Category: World

Oil sinks on hopes of Iran deal

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday on high hopes for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program and increased Iranian crude-oil exports.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery settled down 0.48% at $47.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent, the global benchmark, slid 0.14%, to $56.13 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

Both benchmarks fell for the third straight quarter on expectations of a final deal on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions on Tehran. Market analysts say additional oil supplies from Iran would flood an already-oversupplied market and push prices even lower.

Crude prices have dropped more than 50% from their mid-June high due to growing production and lackluster demand.
Talks between Iran and six world powers to settle a dispute around Tehran’s nuclear program extended beyond a Tuesday deadline, as the parties moved towards a deal but failed to agree to crucial details such as the lifting of UN sanctions.

Efforts to reach a framework deal were scheduled to continue on Wednesday in the Swiss city of Lausanne.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a general agreement had been reached on all key aspects of a future deal.

“If the flood gates to Iranian crude open, (prices) will probably test this year’s lows again,” Phillip Futures analyst Daniel Ang told Reuters.

Iran’s oil production is expected to rise by around 500,000 barrels per day within six months if sanctions are removed, and by a further 700,000bpd within another year.

Source: Sputnik News

Nuclear deal with Iran reached says Russian diplomat

The P5+1 group and Iran agreed on all key aspects and are due to start drafting preliminary deal on Tehran’s nuclear program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

“We can quite certainly say that on all the key aspects of final settlement of this problem, the ministers have reached principal consent that will be, hopefully in the next hours, maybe a day, put on the paper. The experts were tasked with this,” Lavrov told reporters Wednesday.

Lavrov also said that the preliminary agreement on Iran’s nuclear program will include verification mechanisms guaranteeing peaceful nature of Tehran’s nuke and stipulate lifting sanctions.

However, clearing the “technical details” of a final deal may take until June, he added.

Tehran also hopes that a draft agreement will soon be finalized, with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif saying the sides will “hopefully start drafting tomorrow.”

The White House announced that US President Barack Obama received an update on the talks from his national security team via a video teleconference, but did not give any details.

The deal would put restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities, which would prevent it from rushing towards nuclear capability while allowing it to develop a civilian nuclear industry.

A diplomat close to negotiations meanwhile told Reuters it was “not true” that agreement was reached on all key issues, without specifying any stumbling blocks that remain.

A draft document could soon be approved by the sides, a diplomatic source close to negotiations told journalists earlier, not specifying whether it would be a joint statement or a draft resolution.

Hundreds of new Ebola cases suspected in Sierre Leone

A three-day lockdown in Sierra Leone has exposed hundreds of potential new cases of Ebola, aiding efforts to bring to an end an epidemic that has already killed 3,000 people in the country.

Officials ordered the country’s 6 million residents to stay indoors or face arrest during the period that ended late on Sunday as hundreds of health officials went door-to-door looking for hidden patients and educating residents about the virus.

Reports to authorities of sick people increased by 191 percent in Western Area, which includes the capital, during the lockdown compared with the previous weekend, said Obi Sesay of the National Ebola Response Center.

“Tests are being carried out on their blood samples, and the results will be in by Wednesday,” Sesay said, adding that 173 of the patients in Freetown met an initial case definition for Ebola.

In the rest of the country, there was a 50 percent increase in sick people reported in the lockdown’s first two days, Sesay said.

Sierra Leone has reported nearly 12,000 cases since the worst Ebola epidemic in history was detected in neighboring Guinea a year ago. In all, more than 10,000 people have died in the two countries plus Liberia.

New cases have fallen since a peak of more than 500 a week in December, but the government said the lockdown, its second, would help identify the last cases and reduce complacency.

A source who declined to be identified said there were 961 death alerts nationwide during the lockdown’s first two days and 495 reports of illness of which 235 were suspected Ebola.

Source: Reuters

Surf’s up: Antibiotic-resistant E.coli invading UK beaches

Perhaps it’s not too much of a surprise to learn that there’s a strong correlation between spending time in not-particularly-clean water and exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This is the revelation of a study presented Monday at the Society for General Microbiology’s Annual Conference, which estimates that swimmers, surfers, and other folks splashing around in the waters off England and Wales ingested antibiotic-resistant strains of Escherichia coli more than six million times in 2012.

The estimate is based on water samples taken from “coastal bathing waters” and varying estimates of incidental or accidental water swallowing involved with different water sports, including swimming and surfing.

According to the paper from a team at the University of Exeter Medical School, antibiotic-resistant E. coli is a reasonably rare phenomenon, accounting for about .12 percent of all E. coli found in the coastal waters in question. This becomes nontrivial with more exposures, which is a product of both the type of water activity and its frequency. For example, a surfer will certainly ingest more water and more resistant bacteria than a kayaker.

The strains of E. coli covered in the study are actually resistant to a whole class of antibiotics known as the third-generation cephalosporins. These are some of the most popular (overpopular, really) antibiotics out there, and this makes them especially vulnerable to emerging resistance.

E. coli, meanwhile, is a classic example of two-faced bacteria, with some strains existing harmlessly in the human gut and other virulent strains posing real dangers to humans in the form of food poisoning and diarrhea, as well as gnarlier stuff like bacterial pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and beyond. E. coli also happens to be rather adept at passing its own developed antibiotic resistance to bigger villains like Staphylococcus aureus through a process known as horizontal gene transfer.​

“We know very little about how the natural environment can spread antibiotic resistant bacteria to humans, or how our exposure to these microbes can affect health,” offered co-author William Gaze in a statement. “People are exposed to antibiotic resistant bacteria in many ways, through person-to-person contact, via food and as a result of international travel.”

“Our research establishes recreational use of coastal waters as an additional route of exposure,” Gaze said. “With millions of people visiting beaches in England and Wales each year, there is a risk of people ingesting 3GC resistant E. coli, and it looks like water-users’ exposure to all resistant bacteria could be even higher.”

Source: Motherboard

Boeing flight diverted after bomb scare

A Boeing en route from Istanbul to Sao Paulo, declared an emergency and diverted to Casablanca, Morocco.

A Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300 with 256 passengers on board en route from Istanbul to Sao Paulo declared an emergency and diverted to Casablanca, a spokeswoman for the airline said.

Passengers have been evacuated, according to the recent reports. A search to find any explosive device was underway.

According to AirLive’s Twitter, a note reading “Bomb” was found at the airplane’s toilet cabin.

The airliner landed safely in Casablanca at 12:30 GMT. Prior to that, all flights were diverted from the Casablanca airport, Sputnik reported.

Indian warplanes go missing in Ukraine

Five of India’s 40 AN-32 military transport aircrafts being upgraded in Ukraine have gone missing “without a trace”; Ukrainian diplomat says the government is unable to help.

India says five of its 40 AN-32 military transport aircrafts have gone missing “without a trace” while the planes underwent upgrades in Ukraine, Sputnik reported.

“These five aircraft are almost lost as it is difficult to trace them and diplomatic efforts to find their whereabouts have failed,” the website DefenseNews quotes an Indian Air Force official as saying.

In 2009, India signed a contract with Ukraine’s state-owned arms trading agency, Ukrspetsexport Corp., to upgrade its 104 AN-32 transport aircrafts at a cost of US $400 million, as the fleet had reached its life expectancy.
The upgrade program started in 2011 and was set to run through 2017.

Under the deal, the modernization of 40 warplanes should have been completed in Ukraine at Kiev-based Antonov State Co. facilities, while the 64 others were set to be upgraded in India at the Air Force’s Kanpur-based base, under a technology transfer from Ukraine.

Out of 40 warplanes sent to Kiev, only 35 made their way back home. The remaining five have been “lost without trace”.

With votes in, dangerous part of Nigerian elections begins

After waiting in long lines around the country over the past two days to vote, Nigerians are engaged in another long wait—to find out who will lead their country for the next four years. Both incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan and challenger retired general Muhammadu Buhari claim early leads.

Millions of people waited patiently to cast their votes for hours due to delays caused by various technical issues. Most notable were difficulties with a new personal voter card reader technology, which prompted the embarrassing spectacle of president Jonathan being unable to vote initially on Saturday morning.

The wait, of more than 48 hours after voting began, is causing tensions to rise. Voters in some areas of the country are worried that what has been a remarkably transparent process on the ground could be vulnerable to vote tampering at the national level.

Ultimately, the sooner results are announced, and Nigerians convinced the elections were fair and free, the better the chances the country has of avoiding violence and disruption.

The elections have so far been widely lauded as a success by both Nigerian and international observers including the United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

Yet, the most dangerous period in Nigeria’s electoral process is right after results are announced. In 2011 more than 800 people were killed in post-election violence.

Yemeni leader flees while Saudi Arabia continues with air strikes

Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi left his refuge in Aden for Saudi Arabia on Thursday as Houthi rebels battled with his forces on the outskirts of the southern port city.

Throughout the day, warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies struck at the Shi’ite Houthis and allied army units, who have taken over much of the country and seek to oust Hadi.

Warplanes resumed bombing the Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Thursday evening, shaking whole neighborhoods and terrifying residents. Several civilians have been reported killed in Sanaa.

“My whole family and I are preparing to sleep in the basement, as it’s the safest part of the house,” said resident Fawzia Nedras.

“The windows are rattling and we think they may break. We live near the airport, where we think a lot of the Houthi leaders are living and many of the air strikes are.”

Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said in a televised speech Yemenis would confront the “criminal, unjust and unjustified aggression” by Saudi Arabia.

Residents and security officials said the second night of air strikes throughout Yemen targeted air and ground force bases loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces have bolstered the Houthi advance.

The Saudi-led military intervention marked a major escalation of the Yemen crisis, in which Iran supports the Shi’ite Muslim Houthis, and Sunni Muslim monarchies in the Gulf back Hadi and his fellow Sunnis in Yemen’s south.

Iran denounced the surprise assault on the Houthis and demanded an immediate halt to Saudi-led military operations.

Tehran also made clear Saudi Arabia’s deployment of a coalition of Sunni states against its Shi’ite enemies would inflame the sectarian hatreds already fuelling wars around the Middle East.

Hadi’s departure under Saudi protection from Aden, his embattled base since fleeing Sanaa in February, could be a turning point.

Saudi state news showed pictures of Hadi smiling and holding hands with the Saudi defense minister receiving him at an airport in the capital Riyadh and said he would go on to Egypt to attend an Arab summit on Saturday.

Mohammed Marem, the director of Hadi’s office, confirmed he would attend the meeting in person, dropping his original plan to address it via video link.

Hadi would seek a “Marshall Plan” from Arab leaders to aid his war-torn country, his foreign minister Riyadh Yaseen told pan-Arab Al Jazeera TV, referring to a major economic stimulus for Europe after World War Two.

It was far from certain whether Hadi would be able to return to Aden.

On the city’s northern outskirts, Houthis and allied troops fought gun battles with militiamen loyal to Hadi. Thirteen pro-Houthi fighters and three militiamen were killed and several others were killed in running street fights in nearby towns.

Pro-Hadi fighters retook Aden airport, a day after it was captured by Houthi forces. The facility remained closed.

Major gamble

The Saudi move was a major gamble by the world’s top oil exporter to check Iranian influence in its backyard without direct military backing from Washington.

“We will do whatever it takes in order to protect the legitimate government of Yemen from falling,” Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, told a news conference in Washington.

In Sanaa, which the Houthis seized in September, warplanes earlier bombed the main airport and al Dulaimi military air base, residents said.

A Reuters witness said four or five houses had been damaged. Rescue workers put the death toll at 13, including a doctor pulled from the rubble of his clinic.

Warplanes also struck Houthi fighters near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, tribal and Houthi sources said. There was heavy street fighting in Houta, north of Aden, in which five pro-Houthi fighters and four militiamen were killed.

Thousands of Houthi supporters gathered to condemn the air strikes at the gate to Sanaa’s old city, waving Houthi banners and chanting “Death to America!”

Al-Arabiya said Saudi Arabia was contributing 100 warplanes to operation “Storm of Resolve” and more than 85 were being provided by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan.

Egyptian air forces were participating and four naval ships headed to secure the Gulf of Aden. Turkey said it might provide logistical support.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said later Iran had been trying to dominate the Middle East.

“It is really not possible to tolerate this. Iran has to understand,” he said, adding Tehran should withdraw any forces it had in Yemen as well as from Syria and Iraq.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said any threat to Saudi Arabia would “evoke a strong response” from Islamabad.

Pakistan, which borders eastern Iran, said it was considering a Saudi request that it send troops to Yemen.

Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the operation, told a news conference:

“There are no plans at this stage for ground forces operations, but if the need arises, the Saudi ground forces and those of the friends and sisterly forces are ready and will repel any aggression.”

Arab foreign ministers agreed in Egypt on Thursday on a draft resolution to form a unified Arab military force.

“The task of the force will be rapid military intervention to deal with security threats to Arab nations,” Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called for an immediate cessation of military activities in Yemen in phone conversations with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, the Kremlin said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised Yemen on Thursday with his Iranian counterpart before turning to nuclear negotiations in Switzerland.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry demanded an immediate halt to the “aggression and air strikes” in Yemen.

“Military actions in Yemen … will further complicate the situation,” ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, quoted by Fars news agency.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters: “Iran will use all possible political ways to allay tension in Yemen. Military intervention is not an option for Tehran.”

Riyadh accuses Iran of stirring up sectarian strife throughout the region and in Yemen with its support for the Houthis. Iran denies funding and training the Houthis.

Ambassador Jubeir said the assaults were in response to a request by Hadi. Washington said it supported the operation and had authorized U.S. logistical and intelligence support.

A widening Yemen conflict could disrupt the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait, through which nearly 4 million barrels of oil are shipped daily to Europe, the United States and Asia. Oil prices surged as much as 6 percent on Thursday.

Yemen closed its main ports. The U.S. military said it would help ensure the strait at the tip of the Red Sea remains open. -Reuters

Saudi Arabia launches military operation in Yemen

A massive escalation of the tribal conflict in Yemen has brought the region closer to an all-out war.

The Shi’ite Houthi rebels have ousted the sitting president and control large parts of the country, a move that riled Saudi-Arabia.

Airstrikes by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, supported by Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Pakistan, Jordan
Saudi-Arabia are concentrating 150,000 troops near the Saudi-Yemenite border.

The US was informed in advance and supports the operation. The Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthis in Yemen has been called “Decisive Storm”.

Saudi Arabia has warned international shipping firms not to approach any Yemenite harbor while Houthi rebels have threatened to escalate and push the entire region into a hot war.

With the military campaign initiated by Saudi Arabia, the risk of an escalation of the conflict with Iran grows as Saudi Arabia is an American ally.

In a sign of the broadening scope of Barack Obama’s intervention across the region, officials in Washington said the US was establishing a “joint planning cell” with Saudi Arabia to co-ordinate the air strikes on the Houthi forces.

A widening Yemen conflict could pose risks for global oil supplies, and Brent crude oil prices shot up nearly 6% soon after the operation began.

Judge admits BBC had advance knowledge of 9/11

A British judge ruled in favor of a UK citizen who said that the BBC’s premature announcement of the collapse of WTC Building 7 proved advance notice and constitutes a violation of the UK Terrorism Act as the BBC did not report to authorities that the BBC was told the building was down before the event happened.

Tony Rooke, in an act of civil disobedience, refused to pay the mandatory £130 TV license fee claiming it violates Section 15 of the Terrorism Act.

Rooke’s accusation was aimed at the BBC who reported the collapse of WTC 7 over 20 minutes before it actually fell, and the judge accepted Rooke’s argument.

While it was not a public inquiry into 9/11, the recognition of the BBC’s actions on September 11th are considered a small victory by people who believe the attack was orchestrated.

Under UK law the police have to investigate, but Washington’s sock puppet Cameron will invoke “national security” to block the police investigation of the BBC’s advance notice.

The fact that the BBC reported the collapse of WTC 7 twenty-three minutes before it actually fell indicates that the UK was aware of the attacks on 9/11 before they actually happened. The direct implication is that they were working with the terrorists.

The notion that the UK would fund terrorists and terrorism, is nothing new. They openly boast today about having funded black terror to overthrow the white Apartheid government.

The Apartheid government initially refused to negotiate with internationally listed terrorists, but after moderate black supporters were “necklaced” by Anglo-funded terrorists and the prime minister PW Botha poisoned, the groundwork was laid for the first “colour revolution” by Anglo-American powers.

ISIS blast kills 142 in Yemen

At least 142 people were killed when four suicide bombers blew themselves up in two mosques in the Yemeni capital Sanaa during Friday prayers, AFP reported.

Both mosques are known to be used mainly by supporters of the Shiite Muslim Houthi group which has seized control of the government.

The Islamic State group, an al Qaeda offshoot of Sunni extremists, claimed responsibility for the attacks, Reuters and AFP reported, citing an online statement by the group.

The four bombers attacked the Badr and al-Hashoosh mosques during midday Friday prayers, traditionally the most crowded time of the week, according to state news agency Saba.

The Shiite rebel-owned Al-Masirah TV channel said area hospitals were urging citizens to donate blood. It also reported that a fifth suicide bomb attack on another mosque was foiled in the northern city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

At the Badr mosque, militia guards caught the first bomber while searching worshippers at the entrance and he detonated his device there. Amid the ensuing panic, a second bomber entered the mosque and blew himself up in the crowd, Saba agency said.

Some 120 Muslim religious scholars this week published an open letter refuting the Islamic State’s claim to be a religious political movement. According to their view, the self-proclaimed Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is flagrantly un-Islamic in its behavior.

The behavior of ISIS have more in common with Mao’s Red Guards or the Khmer Rouge than it does with the Muslim empires of antiquity which they claim to be heirs to.

In synthesizing aspects of both Western and Islamic civilization, the group has crafted a radical ideology which is distinctly modern despite its glorification of a pre-modern past. Recognizing this is the first step to negating the clash of civilizations narrative upon which they thrive, scholars say.

In the eyes of most Muslims the Islamic State is as “Islamic” as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is “Democratic”.

China ready to shut down foreign NGOs

New law that would allow Beijing to filter out foreign funding of groups, seen as a matter of national security

After years of operating in a precarious legal limbo, foreign non-governmental organizations in China are facing a moment of truth that could force many of them to close their doors.

The Chinese government is drafting a new foreign NGO law that is widely expected to make work more difficult, if not impossible, for many of the 6,000 overseas non-profits that operate here in a broad range of fields from education and the environment to HIV-Aids and legal education.

Under the new law, foreign non-profits would not be allowed to open more than one office, or to raise funds locally, or be allowed to fund projects deemed counter to what is being called “Chinese society’s moral customs,” according to excerpts seen by The Christian Science Monitor of the still unpublished bill.

At the heart of the proposed law is a view that foreign non-profits are a potential threat to national security.

“We need to protect their legitimate interests, to let them play a greater role, but on the other hand they need more effective management, to sufficiently protect our national security and social stability,” said Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament, before it opened its annual session last week.

The bill was presented last December to the Standing Committee of the NPC by Yang Huanning, Vice Minister of Public Security. It came on the heels of a survey of foreign-funded NGOs ordered last summer by the National Security Commission, headed by President Xi Jinping.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs, traditionally responsible for non-governmental organizations, appears to play no role in the drafting of the legal text, according to people familiar with the situation.

The draft law puts the Ministry of Public Security in charge of registering foreign NGOs, which are obliged to find a government agency to sponsor them. They would also have to submit annual work plans, including all funding proposals, in advance to their sponsoring agency such as a ministry or local government authority.

NGO’s, especially those who work in politically sensitive areas such as gay rights, journalism training or labor relations fear that the new law will be used to shut them down. “This law, from what we have heard, gives unprecedented power to the police,” says one activist with a foreign NGO in Beijing. “They want to show a heavy hand.”

The new bill, now under closed-door discussion, is expected to pass by the end of this year.

Source: csmonitor.com

France, Germany, Italy join China’s Infrastructure Investment Bank

France, Germany and Italy have confirmed they’ll join China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Participation in the rival to the US-led World Bank is seen as a setback for the Obama administration.

The three European countries on Tuesday confirmed in a statement they intend “to become founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” according to AFP.

“We want to bring our long experience… to help the bank build a solid reputation,” said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, speaking also for Italy and France at a joint press conference with Chinese Deputy-Premier Ma Kai on Tuesday in Berlin. He added that the three countries want to make a contribution to the positive development of the Asian economy, in which German companies were actively taking part.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei welcomed the decision, saying “the AIIB is an open and inclusive multilateral investment institution.”

“Participation by countries outside the region will intensify the extensive representatives of the AIIB,” he added.

The decision of the three European countries comes after Britain last week became the first Western country to agree to become a founding member of the AIIB, FT reports. The UK government said the decision was in the country’s national interest, but it got a negative reaction from the United States.

The new China-led bank is expected to challenge the Washington-based World Bank, so the US is increasing pressure on its allies not to join the institution. The US’ concern is that the new investment bank might not have high standards of governance and environmental and social safeguards.

The new bank is expected to challenge the Western dominance of the US-led World Bank and IMF in global infrastructure projects, which experts believe will create healthy competition.

South Korea, Switzerland and Luxembourg were also considering joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Financial Times reported.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he would make a final decision on AIIB membership soon. South Korea and other countries are in discussions with China over possible participation.

China’s main regional rival Japan said earlier this month that Asian countries including Japan have until March 31 to decide on becoming AIIB founding members.

“They told us they are considering. Whether Japan will join, we do not know. It is Japan’s own decision,” Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Nearly 30 countries have confirmed their participation in the AIIB, which is aimed at helping finance infrastructure projects across Asia and is expected to come into being this year.

The AIIB was formally launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014, and is expected to become a tool of a broader Chinese push for growing international power and economic significance.

Welkom family lucky to be alive after Tunis attack

A Welkom family is lucky to be alive after two gunmen shot dead at least 21 people at Tunisia’s Bardo Museum.

Johan Cronjé and his family are holidaying aboard the MSC Splendida, which docked in Tunis on Wednesday. He told OFM News via satellite phone from the Mediterranean Sea, he and his family went past the museum in a private taxi and not as part of the cruise tour which had stopped at the museum.

Cronjé says he was informed by their taxi driver that a revolution that took place four years ago keeps rearing its head, and during Wednesday’s attack, the terrorists vented their anger at the government’s inability to provide jobs.

A South African woman also on board the cruise liner was wounded in the attack. The Department of International Relations has confirmed reports that a South African is among the tourists who died.

The Islamic State jihadist group has meanwhile claimed responsibility for an attack. In an audio message posted online, ISIS said “two knights from the Islamic State… heavily armed with automatic weapons and grenades, targeted the Bardo Museum” in the capital, Tunis.

The group, which has hundreds of Tunisians among its ranks, threatened more attacks, saying: “What you have seen is only the start.”

Authorities said they have identified the two gunmen shot dead during Wednesday’s assault.