International
Iraq/Syria/Islamic State: Airstrikes Reduce Islamic State Oil Revenue
Jan 8, 2016
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Jim Michaels, USA Today
An air campaign aimed at crippling the Islamic State’s lucrative oil smuggling business has reduced the terror group's revenue from a peak of about $1.3 million…
Myanmar: New Permits for Gem Mining to Go Ahead Despite Objections
Jan 7, 2016
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Chan Mya Htwe, Myanmar Times
The Ministry of Mining invited applications for new permits in August 2015, with a deadline of November 16 that year. It has extended the deadline…
Myanmar: Why Can't Myanmar Clear its Landmines?
Jan 7, 2016
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Ann Wang, IRIN
Children are among thousands of people in Myanmar who have been killed or injured by landmines planted by the military or ethnic armed groups during…
Iraq/Kurdistan: Pumping Resumes on Iraq Oil Pipeline to Turkey's Ceyhan
Jan 7, 2016
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Reuters
Oil exports from northern Iraq through a pipeline to the Turkish port city of Ceyhan resumed after a 10-hour stoppage caused by a technical fault…
Afghanistan: Afghanistan's Minefields: Citizens Urged Not to Flee as Shifts in Territorial Control Leave Earth 'Paved with Landmines'
Jan 6, 2016
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Catherine James, ABC News
Afghanistan tops the list for civilian casualties by victim-activated landmines out of the 58 states recorded as having anti-personnel mines in their territory, according to…
Myanmar: Authorities Move to Clear Squatters from Town Water Supply
Jan 6, 2016
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Si Thu Lwin, Myanmar Times
Pyin Oo Lwin officials are cracking down on forest dwellers squatting near a road construction site alongside the city’s only water supply. The township’s Department…
Myanmar: NLD to Compile Land Grabbing List for Karenni State
Jan 6, 2016
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Htoe Myar, Burma News International
The National League for Democracy (NLD) issued an announcement at the end of last month indicating that it will make a list of expropriated farmland…
Iraq/Kurdistan: Kurds Make Payments for Oil Exports
Jan 6, 2016
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Daniel J. Graeber, United Press International
Energy companies working in the Kurdish north of Iraq said they've received payments from the regional government for crude oil exports. Norwegian energy company DNO…
Myanmar: Jade Probe Targets Ministers
Jan 5, 2016
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Ye Mon, Myanmar Times
Kachin State’s chief minister and two members of his cabinet are under investigation for their alleged role in the state’s lucrative jade mining trade, the…
Afghanistan: Iran, Afghanistan to Establish Environmental Commission
Jan 5, 2016
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MEHR News Agency
Abdullah Abdullah who is in Tehran was received by President Rouhani on Tuesday evening. Both leaders discussed bilateral issues when Mr. Rouhani believed that improved…
China/Vietnam/South China Sea: Flight to Spratly Reef Airfield within China's Sovereignty: Beijing
Jan 4, 2016
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Straits Times
China's flight to a newly built airfield on Yongshu Reef, also known as Fiery Cross Reef, on the Nansha Islands is a matter "completely within…
Myanmar: Power Project Generates Anxiety
Jan 4, 2016
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Oliver Slow, Frontier Myanmar
The Ministry of Electric Power estimates that demand for electricity will rise by between 13 percent and 15 percent a year in the coming years.…
Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraq's Kurds to Continue Exporting Crude Independently in 2016
Jan 4, 2016
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Khalid Al Ansary, Bloomberg
Authorities in Iraq’s cash-strapped Kurdish region will withhold delivery of oil to the central government and export crude independently in 2016 to ensure revenue amid…
Syria/Islamic State: Weaponizing Syria’s Water
Jan 4, 2016
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Alisa Reznick, Boston Review
By spring 2015, Ain al-Fijah had become a ghost town, marked by crude barricades and rebel checkpoints, and its water had been weaponized. In the…
Myanmar: Land Confiscation Problems Worsen
Jan 4, 2016
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Htet Htet, Mizzima
Farmers from Shan State held a press conference at Taunggyi Catholic Church memorial hall in southern Shan State on January 3, 2016, to protest against…
Colombia: Colombian Chocolate Couverture Coming to Europe through Swiss Trade Deal
Jan 4, 2016
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Oliver Nieburg, Confectionary News
Colombian cocoa processor Cacao Pacifico will sell chocolate couvertures made with fine flavor Colombian cocoa in Europe through a partnership with Swiss Global Enterprise.
Colombia: Agreement to Curb Rising Prices and Speculation in Food
Jan 4, 2016
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Fresh Plaza
The price of food and the Colombians' personal economy have been affected by the rising dollar, the phenomenon of El Niño, and the structural problem…
Colombia: Inside Colombia’s (New) Cocaine Explosion
Jan 3, 2016
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Jeremy Kryt, Daily Beast
Steep hills rise out of the morning mist like a junky’s dream of paradise: the slopes teeming with lush, illicit vegetation. Palm and banana trees…
China/Vietnam/South China Sea: Vietnam Protests after China Lands Plane on Disputed South China Sea
Jan 2, 2016
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Reuters
Vietnam formally accused China of violating its sovereignty and a recent confidence-building pact on Saturday by landing a plane on an airstrip Beijing has built…
Myanmar: Low Water Hinders Kayah Hydropower Plants
Jan 2, 2016
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Eleven Myanmar
Water levels supplying the Baluchaung hydropower plants in Lawpita, Loikaw Township, Kayah State, have been declining for a month. Myint Maung, a farmer near no.1…
Iraq: Iraq Says It Exported More Than 1 Billion Barrels of Oil in 2015
Jan 1, 2016
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Khalid Al-Ansary and Kadhim Ajrash, Bloomberg
Iraq said it exported 1.097 billion barrels of oil in 2015, generating $49.079 billion from sales, according to the oil ministry. It sold 99.7 million…
Afghanistan: Salma Dam: Another Key Indian Project in Afghanistan
Dec 31, 2015
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Ranjana Narayan, The Statesman
India’s major development works in Afghanistan are going at a fast pace. The parliament building was inaugurated in Kabul last week by Prime Minister Narendra…
Israel/Palestine: Further Land Grabbing in Jordan Valley
Dec 31, 2015
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International Solidarity Movement
During the past 6 months, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign has registered further land grabbing in Fasayal village in the Jordan Valley. The land, which…
Colombia: Landmines in Colombia Biggest Challenge for Post-War Nation
Dec 30, 2015
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Maria Myka, LATINONE
After decades of war, the Colombian government has finally negotiated peace with the rebel group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). However, despite…
Iraq/Syria/Islamic State: Thousands of Foreign Workers Help ISIS Keep its Crude Oil Flowing
Dec 29, 2015
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ARA News
The extremist group of Islamic State (ISIS) has recruited thousands of workers with experience in the oil industry to help the group keep crude pumping…
Colombia: Demining Colombia Will Take 'a Generation': Minister
Dec 29, 2015
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Agence France-Presse
Clearing the landmines from the half-century conflict in Colombia, which has the most mines of any country outside Afghanistan, will take a generation, Defense Minister…
Iraq/Syria/Islamic State: Armed with Intel, U.S. Strikes Curtail IS Oil Sector
Dec 28, 2015
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Ben Van Heuvelen, Iraq Oil Report
An intensifying campaign of U.S. air strikes on the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) has nearly shut down its oil operations in Iraq and has hampered…
Iraq: Iraq Approaches Exxon, Petrochina over Southern Energy Project
Dec 28, 2015
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Aref Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed, Reuters
OPEC's second-largest producer, has approached PetroChina and ExxonMobil about investing in a multi-billion-dollar project to boost output from its smaller southern oilfields, a senior Iraqi…
South Sudan: Deadly Famine Looms in South Sudan
Dec 25, 2015
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Richard Nield, Al Jazeera
More than two years after the outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, tens of thousands of South Sudanese face starvation, say NGOs. More than…
Iraq: Iraq Seeks to Reopen Oil Pipeline through Saudi Arabia-Paper
Dec 24, 2015
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Saif Hameed, Maher Chmaytelli, and William Hardy, Reuters
Iraq is seeking to reopen its crude oil export pipeline through Saudi Arabia, shut in 1990, state newspaper Assababah reported citing an unidentified Iraqi official.…