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Ukraine Says Military Operation in East Has Begun

Ukraine’s acting president said Tuesday that a military operation to wrest control of has begun. Oleksandr Turchynov said that the "antiterrorist" operation began in the early morning hours in the northern Donetsk region, where the majority of the cities commandeered by pro-Russian forces are located. "Overnight, an antiterrorist operation began in the north of Donetsk. But it will be phased, responsible and balanced. The purpose of the actions, I stress once again, is to protect the citizens of Ukraine," he told Ukraine’s parliament, according to Interfax. Also on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that any use of force by Ukraine’s government to quell unrest in the east could derail upcoming talks in Geneva on Thursday between the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and the European Union. […]

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Fragile Europe Weakens U.S. Push for Russia Sanctions

The U.S. readiness to impose new economic sanctions on Russia over Ukraine is offset by the European Union’s reluctance to introduce stronger measures that could threaten its already fragile economic recovery. While the Obama administration said yesterday that it’s prepared to ramp up sanctions, possibly to target specific sectors of the Russian economy such as financial services and energy, the EU limited its decision to expanding an existing list of individuals under asset freezes and travel bans. U.S. officials concede that squeezing Russia’s economy is the only realistic weapon the U.S. and its European allies have to respond to the clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian authorities. Without European support, though, U.S. sanctions will have little effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine, said Simon Mandel , vice president for emerging Europe equity sales at Auerbach Grayson & Co. “The level of trade between the U.S. and […]

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Brent Crude Rises With WTI as Tension Escalates in East Ukraine

Brent crude advanced for the first time in three days and West Texas Intermediate extended gains as tension escalated between Ukraine and Russia , fanning concern that energy supplies in Europe may be disrupted. Futures rose as much as 0.7 percent in London . Russia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Ukrainian security forces clashed with pro-Russian gunmen in the eastern town of Slovyansk. Libya ’s prime minister resigned while the nation, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, sought to restore oil shipments. “The major contributor to the firm tone we’re seeing in the market is further concerns about Ukraine,” said Michael McCarthy , a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney who predicts investors may sell contracts if Brent climbs to $109.50 a barrel. “Tensions are ramping up again. There’s still a bit of upside from a technical point […]

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Oil Futures Rise on Ukraine Tension

Crude-oil futures rose in the Asian session Monday on uncertainty about Ukraine as the government and pro-Russian activists braced for clashes in the east of the country. On the New York Mercantile Exchange light sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $104.24 a barrel at 0530 GMT, up $0.50 in the Globex electronic session. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.57 to $107.90 a barrel. Oil prices are "leveraging on the escalation" of prevailing uncertainty in Ukraine, Phillip Futures investment analyst Chee Tat said in a report. The Ukraine military has mobilized as pro-Russian activists extend their grip across east. Risk of clashes remains high after a fatal shooting of a security officer early Sunday. While the U.S. and its Western allies have said the well-equipped gunmen appeared to be Russian special forces Moscow has denied it was behind the unrest. "Mounting speculations on […]

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U.N. Climate Change Report Says Worst Scenarios Can Still Be Avoided

A United Nations report suggests that governments can still avert the more serious consequences of climate change provided they act quickly and aggressively to cut the accelerating pace of greenhouse-gas emissions. According to the report, global greenhouse-gas emissions have risen more rapidly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades. The global economic crisis of 2007 and 2008 temporarily reduced emissions but didn’t change the trend, the report says. The report is of major interest to policy makers because it focuses on various scenarios for mitigating global warming. Presented on Sunday in Berlin, it is the third installment in a comprehensive four-part report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate […]

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Climate Efforts Falling Short, U.N. Panel Says

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose almost twice as fast in the first decade of this century. BERLIN — Delivering the latest stark news about climate change on Sunday, a United Nations panel warned that governments are not doing enough to avert profound risks in coming decades. But the experts found a silver lining: Not only is there still time to head off the worst, but the political will to do so seems to be rising around the world. In a report unveiled here, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that decades of foot-dragging by political leaders had propelled humanity into a critical situation, with greenhouse emissions rising faster than ever. Though it remains technically possible to keep planetary warming to a tolerable level, only an intensive push over the next 15 years to bring […]

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Leaders Show No Signs of Preparing Public for Concessions to West

A senior cleric delivering a nationally televised sermon urged a crowd that included former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the head of Iran’s nuclear energy organization to observe sexual piety, aid the poor and support Iran’s development of nuclear power. "This technology is progressing our nation," Ayatollah Imami Kashani said at weekly Friday prayers at the University of Tehran. "Our enemies are against such progress." The sermon, like other speeches and television appearances by senior leaders recently, offered few signs the government is conditioning Iranians for any major limitations on nuclear work. But in talks Iran is pursuing with world powers, U.S. and European officials are aiming to significantly scale back Iran’s nuclear capabilities to guard against development of nuclear weapons—something Tehran denies that it seeks. To reach a deal that would ease international sanctions, the clerical leaders will have to make significant concessions. But by defining the program as […]

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Sanctions Are Eased; Iran Sees Little Relief

Halfway through a six-month nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers that was meant to allow time to reach a comprehensive agreement, the Iranians have seen little in the way of a boost from the sanctions relief they had been expecting, trade lawyers and diplomatic analysts say. Whether Iran’s disappointment means that it will be more or less motivated to negotiate a permanent deal on its disputed nuclear program by the July 20 deadline remains unclear. “Iran has become kryptonite for banks and shippers and insurance companies,” said Farhad R. Alavi, a sanctions law specialist at Akrivis, a Washington-based international law firm that has fielded numerous inquiries about doing business with Iran since the temporary accord took effect. Though the accord may have served as a “teaser” to Iran, he said in a telephone interview, foreign business interest has remained extremely limited. “Is a bank in Germany going […]

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Iran’s oil output to hit 5.7mbpd by 2019

Iran will increase its crude oil output to 5.7 million barrels per day (mbpd) by the end of Iranian calendar year 1397 (March 2019), MP Ali Marvi says, quoting Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. According to Zanganeh, Iran’s natural gas output will also increase to one billion cubic meters per day, IRNA quoted Marvi as saying on Saturday. The country’s crude oil and natural gas outputs are currently around 3.8 million barrels per day and 300 million cubic meters per day, respectively. On April 6, Zanganeh said Iran forecasts an increase in its crude oil and natural gas production in the current Iranian calendar year 1393, which began on March 21. “Iran’s crude oil output is forecast to increase by about 200,000 barrels per day to 4 million barrels per day, and its daily natural gas output is forecast to increase by about 100 million cubic meters per day […]

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Libya remains in the grip of rivalrous rebel factions

Dragging deeply on a cigarette and swirling his espresso dregs, the curly-haired young militiaman offered up a vivid account of the battles he and fellow rebels waged to bring down dictator Moammar Kadafi — days of blazing bombardment, thirsty desert nights. Then he voiced his dismay at the chokehold those same armed groups now maintain on Libya. "We fought so hard to make a new country," said the 28-year-old of Libyan extraction who left Britain to join the revolution that swept this North African nation in 2011. "Now it’s all about money. Money and guns." The rebel groups that worked together to oust Kadafi have fragmented into rivalrous factions whose outsized collective power has sapped Libya’s oil wealth, turned a nascent government structure to tatters and ushered in a grim cycle of assassinations, abductions and firefights in the streets. International attention tends to focus on the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple