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Broad Coalition Vows to Back Fight Against Islamic State

A conference to discuss how to combat the Islamic State is under way in Paris. Made up of 26 countries, including the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia, it aims to show a united front on fighting the militant group. WSJ’s Mark Kelly reports PARIS—Top diplomats vowed Monday to back the Iraqi government’s fight against Islamic State but struggled to agree on concrete action, underscoring divisions among world powers over how to tackle the militant group. A group of 26 countries—including the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia—pledged to support Baghdad’s fight against the jihadist organization "by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance." French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters after an international conference on combating the militant group that discussions focused on ways to cut off funding to the group as well as how to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq. But the gathering failed […]

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US launches first air strikes to help Iraqi military

Ground crew for U.S. Marine F18’s goes through the final process of arming the aircraft prior to their missions over Iraq March 22, 2003. The United States and Britain unleashed their first daylight air strikes on Baghdad on Saturday after pounding it with a fearsome night blitz. – RTXLUSQ The US has conducted its first air strikes in support of the Iraqi military since President Barack Obama last week launched his expanded fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Isis , in Syria and Iraq. The US Central Command said aircraft attacked Isis positions near Sinjar on Sunday and southwest of Baghdad on Monday. These were the first attacks in support of Iraqi troops as opposed to strikes to protect US personnel, help refugees or secure infrastructure. More On this story On this topic IN Iraq Six Isis vehicles and one of the militants’ firing […]

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Sunni tribes turning on ISIS and Peshmerga

Sunni tribes turning on ISIS and Peshmerga A Peshmerga fighter holds a rocket propelled-grenade (RPG) near an ISIS flag hoisted on the other side of a bridge in Rashad, on the road between Kirkuk and Tikrit, on Sept. 11, 2014. [JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images] Iraq’s newest initiative to convince Sunnis to fight alongside the government has combusted into a volatile, multi-sided conflict in northern Diyala province – a strong indication of how difficult it will be to build and maintain a national coalition against extremist militants.The biggest flashpoint has been around Jalula, a town in Diyala along the disputed border between the autonomous Kurdistan region and Arab-dominated southern Iraq.Since Saturday, Sunni Arab tribesmen aligned wi… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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ISIS’ Next Target: The Suez Canal

ISIS’ Next Target: The Suez Canal Following ISIS blitzkrieg in which it took over nearly half of Iraq and a third of Syria in the blink of an eye, at which point it created its own Islamic State Caliphate resulting in Obama’s own personal war against the jihadists, some have wondered what is ISIS’ next step: surely its leadership will not merely stagnatte as one after another US predator drone bomb away the capital Reqqa until ISIS figurehead leader al-Baghdadi is killed or gravely wounded. To be sure, the one thing ISIS, which stunned the world with the speed of its ascent, can not afford is to stand still. So what is next on the strategic timeline for the Islamic State? According to one source, Al Arabiya, which cites Egyptian experts, the answer is none other than the Suez Canal , and the country it is located in: Egypt. […]

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Libya, Iraq Insecurity May Hit Future OPEC Supply Prospects

OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri. EPA VIENNA—Amid a continuing slide in global oil prices, the head of OPEC has said political insecurity in Iraq and Libya could affect the oil-producing cartel’s future output prospects. In an interview at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ headquarters, Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said that while Iraq has great potential to grow oil production, it needs to solve its security problems. "If there is no security, there will be no investment," he said. "If there is no investment, there will be no additional supply." Iraq has long-held plans to triple its oil production capacity to 9 million barrels a day by 2020, meaning it could expand output at the fastest rate of any of OPEC’s 12 member nations. But the rapid advance of the insurgent Islamic State movement in the West of the country has cast doubt on its target—though the rebels […]

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Nigeria Mulls $20 Billion Offers to Sell Transmission Assets

Nigeria is considering offers of more than $20 billion for the assets of its national electricity transmission company as it struggles to provide adequate power to Africa ’s largest economy, Power Minister Chinedu Nebo said. The sale of state-owned Transmission Co. of Nigeria may start “in a few years,” Nebo said in a Sept. 12 interview with Bloomberg Television Africa in Abuja, the capital. The government will also focus on developing renewable energy projects to diversify its supply of electricity, he said. “The interest now for transmission is over $20 billion,” he said on Sept. 12. “People are coming from everywhere.” Transmission is the only segment of the power industry that the government still controls as it seeks to curb regular blackouts in Africa’s largest oil producer. The country generates about a 10th of the power that South Africa does even though its population of about 170 million is […]

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Vietnam, India to Expand Oil Exploration in Contested South China Sea

Vietnam and India have struck a deal to expand oil and gas exploration and production in the South China Sea, despite previous Chinese claims that it violates China’s sovereignty. European Pressphoto Agency HANOI—Vietnam and India agreed Monday to expand cooperation in oil and gas exploration and production in contested waters of the South China Sea, despite previous objections from China. The agreement between ONGC Videsh Ltd. and Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, or PetroVietnam, was among several signed between the two countries in Hanoi Monday as part of a four-day visit to Vietnam by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee. "ONGC has been conducting oil and gas exploration and production in Vietnam for many years, and today’s agreement will pave the way for us to extend our cooperation in other blocks offshore Vietnam," Do Van Hau, PetroVietnam’s chief executive, told The Wall Street Journal. ONGC already has a stake in a […]

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Nigerian oil workers start strike, oil exports at risk

Lagos (Platts)–16Sep2014/524 am EDT/924 GMT Oil workers in Nigeria started an indefinite strike Tuesday that could disrupt oil production and exports from the OPEC member, said officials of the unions and state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. The unions took the action after failing to resolve a dispute over pensions and other issues. "Today, we have called our members out to begin an indefinite strike until management addresses our demand for a complete overhaul of the NNPC pension scheme, which in its present form is depriving our members of their full dues," a spokesman for the NNPC branch of Nupeng and Pengassan oil workers’ unions told Platts. NNPC’s headquarters in Abuja has been shut to workers and visitors, the union official said. Platts could not immediately confirm the situation in other NNPC offices, particularly in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. The union spokesman said that if NNPC management failed to […]

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China Bans Use of Coal With High Ash or Sulfur to Fight Smog

China will ban sales and imports of coal with high ash or sulfur in a move to promote cleaner types of the fuel and improve the nation’s air quality. Coal with ash content of more than 40 percent and sulfur of more than 3 percent is banned from sales and imports into China starting Jan. 1, according to a regulation posted on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission yesterday. Lignite containing ash of more than 30 percent and sulfur of more than 1.5 percent is also prohibited. Other limitations involve coal with chemical content such as mercury and arsenic. China, the world’s largest consumer of coal, is restricting the dirtiest grades to fight pollution. It will encourage imports of higher-quality supplies after smog worsened in Shanghai and Beijing and sparked social unrest in Maoming and Hangzhou. The nation depends on coal for about 65 percent of […]

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China rig finds gas after Vietnam sea standoff

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese exploration rig at the center of a tense maritime standoff with Vietnam earlier this year has made its first deep sea gas discovery in the politically volatile South China Sea, state media announced Tuesday. The discovery by China National Offshore Oil Corp. was made about a month after its rig withdrew in July from Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone to far less-contested waters closer to China. The find by CNOOC’s two-year-old, $1 billion deep sea rig is about 150 kilometers south of China’s southernmost island of Hainan. It’s unclear whether the discovery will become commercially viable, but the announcement represents a significant step in China’s ability to seek resources beneath the South China Sea. Petroleum reserves and fisheries are among the resources at stake in disputes over the sea, which is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and a patchwork of overlapping claims by […]

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