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela President Calls Allies to Rival Opposition Protest

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called supporters to take to the street tomorrow, hours after an opposition politician sought by police urged his allies to march with him on the same day. Leopoldo Lopez , the leader of opposition party Voluntad Popular, whom Maduro accuses of inciting violence, urged Venezuelans to dress in white and march with him on Tuesday, daring officials to enforce an arrest order issued against him. After Maduro responded by summoning a demonstration of 30,000 to 40,000 oil workers at the same location, Voluntad Popular today switched the site of their march. “I’ve not committed any crime,” Lopez said in a YouTube video posted on his Twitter account yesterday. “If there is a decision to illegally jail me, I’ll be there.” On Feb. 12, three people died and 66 were injured when protesters clashed with government supporters. The biggest demonstrations against Maduro’s administration since he was […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela leader expels US officials amid protests

AP Photo CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro’s government on Monday gave three U.S. Embassy officials 48 hours to leave the country, accusing the Obama administration of siding with student protesters who Venezuela accuses of inciting violence. The announcement by Foreign Minister Elias Jaua came amid fears that renewed clashes could erupt Tuesday when both pro- and anti-government activists have announced plans for demonstrations in the capital. Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said that the senior U.S. consular officers were trying to infiltrate Venezuelan universities, the hotbed of the recent unrest, under the cover of doing visa outreach. Repeating charges by Maduro, who has expelled American diplomats twice before, Jaua said that the U.S. is conspiring with opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and student activists in an attempt to oust the socialist president. The U.S. has denied the charges but is expressing concern about rising violence that led to three […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ports, Shipping Companies Retool for Bigger Panama Canal

Shipbuilders are cranking out ever-bigger container vessels and the world’s major ports are dredging deeper, all on account of an ambitious multibillion-dollar project to widen the Panama Canal—an endeavor currently stalled by a contract dispute. More than just the canal is tangled up in the acrimonious battle between Panama and the builders over $1.6 billion in cost overruns. "There are many cities, countries and port authorities who are spending billions of dollars in anticipation of the traffic that will come from that newly expanded canal," said Adam Putnam, Florida’s commissioner of agriculture. "So, there will be an impact if there is an extended delay." The dispute so far has halted construction for two weeks and now threatens to delay the project by at least three years beyond the proposed completion date of December 2015. Negotiators say they are hopeful of a settlement as soon as Tuesday. Still, even […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's Goldleaf Jewelry to Buy Texas Energy Firm ERG

A Chinese gold retailer agreed to acquire a Texas-based oil-and-gas producer for at least $665 million as part of a strategy to diversify away from processing gold jewelry. Goldleaf Jewelry Co. will finance the deal through a private placement that is expected to raise as much as 5.69 billion yuan ($937.9 million) from no more than 10 investors, it said Monday in a statement filed with the Shenzhen stock exchange. The company would hold 95% of Texas-based ERG Resources LLC after the transaction. ERG Chief Financial Officer Kelly Plato said the deal would provide funds for growth and that the company would retain current management. He declined to comment on whether the deal would require U.S. government approval, a step necessary only if the transaction would affect national security. Closely held ERG’s most significant assets are oil-producing leases in Santa Barbara County, Calif. The Houston-based company also been active […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s Goldleaf Jewelry to Buy Texas Energy Firm ERG

A Chinese gold retailer agreed to acquire a Texas-based oil-and-gas producer for at least $665 million as part of a strategy to diversify away from processing gold jewelry. Goldleaf Jewelry Co. will finance the deal through a private placement that is expected to raise as much as 5.69 billion yuan ($937.9 million) from no more than 10 investors, it said Monday in a statement filed with the Shenzhen stock exchange. The company would hold 95% of Texas-based ERG Resources LLC after the transaction. ERG Chief Financial Officer Kelly Plato said the deal would provide funds for growth and that the company would retain current management. He declined to comment on whether the deal would require U.S. government approval, a step necessary only if the transaction would affect national security. Closely held ERG’s most significant assets are oil-producing leases in Santa Barbara County, Calif. The Houston-based company also been active […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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15 Reasons Why Your Food Prices Are About To Start Soaring

Did you know that the U.S. state that produces the most vegetables is going through the worst drought it has ever experienced and that the size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has been since 1951?  Just the other day, a CBS News article boldly declared that “ food prices soar as incomes stand still “, but the truth is that this is only just the beginning.  If the drought that has been devastating farmers and ranchers out west continues, we are going to see prices for meat, fruits and vegetables soar into the stratosphere.  Already, the federal government has declared  portions of 11 states to be “disaster areas”, and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions. Sadly, experts are telling us that things […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Train Accidents Stir Worries About Crude Transport

At least 10 times since 2008, freight trains hauling oil across North America have derailed and spilled significant quantities of crude, with most of the accidents touching off fires or catastrophic explosions. The derailments released almost 3 million gallons of oil, nearly twice as much as the largest pipeline spill in the U.S. since at least 1986. And the deadliest wreck killed 47 people in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Those findings, from an Associated Press review of U.S. and Canadian accident records, underscore a lesser-known danger of America’s oil boom, which is changing the global energy balance and raising urgent safety questions closer to home. Experts say recent efforts to improve the safety of oil shipments belie an unsettling fact: With increasing volumes of crude now moving by rail, it’s become impossible to send oil-hauling trains to refineries without passing major population centers, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chevron Natural-Gas Wells in Pennsylvania No Longer On Fire

Two Chevron Corp. natural-gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania are no longer on fire after an explosion last week that left one worker missing, according to the company. Chevron said the flames had gone out Saturday afternoon at the well site in Dunkard Township, about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh. Workers were preparing to remove a charred crane above one well and stop the gas from flowing. A company spokesman said there is no word of the missing worker, a contractor. "It is premature to speculate on what caused the flames to go out," the company said, adding that the crane is now cool enough that it won’t cause gas flowing from the wells to ignite. The blast took place early on the morning of Feb. 11, as Chevron and its contractors were running tubes through the well to start producing natural gas. The fire heated the crane to such […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple