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Posts Tagged ‘Yemen’

Djibouti evicts US vote group ahead of election

March 18, 2011 Comments off

Djibouti’s government has kicked out an American election monitoring group less than a month before the nation’s presidential election, a vote opposition politicians are boycotting because they say the president is repressing dissent.

Djibouti is a tiny East African nation that hosts the only U.S. military base in Africa. Situated on the Gulf of Aden between Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen, the city-state is a major shipping hub in a volatile region.

The country is nominally democratic, but events leading up to the April 8 presidential election appear to show a hardline approach by President Ismail Omar Guelleh at a time when democracy movements are upending administrations.

Democracy International, a U.S. group that works on democracy and governance programs, was halfway through a two-year, $2.2 million U.S. government-funded contract when it was accused of assisting opposition politicians and barred from the country earlier this month. Read more…

Categories: Djibouti Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

‘The West is to be forgotten. We will not give them our oil’ – Gaddafi

March 17, 2011 Comments off

This is just the first step in a long line for the US on not receiving any oil that is pumped from any country in the Middle East resulting in third world status.  Lindsey Williams mentioned it on the Alex Jones Show almost a month ago.

http://rt.com/news/libya-oil-gaddafi-arab/

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi dismissed his Western partners in an exclusive interview to RT, saying he will give all the country’s oil contracts to Russia, China and India.

“We do not believe the West any longer, that is why we invite Russian, Chinese and Indian companies to invest in Libya’s oil and construction spheres” Gaddafi told RT in an exclusive interview about how he sees the current situation in Libya and the international reaction to events there.

“He condemned the Western powers, saying Germany was the only country with a chance of doing business with Libyan oil in the future. “We do not trust their firms – they took part in the conspiracy against us.”

The Libyan leader also added that as far as he is concerned, the Arab League has ceased to exist since it stood up against his country.

According to Gaddafi, the recent upheavals in his country were a “minor event” planned by Al Qaeda that will soon end.

Meanwile, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim promised that Libya will honor Read more…

Categories: Libya, Oil, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saudi Arabian security forces quell ‘day of rage’ protests

March 12, 2011 Comments off

guardian.co.uk

Saudi Saudi policemen form a check point near the site where a demonstration was expected to take place in Riyadh on Friday. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

Saudi security forces came out in strength in Riyadh on a “day of rage” organised by pro-democracy campaigners who managed only small demonstrations in the eastern provinces.

Expectations that the unrest sweeping the Arab world in the last few weeks would spread to its most conservative kingdom appeared to have been dashed by pre-emptive security measures and stern official warnings against any protests.

Far larger demonstrations rocked Yemen, where tens of thousands of pro and anti-government protesters took to the streets as President Ali Abdullah Saleh struggled to maintain his grip.

Clashes broke out in Read more…

Categories: days of rage, Saudi Arabia Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Oil-Food Price Shock

March 11, 2011 Comments off

thenation.com

When future historians attempt to trace the origins of the current turmoil in the Middle East, they will find that one of the earliest of the many explosions of rage occurred in Algeria and was triggered by the rising price of food. On January 5, young protesters in Algiers, Oran and other major cities blocked roads, attacked police stations and burned stores in demonstrations against soaring food prices. Other concerns—high unemployment, pervasive corruption, lack of housing—also aroused their ire, but food costs provided the original impulse. As the epicenter of youthful protest moved elsewhere, first to Tunisia and then to Egypt and other countries, the food price issue was subordinated to more explicitly political demands, but it never disappeared. Indeed, the rising cost of food has been a major theme of anti government demonstrations in Jordan, Sudan and Yemen. With the price of most staples still climbing—spurred in part by a parallel surge in oil costs—more such protests are bound to occur.

Whatever the outcome of the protests, uprisings and rebellions now sweeping the Middle East, one thing is guaranteed: the world of oil will be permanently transformed.

From crippling droughts in the Ukraine and Russia to region-shaking unrest in Tunisia, rising commodity prices and extreme weather events are already threatening Read more…

Categories: Food, Food Crisis, Oil, World Events 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: , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ethiopia will soon arise to protest

February 25, 2011 Comments off

abugidainfo.com

WINDS OF CHANGE CONTINUES BLOWING Major developments in 6 African countries and other Arab nations. And Ethiopians fate!

Today, the drama of utmost importance is underway in different parts of the world, specially, in the North African countries. After its beginning in Tunisia, the flammable and miserable peoples voices is fast circulating from country to country. The basic demands of peoples of these nations is clear; the quest for better living conditions, jobs, respect of human and democratic rights and so on.

What makes special the current movement in Africa and the Arab world is women’s and children’s gather out in the streets to oppose the rotten regime of their country. More of less the peaceful demonstration were carried out with fruitful results in Egypt and Tunisia. On the other way, in LIBYA and Lebanon the governments use machine guns to disperse protesters. A people went out bare handed shot by government mercenaries. Though, the protesters are still going on. as the Tunisian protests were still escalating,

What we are observing in North Africa and Middle East are the results of unfolded dramas left on the society for decades. The Bahrain and Libyan Governments uses their special forces to disperse the protesters. They come up against the protesters by hiring foreign mercenaries to fire against the peaceful demonstrators.

Let’s see the blowing winds of change in these Countries

TUNISIA: When the demonstrations started on 17 December, It wasn’t expected. Just before the December protests began, WikiLeaks released internal U.S. State Department communications in Read more…

Categories: Ethiopia, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As Arab world shakes, Iran’s influence grows

February 24, 2011 1 comment

Michael Slackman

New York Times

MANAMA, Bahrain — The popular revolts shaking the Arab world have begun to shift the balance of power in the region, bolstering Iran’s position while weakening and unnerving its rival, Saudi Arabia, regional experts said.

While it is far too soon to write the final chapter on the uprisings’ impact, Iran already has benefited from the ouster or undermining of Arab leaders who were its strong adversaries and has begun to project its growing influence, the analysts said. This week Iran sent two warships through the Suez Canal for the first time since its revolution in 1979, and Egypt’s new military leaders allowed them to pass.

Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally and a Sunni nation that jousts with Shiite Iran for regional influence, has been shaken. King Abdullah on Wednesday signaled his concern by announcing a $10 billion increase in welfare spending to help young people marry, buy homes and open businesses, a gesture seen as trying to head off the kind of unrest that fueled protests around Read more…

Categories: Iran, Middle East Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

China cracks down on call for ‘Jasmine Revolution’

February 19, 2011 Comments off

By CARA ANNA

The Associated Press
Saturday, February 19, 2011; 10:05 AM

BEIJING — Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a “Jasmine Revolution.”

The source of the call was not known, but authorities moved to halt its spread online. Searches for the word “jasmine” were blocked Saturday on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog, and the website where the request first appeared said it was hit by an attack.

Activists seemed not to know what to make of the call to protest, even as they passed it on. They said they were unaware of any known group being involved in the request for citizens to gather in 13 cities and shout “We want food, we want work, we want Read more…

Categories: asia, China, Food, Food Crisis, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,