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Saudis Turn Birthplace of Wahhabism Ideology Into Tourist Spot

Photo Visitors at the Diriyah complex, on the outskirts of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. The site will feature parks, restaurants, and a series of museums. Credit Tomas Munita for The New York Times DIRIYAH, Saudi Arabia — More than 250 years ago, in this sunbaked oasis of mud-brick houses and ramparts, the ancestors of the Saudi royal family and an outcast fundamentalist preacher formed an alliance that has shaped this land ever since. In return for political supremacy, the House of Saud endorsed the doctrine of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab and followed it to wage jihad against anyone who rejected their creed, gaining control of much of the Arabian Peninsula. That alliance laid the foundations of the modern Saudi state, which has in more recent times used its oil wealth to make the cleric’s rigid doctrine — widely known as Wahhabism — a major force in the Muslim world. […]

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Nigeria’s Northeast Suffers String of Attacks by Boko Haram

ABUJA, Nigeria—Islamist terror group Boko Haram conducted a three-day spree of assaults that killed at least 42 people in northeast Nigeria, marking a grim beginning to the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari. The attacks began on Friday, when a bomb killed 10 people at a wedding in the town of Hawul, two residents said. The blast took place around the time Mr. Buhari was reciting his oath of office in the capital , Abuja, about 400 miles away. “Some of us managed to escape,” said Haruna Musa, who was at the wedding. The next day, a suicide bomber struck a market in Maiduguri, the largest city in northeast Nigeria, killing 16 people, a member of an anti-Boko Haram militia said. Maiduguri has been the focus of Boko Haram’s terror campaign over the past six years, and Mr. Buhari on Friday said Nigeria’s top generals will be relocated there to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Coal mining must continue, no matter what the human costs

This post was inspired by a recent article about coal mining in India by David Rose in the Guardian about coal mining. In India, people are dying in the streets because of excessive heat caused by global warming, but Rose reports that “ …across a broad range of Delhi politicians and policymakers there is near unanimity. There is, they say, simply no possibility that at this stage in its development India will agree to any form of emissions cap, let alone a cut. ” In other words, coal mining must continue in the name of economic growth, no matter what the human costs.I think it is hard to see a more evident example of the senility of the world’s elites. It is, unfortunately, not something that pertains only to India. Elites all over the world seem to be nearly totally blind to the desperate situation in which we all […]

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Faster than China? India’s road, rail drive could lay doubts to rest

NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reformist, but hard-up government has begun a splurge on road and rail building that analysts say could remove doubts over whether economic growth in India really is overtaking China. Having roughly doubled spending allocations for roads and bridges in fiscal 2015/16, and raised the rail budget by a third, Modi is banking on India going faster. "They have acknowledged that infrastructure is the big elephant in the room," said Vinayak Chatterjee, head of infrastructure services company Feedback Infra. "Once these measures are implemented, the elephant would start dancing, and with it the overall economy." Modi’s chief economic advisor, Arvind Subramanian, reckons growth could increase by more than one percentage point this year provided ministries don’t underspend, though the central bank saw it adding just half a point. Data released on Friday showed the economy grew 7.5 percent in the quarter ending in March, […]

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China’s factories slow to respond to stimulus, South Korea exports dive

China’s manufacturing sector showed scant signs of picking up in May as demand stayed stubbornly weak, while exports in South Korea suffered their biggest annual drop since the global financial crisis, grim readings which prompted calls for bolder stimulus measures. Japanese manufacturers, however, saw a rebound in new orders while Indian factories enjoyed solid domestic demand, offering a glimmer of hope for a region struggling to gain traction in the second quarter. The focus now shifts to the United States and parts of Europe, where hopes are pinned on stronger factory activity to offset the global downdraft from China. ECONEZECONUS China reported on Monday its official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) edged up to 50.2 in May, from 50.1 in April and creeping back into expansion territory. But a private survey focusing on small and mid-sized firms showed their activity had contracted for a third straight month. The final […]

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China factories scrabble for growth in May, export demand shrinks

BEIJING Growth in China’s giant factory sector edged up to a six-month high in May but export demand shrank again, prompting companies to shed jobs and keeping alive worries about a protracted economic slowdown, a government survey showed on Monday. In a sign that China’s worst downturn in at least six years is hurting its services companies, too, a similar survey showed growth in that sector slipped to a low not seen in more than five years. Services have been one of the lone bright spots in the Chinese economy in the last year. The muted reports reinforced the view that authorities would have to roll out more stimulus in coming months, despite having cut interest rates three times in six months. "China’s economy still faces strong headwinds," economists at ANZ Bank said in a note to clients. "If capital outflow continues at the pace of the first quarter, […]

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Washington finds unlikely ally in OPEC as biofuels debate rages

NEW YORK The Obama administration has found an unlikely ally in its efforts to keep pushing more biofuel into the nation’s gasoline supply: OPEC. The lowest oil prices in over six years have fueled a resurgence in U.S. gasoline use in recent months as more Americans take to the road. Demand is expected to climb 1.5 percent this year to nearly 139 billion gallons (526 billion liters) according to the government’s most recent forecasts, enough to easily accommodate small increases in ethanol quotas without breaching the so-called "blend wall" that refiners say puts a cap on blending at around 10 percent of total gasoline and diesel supply. It may be even higher, based on data from the first quarter, when gasoline use surged by more than 3 percent, the fastest in over a decade. Those calculations help explain why biofuel backers are up in arms over the Environmental Protection […]

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The U.S. oil fracker’s dilemma: crouch or pounce?

HOUSTON U.S. shale oil producers, having weathered the worst price plunge in their industry’s brief history, now face a dilemma: whether to stay in a defensive crouch after slashing their rig fleets, or start drilling more wells to capture a partial recovery in prices. In a way, the conundrum is as old as the first oil well. If producers start pumping more crude, as some executives have said they might do if prices edge a bit higher, they risk contributing to another slump in a fragile global market; if they hold back, they forego regaining revenue lost during a price slide of 60 percent that started in June. Yet it is also a changed world. For decades the global industry has been dominated by a handful of mega-majors, which made shifts to the supply and demand balance less rapid and more predictable. Today, about 100 public firms and many […]

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Easy Access to Money Keeps U.S. Oil Pumping

Wall Street’s generous supply of funds to U.S. oil drillers helped create the American energy boom. Now that same access to easy money is keeping them going, despite oil prices that are languishing around $60 a barrel. The flow of money into oil has allowed U.S. companies to avoid liquidity problems and kept American crude production from falling sharply. Even though more than half of the rigs that were drilling new wells in September have been banished to storage yards, in mid-May nearly 9.6 million barrels of oil a day were pumped across the country, the highest level since 1970, according to the most recent federal data. Helped by a ready supply of money, the flow of oil from the U.S. could keep crude prices low for the remainder of 2015 and beyond. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. As crude prices began to plunge last year, many […]

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Circle Oil Swings to Net Loss On Writeoffs, Lower Oil Price

By Alex MacDonald LONDON–Circle Oil PLC (COP.LN) said Monday it swung to a net loss last year due to exploration writeoffs and a significantly lower oil price, which prompted the company to review its cost base and consider selling stakes in assets to fund operations. The U.K.-listed oil and gas explorer, which has interests in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt, reported a net loss of $54 million for the year ending Dec 31, 2014 compared with a net profit of $29 million in the same period a year earlier. This reflected a 9% drop in revenue to $85 million largely due to lower oil prices and exploration write offs of $57 million largely focused in Oman and Tunsia. It also recorded a $14 million impairment charge on its NW Gemsa permit in Egypt. In Morocco, gross gas production was 6.46 million cubic feet per day, broadly similar to last year, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple