International
Iraq: The Long Fight over an Iraq Oil Town Whose Importance Is Now Debatable
Aug 26, 2015
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Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Washington Post
After more than a year of near-constant fighting, there is still no sign that the battle for the Iraqi town of Baiji and its massive…
Timor-Leste: East Timor PM Seeks to Diversify Economy with Help of Oil Fund
Aug 26, 2015
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Randy Fabi, Reuters
East Timor will tap into its $16.6 billion oil fund to build the necessary infrastructure to attract non-energy investment, the prime minister said on Wednesday,…
DRC: Portland Goes Conflict-Free
Aug 26, 2015
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Enough Project
Activists and policymakers are celebrating the Portland City Council’s vote today to enact a policy to ensure that cellular devices and other key communication equipment purchased by the city are not connected to…
Uganda: Museveni Orders Probe into Karamoja Land Grabbing
Aug 25, 2015
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Steven Ariong, The Monitor
President Museveni has ordered investigations into land grabbing in Karamoja sub-region where many residents face eviction by some people purporting to be investors. The President…
Iraq: Iraq Oil Minister Says $9 bln in Arrears Paid to Oil Firms
Aug 25, 2015
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Reuters
Iraq has paid foreign oil companies $9 billion in remaining arrears for 2014 and was paying outstanding fees for 2015 in stages until the beginning…
Ukraine: UN Giving Chickens to Small Farms in Ukraine
Aug 25, 2015
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Prague Post
Some 7,000 three-week-old layer-broiler chickens are being distributed this week to small farms in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Provision of the birds is the latest…
South Sudan: South Sudan’s Loan Requests to Oil Companies Rebuffed
Aug 25, 2015
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Radio Tamazuj
South Sudan’s government has been unsuccessfully seeking $200 million in loans from oil companies since June 2014, according to officials. Officials in both the ministry…
China/Vietnam/South China Sea: China Oil Rig to Keep Drilling in Waters Disputed with Vietnam
Aug 25, 2015
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Reuters
A Chinese oil rig at the center of last year's standoff between China and Vietnam will continue drilling not far from Vietnam's coast, China's maritime…
Water Wars: "Water Wars Are a Myth" - Expert Says Many Govts Eager to Cooperate
Aug 24, 2015
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Magdalena Mis, Thomson Reuters Foundation
The doom and gloom predictions of increasing battles around the world over water are a myth, with only a handful of disagreements over shared waters…
China/Vietnam/South China Sea: Controversial China Rig Completes Drilling Well Near Vietnam Coast
Aug 24, 2015
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Reuters
The Chinese oil rig at the center of last year's standoff between China and Vietnam over oil exploration in the South China Sea has completed…
Iraq/Kurdistan: Israel turns to Kurds for Three-Quarters of its Oil Supplies
Aug 23, 2015
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David Sheppard, John Reed, and Anjli Raval, Financial Times
Israel has bought as much as three-quarters of its oil from Iraqi Kurdistan in recent months, the Financial Times reported Sunday. According to the report,…
Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone Gold and Diamond Exports Plummet Due to Ebola
Aug 22, 2015
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AFP
Sierra Leone said Saturday gold exports had plunged three-fold and diamond exports nearly halved in the first half of 2015, a sign of the devastation…
Liberia: Shake-Up at Liberia Oil Firm Leaves Managers, Scores out of Job
Aug 22, 2015
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Rodney D. Sieh, FrontPageAfrica
Weeks after a FrontPageAfrica investigative report pointed to looming bankruptcy at the National Oil Company of Liberia, a decision has reportedly been reached to downsize…
Sierra Leone: H1 Diamond Exports Drop after Peak in April
Aug 21, 2015
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Awoko
Diamond exports for the first half (H1) of 2015 have dropped from a high of 64.5 thousand carats in April to 35.6 thousand carats in…
Zimbabwe: Housing Co-operative Sues Chikwinya for Land ‘Grabbing’
Aug 20, 2015
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Xolisani Ncube, NewsDay
Woman Affairs minister Nyasha Chikwinya has been taken to court for allegedly falsifying documents to claim ownership of land occupied by a housing co-operative in…
Food Security: Peace is Good for Food Security - Sasu
Aug 19, 2015
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Samuel Hinneh, GhanaWeb
Born into a farming family where Lydia Sasu, a farmer and the executive director of Development Action Association (DAA) witnessed her mother struggle to make…
DRC: SEC’s Disclosure Requirement on Conflict Minerals Again Ruled Unconstitutional — What Now?
Aug 19, 2015
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Jessica S. Lochmann, Frank S. Murray, and Mark T. Plichta, National Law Review
In a long-awaited decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (DC Circuit) reaffirmed its prior decision,…
Cambodia: Cambodian Government Takes Umbrage at US Congressman’s Comments on Land Grabs
Aug 18, 2015
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Radio Free Asia
Cambodia’s Ministry of Land Management is acting in accordance with the country’s laws and making an effort to respect citizens’ rights, a ministry official said…
DRC: D.C. Court Unleashes Conflict by Throwing out Conflict-Minerals Rule
Aug 18, 2015
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Daniel Fisher, Forbes
A federal appeals court in Washington threw out a regulation under the Dodd-Frank Act requiring public companies to state whether they use “conflict minerals” in…
Iraq: Iraq's Economy in Trouble
Aug 18, 2015
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Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press
As of July, Iraq's oil revenues stood at $31.5 billion, according to Oil Ministry figures, with an average daily export capacity less than a 3.3…
Iraq/Kurdistan/Turkey: Iraqi Kurdistan Says Oil Pipeline Sabotage Cost It $501 mln
Aug 18, 2015
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Reuters
Repeated sabotage by "organised gangs" of the oil pipeline from northern Iraq to Turkey has cost the autonomous Kurdistan region $501 million since July 1,…
Sudan: Volume of Sudanese Exports of Gum Arabic Reached 34.000 Tons
Aug 18, 2015
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Shadia Basheri, Sudan Vision
Gum Arabic is one of the important commodities that comes on the top of the Sudanese exports, especially after the outage of oil revenues because…
Liberia: Can New Minister Break Liberia’s Agriculture Curse?
Aug 17, 2015
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Rodney D. Sieh, FrontPageAfrica
In tipping the low-key, Dr. Moses Zinnah, head of the Agriculture Sector Rehabilitation Project, as only her third Minister of Agriculture, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is…
Iraq/Kurdistan: Turkey Plays 'Key Role' in Iraqi Kurdish Oil
Aug 15, 2015
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Anadolu Agency
Turkey played a key role in transferring Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) oil to the international market, Turkey's energy minister said on Saturday. Speaking to reporters…
Afghanistan/Pakistan: Serious Water Wars Gathering Soot in Foreign Ministry
Aug 15, 2015
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Zeeshan Javaid, Pakistan Observer
Lack of communication between foreign office and ministry for water and power seemed to have put Pakistan and Afghanistan into uncertainty over the trans-border water…
Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan/Uzbekistan: World View: With Rise of ISIS, Violence Flares in Central Asia’s Fergana Valley
Aug 15, 2015
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John J. Xenakis, Breitbart
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have sent troops and officials to a Fergana Valley (or Ferghana Valley) border regions where there are violence is increasing in…
Mining: How Developing Countries Are Paying a High Price for the Global Mineral Boom
Aug 15, 2015
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John Vidal, Guardian
The high price of gold in recent years has also attracted thousands of small-scale miners into fragile ecosystems. Yanomami Indians in northern Brazil and Venezuela…
Myanmar: Myanmar Farmers Need Help Replanting Rice after Floods: U.N.
Aug 15, 2015
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Timothy Mclaughlin, Reuters
Farmers in flood-hit Myanmar face a scramble to replant damaged paddy fields in the next two weeks to avoid food shortages, and aid efforts in…
Sierra Leone: NSAs Demand 25 Years Land Lease to Multinational Investments
Aug 14, 2015
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Awoko
As way to control land use and land lease to multinational foreign companies and ensuring women’s rights to own land, a group of Non-State Actors…
Iraq/Kuwait: Burning Kuwaiti Oil Wells Still Drain Iraqi Budget
Aug 13, 2015
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Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya News
Under a cash-strapped budget, Iraq today has to allocate its funds to a number of other obligations, including the fight against ISIS, contractual payments to…