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Posts Tagged ‘Egypt’

Gaddafi Strikes At Oil Refinery, Escalating the War

March 10, 2011 Comments off

bigpeace.com

Libyan government warplanes have struck an oil facility near the rebel-held eastern town of Ras Lanuf during a heavy bombardment aimed at driving out opposition forces trying to topple Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The warplanes bombed the As Sidr oil facility Wednesday, causing a fire and sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Forces loyal to Gadhafi also shelled rebel positions west of Ras Lanuf, forcing the rebels to retreat. The oil port represents the front line of the rebels’ advance out of their stronghold of eastern Libya.

Libyan government forces also were tightening their siege of the western town of Zawiya, the closest rebel-held area to Gadhafi’s power base in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Residents said Gadhafi loyalists were surrounding rebels holding out in Zawiya’s central square, using snipers and tanks in the assault.

In remarks broadcast on state television Wednesday, Gadhafi called on Read more…

Categories: age of rage, Libya, Oil, Protests Tags: , , , , , , ,

Middle East Unrest Could Harm WMD-Free Zone Talks

March 9, 2011 Comments off

globalsecuritynewswire

Protesters chant slogans on Saturday during a demonstration outside an Egyptian state security building in the outskirts of Cairo. Recent political instability throughout the Middle East could complicate efforts to establish a regional weapons of mass destruction-free zone, current and former officials said (Wissam Nassar/Getty Images).

The unrest and revolutions sweeping through the Middle East have raised doubts over the potential for regional nations to hold previously planned talks focused on forming a weapons of mass destruction-free zone, Arms Control Today reported in its March issue (see GSN, March 1).

At the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference in New York, member nations agreed to hold a 2012 meeting on “the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.”

“We are absolutely committed” to the WMD-free zone meeting, White House WMD point man Gary Samore said in an interview last month. “But there’s a lot of uncertainty because of the unrest in the Middle East.”

In the last two months, longstanding regimes in Tunisia and Egypt have fallen, and protests in Libya have escalated into full-scale fighting between militants and forces loyal to Col. Muammar Qadhafi. Protests have also erupted in Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Read more…

Categories: Middle East, WMD Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

3 dead, dozens shot in Yemen unrest

March 9, 2011 Comments off

aljazeera

Many protesters are angry at widespread corruption in a country where 40 per cent live on $2 a day or less [Reuters]

Anti-government unrest continued in Yemen on Tuesday with three people reported dead in a prison riot in support of protests and dozens reported injured when police opened fire on crowds in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.

Policemen and security agents in civilian clothes opened fire as they tried to prevent people from joining thousands of protesters camped out in front of Sanaa University, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. Three of the injured were said to be in a serious condition.

Meanwhile, three prisoners at a Sanaa prison were reported killed and Read more…

Categories: Protests, Yemen Tags: , , , , , ,

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe uses fear to avoid possible protests

March 4, 2011 Comments off

www.rnw.nl

Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe is said to have deployed soldiers to control the capital amid growing insecurity by his regime which fears that the anti-government protests in the Middle East may soon catch up with Zimbabwe.

By Innocent Munetsi, Harare

Soldiers both on foot and in armored trucks have been seen patrolling in neighborhoods of the capital Harare. They have set up tents at local police stations and have created roadblocks, stopping and searching cars and everyone they meet.

Chitungwiza, a stronghold of Mugabe’s political rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, is one of the perceived hotspots that have been cordoned off by pro-Mugabe soldiers.

This is the testimony of Leonard Chuma, a resident of Chitungwiza, Harare’s satellite town situated 25 kilometres to the south:

“Soldiers weren’t spared”
“The night club entrance was sealed off. In seconds, there were dozens of soldiers inside. The DJ was ordered to stop the music and we were all ordered to lie down Read more…

Categories: Zimbabwe Tags: , , , , ,

Will $200 oil kill the economy?

March 2, 2011 Comments off

money.msn.com

Unrest in key oil-producing nations opens the door to price spikes that could push gas to $7 a gallon and spin the world back into recession. Here’s how we’d get there, and how to protect your portfolio.

Image: Oil drums © Kevin Phillips, Digital Vision, age fotostock


Are your pocketbook and portfolio ready for $200-a-barrel oil?

This kind of dramatic price spike may seem less likely now than a few days ago, with oil markets calming down a bit and the price slipping below $100. But given the instability and unrest rolling through the Middle East and North Africa, it’s a definitely a viable scenario.

For the moment, most oil sector analysts have gone off high alert because of a Saudi Arabian pledge to increase production to make up for any shortfalls sparked by unrest. But that ignores a key angle in all this: There’s simply not enough spare capacity to make up for the production losses we’d see if the rolling crises in the region hit just two or three major producers at once.

This could easily happen, given the heightened Read more…

Categories: Economy, Oil Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Biblical Prophecies Are Being Fulfilled

March 1, 2011 Comments off

examiner.com

Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. God is setting the stage for the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

God is setting the stage

Uprisings in Egypt and now Libya are setting the stage for things to come.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says similar chaos will break out in Europe and North America.  Biblically, all of this will lead to what most of us already know is coming: Read more…

Categories: Bible Prophecy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

China tamps down Middle East-inspired protests before they can gain momentum

March 1, 2011 Comments off

washingtonpost.com

The Chinese government met protesters with a show of force Sunday. In Shanghai, police converged whenever a group of more than a dozen people seemed to be forming. (Peter Parks)

BEIJING – Police and security officials displayed a show of force here and in other Chinese cities Sunday, trying to snuff out any hint of protests modeled on the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. In Shanghai, several hundred people trying to gather were dispersed with a water truck.

Premier Wen Jiabao, meanwhile, used a morning Internet chat to promise to purge senior officials who are corrupt and to rein in inflation and rising home prices, directly addressing some of the most common grievances of ordinary Chinese.

Since a January uprising in Tunisia spurred similar anti-government protests across the Arab world, threatening long-entrenched authoritarian regimes, China’s Communist rulers have reacted nervously, with both defensive and aggressive tactics.

Officials have used state-run media outlets to dismiss any comparisons of those regimes with China. At the same time, they have stepped up public comments on the need to address “social conflict” and to tackle problems such as the growing income disparity between the rich and poor. They also have Read more…

Categories: China, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Zawiyah: 30 miles from Tripoli, the city on the frontline of Libya’s revolt

February 28, 2011 Comments off
A man stands on a Libyan tank

guardian.co.uk

A man stands on a Libyan army tank manned by soldiers opposed to leader Muammar Gaddafi in the city of Zawiyah, holding a sign that reads in Arabic ‘Our demand: freedom.’ Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

“If you go down there you will meet young men with guns,” said one of the Libyan government minders. “Please be careful,” he warned.

The crossing from the territory controlled by the regime of Colonel Gaddafi to rebel-held land was a short walk, as unexpected as it was bizarre.

Bizarre, because we had been delivered to the edge of the city of Zawiyah by Gaddafi’s men, who were supposed to be showing us how far their leader’s writ still extended. Instead they let us out of our cars and made no effort to prevent us crossing to the other side.

The “down there” mentioned by the minder was a broad boulevard with barricades across the street. A man with a machine gun came out of a door, ammunition belt across his shoulder. A half hour’s drive from the centre of Tripoli and Gaddafi’s control had Read more…

Categories: age of rage, Libya, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Wikileaks, Bahrain and Saudi: Concerns over Rising Food Prices Spread

February 27, 2011 Comments off

food-prices-bahrain-saudi-wikileaks

Bahrain, which saw deadly protest this month, is eager to control the price of food according to Wikileaks

Rising food prices have been at the centre of the recent riots to hit the Arab world and so it comes as no surprise that many Arab nations are working hard to avoid similar food price rises.

According to the Wikileak revelations, Bahrain increased government subsidies in an effort to off-set rising prices for lower-income families in 2008 and has promised more generous subsidies recently. Even so, this hasn’t stopped political turmoil as the tiny Gulf state has been rocked by explosive protests this month that left seven dead and hundreds injured when troops opened fire on protesters.

Bahrain, which has a population of just over 1 million, has struggled with rising Read more…

Categories: Saudi Arabia, wikileaks Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Graph of the Amount of Oil Production Affected by Crisis

February 27, 2011 Comments off

Although Obama might not view what is happening in the Middle East as all that important- he is going to basketball games and concerts and instead directing attempts to riot in WI- I think it is very important because the Middle East region sits on a very important resource- oil. So for fun, I put together a graph this morning to demonstrate the amount of oil production that is affected by the crisis in the Middle East. The graph shows oil production by country based on the most recent data I found in the CIA World Factbook, and shows each nation currently in crisis or about to be in crisis, and then the gray area represents all other nations not currently affected.

Any change in oil production likely will cause the price of gasoline to go up, and as you can see, a large percentage of the world’s oil comes out of this affected region, although if Saudi Arabia stays stable, then the percentages is considerably less although still significant. In my amateur opinion, gas prices are going to rise, the economy will dip again, and Obama will react to this all by supporting our enemies and lowering our oil output. Here is the graph:

Categories: Middle East, Oil, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,