Category:

Rapid Population Growth Imperils Egypt

The world’s population broke the 7 billion person barrier in 2011 and is projected to increase by 40 percent in the coming forty years. Population growth averages vary among the world’s nations, with the populations of developed nations expected to increase by just 10 percent, and the greater part of population growth expected to come from developing nations, especially the least developed, where population is expected to double in the coming four decades. So what about Egypt’s population outlook? Egyptian census data shows that in 1948, Egypt’s population reached nearly twenty million, added another twenty million by 1975, twenty million more by 1994, with the populace reaching sixty million. Another twenty million over the next seventeen years means eighty million Egyptians by 2011. Egyptians needed thousands of years to reach the first twenty million, before managing to double several times in a few years, without creating a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya’s Oil Sales Constrained as Eastern Ports Remain Shut

A Libyan rebel leader refused to hand over control of three oil ports to the government, keeping a lid on the North African nation’s crude sales in a development that shored up international prices. Ibrahim Al Jedran told a news conference yesterday that the oil export terminals of Es Sider, Ras Lanuf and Zueitina, closed since the end of July, will remain shut after the authorities rejected his conditions, including a demand to share oil revenue with his self-proclaimed government in the east. “We failed in making our conditions implemented, so we confirm that we won’t open the oil ports,” he said, speaking in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. “We now officially mandate the Executive Bureau of the Cyrenaica Region to start what it has been tasked with and preserve this wealth,” he said, signaling that the eastern region known as Cyrenaica may […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya faces economc dangers over oil shutdown

The six-month shutdown of Libya’s oil industry by rogue militias and disgruntled tribesmen has forced the government to dip into the country’s foreign reserves, a move that will likely exacerbate the political turmoil that led to the shutdown if no settlement is soon found. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said he expects three Libyan oil ports on the Mediterranean to reopen Sunday, allowing vital exports to resume, restoring the flow of state revenues. This followed negotiations with tribal leaders in the east, the crucible of the unrest that followed the fall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in August 2011. But Ibrahim Jadran, the charismatic warlord in eastern Libya where 60 percent of the country’s oil is, said that won’t happen unless the government meets his demands for a larger share of oil revenue for the increasingly lawless region and more political power. Zeidan flatly […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libyan Ports That Buoyed Brent Crude Seen Opening in Days

Ports in eastern Libya that helped boost international oil prices when they were halted four months ago are within days of reopening, the head of the nation’s energy-protection force said. Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, with combined capacity of 600,000 barrels a day, and a third port, Zueitina, will reopen on Dec. 15, Idris Bukhamada, head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard, a group that protects Libya’s oil installations, said by phone from Ajdabiya today. Ibrahim Al Jedran, a former regional PFG commander whose men blockaded the terminals, agreed to the resumption after intervention by the Al Magharba tribe, Bukhamada said. Al Jedran himself said resumption depends on certain conditions being met. Disrupted exports from Libya has helped buoy the price of Brent crude , a global benchmark, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the International Energy Agency . Brent’s premium over U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate narrowed to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

A year after Benghazi attack, killings continue

Who lit the fire that claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and another American at the U.S. diplomatic mission here just over a year ago? Who launched the mortar rounds that killed two CIA contractors that same night? Or, for that matter, who bears responsibility for the 2011 torture and killing of Abdul Fattah Younis, the Gaddafi-era military commander who defected to lead the rebels? “Do you live on Mars?” asked Hashem Bishr, the hard-line Salafist leader of a powerful Tripoli militia. To understand Libya’s unsolved murder mysteries, understand this, Bishr said: “It’s just not a good time.” What he meant is that there are people who know the answers — they’re just not willing to share. Nor is the fragile, post-revolution government prepared to mete out justice, many Libyans and rights groups say. Tripoli’s weak authorities have promised to investigate the killings. “But until now, there […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Egypt jails girls over pro-Morsi demonstration

A court in Egypt has sentenced 21 female supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi to 11 years in prison. They were found guilty of multiple charges, including belonging to a terrorist group, obstructing traffic, sabotage and using force at a protest in the city of Alexandria last month. Seven are under 18 years of age and will be sent to a juvenile prison. Human rights groups criticised the sentences, with one campaigner describing the verdict as madness. The women and girls had taken part in an early morning demonstration in support of Mr Morsi. Relatives say it was the first protest by the group, called the 7am movement, and that it was peaceful. One family told the BBC their 15-year-old daughter was only passing by on her way to school. A defence lawyer said the women expected to be sentenced to a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Egyptian Riot Police Attack Peaceful Protests in Cairo

The riot police brought a violent end to peaceful protests here on Tuesday, beating, sexually harassing and detaining some of Egypt’s most prominent human rights activists in a burst of repression that seemed likely to broaden opposition to the military-backed government. The crackdown was the highest-profile police action against non-Islamist protesters since July 3, when the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi , setting off months of bloody civil conflict between Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters and the state. While the deadly repression of Islamists in recent months has evoked little sympathy from the public or consternation among officials, the violence on Tuesday posed a bigger threat to the government, which has relied on support from non-Islamists. In scenes that spread on social media, activists who have played central roles in Egypt’s post-revolt struggles were manhandled and groped by officers, some in plain clothes, and shoved into police vans. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Egypt: 24 activists detained for holding protest

Egypt’s state news agency says the prosecutor general has ordered a four-day detention for 24 activists detained while protesting a newly passed law criminalizing demonstrations without permits. MENA also says the prosecutor on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for two leading activists accused of inciting demonstrators. He also released more than 10 female protesters. Witnesses say the women were released in the desert in the middle of the night. On Tuesday, security forces used water cannons to break up the demonstration outside Cairo’s upper house of parliament, where protesters denounced a proposed constitutional amendment allowing military courts to try civilians. Many observers said police behavior was reminiscent of the days former President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s longtime autocrat ousted in 2011.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Militia in Benghazi Flees After Deadly Gun Battle

CAIRO — A militia in Benghazi, Libya, tied to the killing of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens fled its headquarters on Monday after an hourslong gun battle with a local military unit, a potential turning point in a continuing struggle between Islamists and their foes for control of the city. At least nine people were killed and more than 50 were wounded, health officials said, as the battle flared out across Benghazi, beginning before dawn. Stores and schools were closed. The local authorities advised residents to stay in their homes and avoid the streets. And by late afternoon, the militia, Ansar al-Shariah, appeared to have disappeared underground. Photographs circulated over the Internet that appeared to show its headquarters emptied and smoking, with the wreckage of a burned-out car sitting outside. The melee followed the deaths of more than 40 people in a similar battle in Tripoli this month, when militiamen […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Egypt’s Government Struggles to Gain Footing as Dissent Grows

When the new military-backed Egyptian government lifted a nationwide state of emergency more than 10 days ago, it seemed to be proclaiming a momentary victory in the battle with its principal foe, the Muslim Brotherhood, whose regular protests had begun to wither. But the government’s problems hardly abated. In brazen and occasionally spectacular attacks, militants have stepped up a campaign of assassinations and bombings aimed at the security services. Non-Islamist critics have accused the government of incompetence or growing authoritarianism, potentially broadening the opposition beyond supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the deposed Islamist president. At the same time, unrest has begun to surface in different places, lately sweeping up Islamist students on university campuses. And notably, small cracks have begun to appear in the coalition that supported the ouster of Mr. Morsi as the government has faced anger from recent allies and rare criticism in the once-fawning local […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple