Category:

Ties to Islamic State Cited by Group in Libya Attacks

CAIRO — Militants pledging allegiance to the Islamic State claimed responsibility for three car bombs that killed at least 38 people in a town in eastern Libya on Friday in the latest escalation in a surge of violence linked to the group. The attacks, in the town of Qubbah, appeared to be one more turn in a cycle of retaliation that began when the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, released a video last week showing its fighters in western Libya beheading more than a dozen kidnapped Egyptian Christians . The government of Egypt responded with airstrikes on the city of Derna, a hub of Islamist militancy in eastern Libya where another group of fighters has pledged loyalty to the Islamic State. On Friday, the Islamic State branch in Derna claimed responsibility for the latest bombings “in revenge for the bloodshed of Muslims” in the city, according […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Security woes dash Iraq gas plans

An Iraqi army vehicle secures the Akkas gas field in the western desert of Iraq October 19, 2010. (ALI AL-MASHHADANI/Reuters) Published Thursday, February 19th, 2015 Recommend 388 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. The Akkas gas field once symbolized Iraq’s ambition to become a major natural gas producer, and its promise to bring economic development to Anbar province. Now, it is an unofficial refugee camp.At least 500 internally displaced people have moved into the facilities that were originally built for the South Korean company Kogas and its subcontractors, according to a resident of the nearby Karabilah village, an engineer at the Akkas power plant and a Kogas official.After the rise of the s…

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Multiple Suicide Bombings in Libya Kill at Least 45

TRIPOLI, Libya — Multiple suicide car bombings struck an eastern Libyan town, killing at least 45 people on Friday not far from a main base of the Islamic State group’s Libyan offshoot. The group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it came in retaliation for recent Egyptian airstrikes that avenged the beheading of 21 Christian hostages by Libyan Islamic State militants. The massive bombings rocked the town of Qubba, which is under control of the country’s internationally recognized government and about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Darna — a stronghold of Libya’s Islamic State branch. In a statement posted on social networking sites, the group said two of the "Caliphate’s knights" carried out the bombings, targeting what they described as a Libyan army operations room.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Islamic State Claims East Libya Bomb Attacks as 33 Reported Dead

(Bloomberg) — Islamic State’s affiliate in Libya claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in the country’s east that left dozens dead, saying they were directed at the commander of a campaign against Islamist forces. The triple car bombing in Qubba, near the base of Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tobruk, killed at least 33 people including four Egyptian laborers, Al Jazeera television reported, citing Ibrahim Khalid, head of a local hospital. The attacks followed airstrikes carried out by Egypt’s military against Islamic State’s stronghold in Libya earlier this week, a response to the beheading of 21 captured Egyptian Christians by the jihadist group. Islamic State said on one of the websites it uses that the attack targeted the headquarters of Khalifa Haftar, a commander based in eastern Libya, who’s conducting a campaign against Islamist militias. He’s one of the local warlords to gain prominence in Libya as central authority in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Caracas Mayor’s Arrest Rallies His Supporters

CARACAS, Venezuela—The arrest of one of the government’s leading critics here by armed state agents has angered the opposition, which rallied in protest Friday as condemnation mounted, much of it coming from former regional leaders and human-rights groups. “It’s becoming clearer every day that we’re living in a dictatorship,” Mitzy Capriles, wife of this capital city’s mayor, Antonio Ledezma, said in an interview a day after intelligence-service commandos broke down her husband’s office door and took him into custody. The 59-year-old Mr. Ledezma—one of the few remaining conservative lawmakers whose career survived the rise of late leftist firebrand Hugo Chávez in 1998—was charged in court Friday to face charges of conspiracy to “organize and execute violent acts,” against the government, state prosecutors said. Attempts to contact a lawyer for Mr. Ledezma weren’t successful. The attorney general said Mr. Ledezma, who leads an antigovernment movement, was also suspected of coordinating […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Caracas Mayor Arrested on Sedition Accusation, Plunging Venezuela into New Crisis

Photo Supporters of the mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, demanded his release on Thursday. Credit Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press Photo Mr. Ledezma was accused by President Nicolás Maduro of plotting with the United States to overthrow him. The State Department issued a statement saying, “Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent.” Credit Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters CARACAS, Venezuela — A new political crisis convulsed Venezuela on Friday over the arrest of the Caracas mayor, one of the country’s top opposition figures, accused by President Nicolás Maduro of abetting what he called an American plot to overthrow the government. Supporters of the mayor, Antonio Ledezma, quickly mobilized protests over his arrest — which they called a kidnapping — which was carried out without warning Thursday night. Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups demanded Mr. Ledezma’s release, and hundreds of demonstrators gathered in a Caracas plaza to protest. But Mr. Maduro, whose […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Filthy India air cutting 660 million lives short by 3 years

NEW DELHI (AP) — New research estimates India’s air pollution is cutting 660 million lives short by three years on average. The study published Saturday in the Economic & Political Weekly highlights the extensiveness of India’s air problems after years of pursuing an all-growth agenda with little regard for the environment. Thirteen Indian cities are now included on the World Health Organization’s list of the world’s 20 most polluted. That pollution burden nationwide is estimated to be costing more than half the population at least 3.2 years of their lives. The study’s authors acknowledge their estimations may be too conservative, as they are based in part on satellite data that tend to underestimate levels of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5. India has a sparse system for monitoring air quality.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Another Big Reason to Think Oil Prices Aren’t Going Up Soon

A storage tank under construction. Oil just had its first weekly decline in a month, breaking a rally in crude prices. A bit of context: After what’s happened over the last year, "rally" seems a bit of an overstatement.  Oil ‘Rally’ One big factor that may be driving prices down this week: The U.S. is pumping so much oil it’s running out of places to stash it.  Crude oil in storage in the U.S. has jumped to the highest levels in at least 80 years, according to a Bloomberg Industries analysis. The EIA this week reported that U.S. inventories rose 7.7 million barrels to 425.6 million. That’s more than 20 percent higher than the five-year average.  U.S. Oil Inventories Reach 80-Year High The buildup of supply has been "colossal" and is responsible for oil prices falling this week, Thomas Finlon, director of Energy Analytics Group LLC, told Bloomberg News.  Winter weather and refinery outages have contributed to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

China’s water grab

Marxists a century or so ago believed that what they called “Oriental despotism” arose in Asia because of the need in China and elsewhere to control the water supply. In 1957, Karl Wittfogel ’s work on the subject, “Oriental Despotism,” was published, warning that the need to control water for irrigation and other purposes in the region had given birth to a totalitarian state unlike any that had developed in the West. China is now the world’s largest economy. Though its ascension has been a long time coming, China ’s new status has analysts once again looking to water as one of its most powerful strategic levers. In fact, understanding China ’s water policy is as crucial to fostering world peace and international relations in the 21st century as arms treaties and diplomatic missions. In much of the world today, water is a more precious natural resource than oil. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil Drillers Idle Fewest Rigs in 7 Weeks as Retreat Slows

(Bloomberg) — U.S. oil explorers idled the fewest rigs in seven weeks, dragging oil prices to an intraday low on speculation that crude production won’t fall fast enough to balance the market. Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. dropped by 37 to 1,019 after averaging an 87-rig loss in the previous three weeks, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Since Dec. 5, 556 have been taken offline in an unprecedented retreat, bringing the count to the lowest level since July 2011. The unprecedented retrenchment in U.S. oil drilling underscores how deeply the global collapse in crude prices has wounded the world’s energy producers, eliminating more than 100,000 jobs internationally and shrinking capital spending this year by at least $86.4 billion. “The rig drop today was half the drop from last week, so the market might be mildly bearish on it,” James Williams, president of energy consulting company […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple