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Battle of the Nile: Egypt, Ethiopia clash over mega-dam

Egypt and Ethiopia remain at loggerheads over Addis Ababa’s plan to build a $4.2 billion, 6,000-megawatt dam on a major tributary of the Nile River that Cairo says will greatly reduce the flow of water that is Egypt’s lifeline. Tension between the two African states rose sharply in January after Ethiopia rejected Egypt’s demand it suspend construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the 4,130-mile river, the world’s longest. Egypt has vowed to protect its "historical rights" to the Nile "at any cost" and says it could lose 20 percent of its water if the giant dam in northwestern Ethiopia, one of several hydroelectric projects planned by Addis Ababa, is completed. "It would be a disaster for Egypt," Mohamed Nasr Allam, a former Egyptian water minister, lamented to the Guardian daily of London in 2013. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Jihadist Return Is Said to Drive Attacks in Egypt

In just the last two weeks, Islamist militants have detonated a car bomb at the gates of the capital’s security headquarters, gunned down a senior Interior Ministry official in broad daylight and shot down a military helicopter over Sinai with a portable surface-to-air missile. But perhaps most alarming to officials in Cairo and Washington are the signs that the swift increase in the scale and effectiveness of the attacks may come from a new influx of fighters: Egyptians returning from jihad abroad to join a campaign of terrorism against the military-backed government. “Egypt is again an open front for jihad,” said Brian Fishman, a researcher in counterterrorism at the New America Foundation in Washington. “The world is being […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Apache Corp. keen on investing in Egypt, official says

Egypt’s oil and gas resources provide "continued opportunity for profitable investment," said Thomas Maher of Apache Corp. The U.S. company has 27 drilling rigs and 5 million acres targeted for exploration in Egypt’s Western Desert. "Apache sees continued opportunity for profitable investment developing Egypt’s oil and gas resources," Maher, a company general manager for Egypt, said in a statement Thursday. The company, which has headquarters in Texas, said some of its latest operations are already producing, or have discovered, oil and natural gas. Last year, Apache drilled more than 250 wells in the region. For the third quarter, the last full quarter for which data are available, gross production averaged 346,530 barrels of oil equivalent per day,Apache said. British energy company BG Group said Monday it declared force majeure in Egypt, meaning it’s unable to meet certain contractual obligations because of circumstances beyond its […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egypt’s Ruler Eyes Riskier Role: The Presidency

When Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, named Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi defense minister, the officer pledged to keep the military out of politics and make way for civilian democracy. A year later, General Sisi ousted Mr. Morsi, insisting the military was answering the people’s call to secure “their revolution.” Just three weeks later, he once again said he was turning to the people when he urged them to take to the streets to give him a personal “mandate” to crush Mr. Morsi’s base of support in the Muslim Brotherhood. Then on Monday, Field Marshal Sisi — he added the title the same day — took the first formal step to become Egypt’s next president, insisting he was yielding once again to “the free choice of the masses” and “the call of duty.” With that, […]

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BG Group blames Egypt for poor performance

British energy company BG Group said Monday ongoing problems in Egypt were in part responsible for its decline in natural gas volumes. BG Group said Monday it declared force majeure in Egypt, meaning it’s unable to meet certain contractual obligations because of circumstances beyond its control. "We have elected to issue force majeure notices in Egypt reflecting the ongoing diversions of gas volumes to the domestic market," BG Group Chief Executive Officer Chris Finlayson said in a statement. The company said its financial performance was impacted by the "difficult operating environment in Egypt," as well as lower gas prices in the United States. It added the interim Egyptian government hasn’t honored agreements on the company’s share of natural gas from Egyptian fields, saying diversions into the domestic market during the fourth quarter of 2013 were higher than expected. The company said its 2014 production […]

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BG Group Declares Force Majeure in Egypt, Expects Flat Earnings For 2013

BG Group PLC (BG.LN) Monday provided guidance for 2013 earnings and said that it has issued force majeure notices under its LNG agreements in Egypt due to diversions of gas volumes to the domestic market in excess of the existing arrangements The natural gas company expects to report full year 2013 production volume of 633,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or kboed, in line with its previous guidance. The company said that 2013 business performance earnings, or earnings before disposals, impairments and certain other items, is expected to be flat at $4.4 billion, or 130 cents per share. Total results earnings, after impairments, is expected to be $2.2 billion, or 65 cents per share. The Berkshire, U.K., headquartered company expects to record total non-cash, post-tax impairments of $2.4 billion in 2013. BG Group also said that 2014 production volumes are expected in the range of 590 kboed and […]

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Militants Down Egyptian Helicopter, Killing 5 Soldiers

Islamist militants shot down an Egyptian military helicopter in the Sinai Peninsula with a surface-to-air missile over the weekend, raising new alarms about the terrorist insurgency that developed there in response to the military takeover last summer. The attack — described by witnesses, documented in a video released by the militants, and confirmed by three people briefed on the Egyptian government’s investigation — validated longstanding fears that such weapons would spill into Egypt and beyond after the Libyan civil war tore open Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s fearsome arsenals. Known as manpads, for man-portable air defense systems, the missiles can bring down commercial airliners if they are flying at low altitude, as during […]

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After Bombings, Cairo Anxious 3 Years After Egyptian Uprising

After the first explosion in Cairo on Friday, supporters of Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi gathered outside Abdeen Palace. Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters CAIRO — The capital was empty and anxious Saturday morning on the third anniversary of the Egyptian uprising as the residents braced for rival demonstrations for and against the current military-backed government amid renewed fears of violence. Families stayed close to home and some public facilities closed, reeling in the aftermath of four bombings on Friday that killed six people and terrified the city. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based militant Islamist group that has raised the banner of armed insurgency against the new government, appeared to claim responsibility for the four bombings, including a powerful car bomb in front of a security headquarters and three smaller attacks on police. By 8 a.m. Saturday morning, another small bomb had exploded near a police training facility but officials said it […]

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Four more Egyptian embassy staff kidnapped in Libya: government

Four Egyptian embassy staff were kidnapped in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Saturday, a day after another Egyptian diplomat was seized there by gunmen, the Libyan government said. No group claimed responsibility for any of the abductions, but they came soon after a powerful Libyan militia reported its leader had been arrested in Cairo and threatened to retaliate. "Four more have been kidnapped. One of them is the cultural attache and the other three are staff," the Libyan Foreign Ministry spokesman said, without going into further details. Two years after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall, Libya is still in flux with the government struggling to control heavily-armed former rebels, militias and Islamist militants who fought in the uprising but often challenge Tripoli’s authority. One militia group, the Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries, said on Friday its leader Shaban Hadia had been arrested in Egypt, where he had been travelling […]

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Suicide car bomber targets Cairo police HQ, kills at least four

A suicide car bomber blew himself up in the parking lot of a top security compound in central Cairo on Friday, killing at least four people in one of the most high-profile attacks on the state in months, security sources said. The early morning explosion damaged the Cairo Security Directorate, which includes police and state security, and sent smoke rising over the capital, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is gathering pace. Hours after the attack, a crude explosive device killed one policeman and wounded nine others in another Cairo neighborhood, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Security sources said a person driving past security vehicles threw a hand grenade in their direction. The dead from the first blast included three policemen, security sources said. State television quoted the Cairo governor as saying 50 people were wounded. Reuters witnesses heard gunfire immediately after the blast, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple