Iraq to unveil new government Monday

Maliki to Name Iraq Government Monday
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hussain al-Shahristani will be reappointed Iraqi Oil minister when a new cabinet is unveiled on Monday, senior officials said, keeping in place the architect of plans to turn Iraq into a top global Oil producer. Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, also will remain at his post but a final selection of a new Finance Minister had not yet been made, sources close to Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. Shahristani, a Shi'ite, led the Oil ministry as it set Iraq on ...

A barrier to new Iraq government falls with vote by parliament
Reporting from Baghdad — Iraq's parliament knocked away one of the last barriers to forming a new government Saturday when it struck down a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians. The reinstatement of former lawmaker Saleh Mutlaq and two other politicians virtually guaranteed that their Secular Iraqiya bloc, popular with Iraq's Sunnis, will join Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government. Different Iraqi political groups and U.S. officials have pushed for a Coalition Government with a big ...

Iraqi PM To Name Cabinet Monday
(NewsCore) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki will present his cabinet Monday, potentially bringing an end to nine months of political impasse after inconclusive March Elections. The announcement came Saturday as parliament voted to overturn Controversial bans placed earlier this year on three members of a Sunni-backed political bloc for their alleged ties to ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. "Mr. Maliki has officially asked to present his cabinet to parliament on Monday," an aide sa...

Christians In Iraq Flee North Before Christmas
IRBIL, Iraq — They saw their brethren murdered during Mass and then were bombed in their homes as they mourned. Al-Qaida vowed to hunt them down. Now the Christian community of Iraq, almost as old as the religion itself, is sensing a clear message: It is time to leave. Since the Oct. 31 bloodbath in their Baghdad church, Iraqi Christians have been fleeing Sunni Muslim Extremists who view them as nonbelievers and agents of the West. At a time when Christians in various parts of the Muslim...

Iraqi lawmakers lift ban on Sunni politicians
Baghdad — Iraq’s parliament took a major step Saturday toward creating a unity government, lifting a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians who were barred from running in national Elections last March after being accused of having ties to Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime. The vote brings Iraq closer to ending months of political turmoil following the March 7 election, which failed to produce a clear winner. It also paves the way for broader Sunni participation in the emerging go...

Grim Xmas for Iraqi Christians as many flee north
IRBIL, Iraq - They saw their brethren murdered during Mass and then were bombed in their homes as they mourned. Al-Qaida vowed to hunt them down. Now the Christian community of Iraq, almost as old as the religion itself, is sensing a clear message: It is time to leave. Since the Oct. 31 bloodbath in their Baghdad church, Iraqi Christians have been fleeing Sunni Muslim Extremists who view them as nonbelievers and agents of the West. At a time when Christians in various parts of the Muslim w...

Iraqi lawmakers lift ban on Sunni politicians
BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament on Saturday lifted a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians barred from running in national Elections last March after being accused of having ties to Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. The vote brings Iraq closer to a unity government and an end to months of political turmoil that began when the March 7 election failed to produce a clear winner. It paves the way for broader Sunni participation in the emerging government, headed by Shiite Incumbent Prime Minister No...

Grim Xmas for Iraqi Christians as many flee north
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — They saw their brethren murdered during Mass and then were bombed in their homes as they mourned. Al-Qaida vowed to hunt them down. Now the Christian community of Iraq, almost as old as the religion itself, is sensing a clear message: It is time to leave. Since the Oct. 31 bloodbath in their Baghdad church, Iraqi Christians have been fleeing Sunni Muslim Extremists who view them as nonbelievers and agents of the West. At a time when Christians in various parts of the Mus...

Russia 'faces 4.3 pct deficit': finance minister
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday the country's Deficit will be 4.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, higher than the figure announced by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "An increase in revenue this year allows us to lower our estimate of budgetary Deficit to 4.3 percent from 4.6 percent," Russian news agencies quoted Kudrin as telling Putin during a meeting. On Thursday, during his annual marathon phone-in, Putin said the Deficit would be between 3.5 to 3.8 percen...

Iraq entices investors to bid for power profits
BAGHDAD - Iraq asked investors Saturday to compete to build four Power Plants and help the country meet burgeoning electricity demands, promising a healthy profit for the winners. At a meeting of about 30 local and international investors, acting Electricity Minister Hussain al-Shahristani assured the companies that governmental or legal obstacles would be removed for firms that won the right to build and operate the plants. "I can assure you that the government is interested in implementi...

Christian exodus as Iraq army fails them
CHRISTIAN Iraqis are again fleeing to other parts of the country and abroad amid growing fears that the security forces are unable or, more ominously, unwilling to protect them from sectarian attack. • The monastery of the Virgin Mary in Qosh has opened its doors to fleeing families. Photograph: Shiho Fukada The flight - involving thousands of Christians from Baghdad and Mosul, in particular - followed an October siege at a church in Baghdad in which 51 worshippers and two priests were kil...

Iraqi lawmakers lift ban on Sunni politicians
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s parliament has lifted a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians who had been kept from running in national Elections in March because of accusations they had ties to Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime. Saturday’s vote brings Iraq closer to getting a unity government after months of political turmoil. One of the three politicians is Saleh al-Mutlaq, a former lawmaker and vocal critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Mutlaq was the most prominent...

Iraqi lawmakers lift ban on Sunni politicians
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's parliament on Saturday lifted a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians barred from running in national Elections last March after being accused of having ties to Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. The vote brings Iraq closer to a unity government and an end to months of political turmoil that began when the March 7 election failed to produce a clear winner. It paves the way for broader Sunni participation in the emerging government, headed by Shiite Incumbent Prime Minister No...

Breaking the Silence: Top Kenyans Accused of Election Violence
Kenya's Standard newspaper went with a one-word headline — THUNDERBOLT — to describe the announcement on Dec. 15 that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague wants to prosecute six prominent Kenyans, including the Finance Minister, for their alleged roles in the country's 2008 post-election violence. That one word said it all. The allegations, which include Crimes Against Humanity, are indeed shocking. Since Kenya gained independence in 1963, the ...

Chevron makes deep water investment in Gulf
Image via Wikipedia Houston Chronicle: Chevron Corp. on Thursday gave another multibillion-dollar vote of confidence to the future of Oil and gas activity in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. Despite lingering regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. offshore region created by the BP Oil Spill, the nation's second-largest Oil company after Exxon Mobil said it will spend $4 billion over the next several years to develop its Big Foot field, 225 miles south of New Orleans. The move comes less than two mon...

Obamas Path to Energy Independence?
Via correspondent Poe Leggette, the Western Energy Alliance’s analysis of Oil and gas leasing in the RockY Mountain states under the last three administrations: Bear in mind that the Federal Government is the primary owner of much of the land in several western states. Combine that with the fact that the March 2010 Lease Sale was the last one we’ll see in the Gulf of Mexico for the foreseeable future, and you can begin to see how hostile the Obama Administration is to domestic Oil ...

WikiLeaks: Chevron eyed oil deal involving Iran
(12-16) 09:13 PST Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Chevron Corp. expressed interest in developing Oil Reserves straddling the Iran-Iraq border, potentially putting the American energy giant at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Tehran, according to comments made public in a leaked diplomatic cable. During a March 2009 meeting detailed in the document, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a senior U.S. Embassy official he was in talks with Chevron about the cross-border Oil Field....

Sweden forcibly repatriates five Christians to Iraq, citing "situation of relative peace" in the country
Even the UN called them out on this one. "Five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum returned from Stockholm. UN Protest," from AsiaNews, December 18: Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Harsh criticism of the Swedish government by the United Nations Commission for Refugees after they forcibly returned five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in Sweden. The five were part of a group of at least 20 people from Iraq. Thousands of Christians have sought a safe haven outside the borders after the massacre of 31...

Iraq entices investors to bid for power profits
Iraq is asking local and international investors to compete to build and own four Power Plants to meet the nation's growing electricity demands. Acting Electricity Minister Hussain al-Shahristani promised Saturday to help the winner make a profit from the deal by removing potential governmental or legal obstacles. At issue are plans for Iraq to give investors 22 gas fired turbines in exchange for building, maintaining and operating power plants. The electricity would then be sold to the Iraqi go...

Oil Sands report gives mixed reviews
EDMONTON, Alberta, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- There is no credible evidence to support allegations that Canada's Oil Sands are the most "environmentally destructive project on Earth," says a report from the Royal Society of Canada. Yet the 438-page report, released Wednesday, identifies "serious deficiencies" in the environmental impact assessment process and points out that water monitoring of Oil Sands projects is set at a lower standard than for forestry. Still, the report urged all levels of governmen...

Kurds play oil card in coalition talks
Published: Dec. 16, 2010 at 4:02 PM Iraq's President Jalal Talabani (R) talks with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his visit to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region near Sulaimaniya, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad, August 2, 2009. Al-Maliki met Kurdish President Masoud Barzani on Sunday, the first meeting between the two rivals in many months, in an effort to resolve a row that threatens fresh conflict in Iraq. UPI/Iraq PM Office Iraqi Oil minister slated for n...

Violence mars Shiite commemoration in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Violent clashes broke out between residents of the Saudi holy city of Medina on the day minority Shiite Muslims commemorated the death of their most sacred saint, a security official said Saturday. The official refused to elaborate on the cause of Thursday's clashes, but a Shiite news website called Rasid reported that hundreds of Sunni hard-liners attacked those participating in the commemorations, known as Ashoura. The day of mourning marks the killing of the Proph...

Fake-Out Thursday Oil Scam Continues Unabated
Fake-Out Thursday – Oil Scam Continues Unabated By Phil of Phil's Stock World What a joke the oil market is! First of all, the NYMEX contracts for January delivery close on Tuesday and there are still 132,168 open contracts or 1,000 barrels each (132M) scheduled for delivery to Cushing, OK, a facility that can handle at most, 45Mb of crude and is, at the moment, full. The price of those barrels surged from $86.82 all the way back to our shorting target of $89 yesterday, where we once agai...

Algeria pushes to revive energy industry
Published: Dec. 17, 2010 at 1:17 PM ALGIERS, Algeria, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Algeria's Oil Industry, battered by an investigation into high-profile Corruption in the state-run Sonatrach Oil company, is seeking long-delayed exploration deals and pressing ahead with the Medgaz Pipeline linking the gas-rich North African country to Spain. Medgaz, with a planned annual capacity of 280 billion cubic feet of Natural Gas, is expected to be inaugurated soon. Sonatrach has a 36 percent stake in the operating c...

Evelyn Leopold: Iraq at the UN: Mission Accomplished?
United Nations - More than 20 years after sanctions were imposed on Iraq for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, the UN Security Council lifted most restrictions, symbolically closing what Baghdad calls a "dark chapter" in its history. "Today is a great day for the people of Iraq and the country," said Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. "The adoption of these important resolutions marks the beginning of the end of the sanctions regime and restriction on Iraq's Sovereignty, independence an...