International


Myanmar: Mandalay Golf Resort Project Faces Land-Grabbing Claims

Sep 29, 2015 | Kyaw Ko Ko, Myanmar Times

Defiant farmers in Mandalay Region are cultivating fields they say they own as negotiations with the local authorities broke down. The 200 farmers began harrowing…


Côte d’Ivoire: President Ouattara Receives Post-Conflict Environmental Report

Sep 28, 2015 | Cholo Brooks, Global News Network

Ivorian President AlassaneOuattara received Friday a United Nations report detailing decades of environmental destruction in the country, especially during 11 years of civil war and…


Liberia: Land Disputes Threaten Peace & Security

Sep 28, 2015 | The New Republic

The Mayor of Ganta Ben Dokpah has said land disputes in the country remain a serious threat to the peace of security the country of…


Somalia: British Oil Firm Accused of Corruption in Somalia Exploration Deal

Sep 26, 2015 | Cholo Brooks, Global News Network

A British oil exploration firm has been accused of corrupt payments to government officials in Somalia in return for rights to explore offshore for hydrocarbons,…


Liberia: Another Land Dispute in Nimba

Sep 25, 2015 | Solomon T. Gaye, The Inquirer

The Muslim community dominated by the Mandingo ethnic groups has disrupted a team of surveyors backed by the 8th Judiciary Circuit Court Sheriff in the…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Theft Disrupts Kurdish Oil Flows to Turkey

Sep 25, 2015 | Daniel J. Graeber, United Press International

The Kurdish government in northern Iraq said the flow of crude oil to a Turkish sea port was halted because of theft at the start…


Liberia: Big Money: Liberia Lost Nearly $300M in Illegal Deposits

Sep 25, 2015 | FrontPageAfrica

In February this year, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists website released information relating to 300 secret bank accounts accused of involvement in tax evasion…


Liberia: Judge Paye Accused of Favoritism in Nimba Land Dispute

Sep 24, 2015 | Arrington Ballah, The Bush Chicken

Circuit Court Judge Emery Paye has been accused of bias in an ongoing land dispute. Julius Sannoh, a member of the Ganta Mandingo Caucus, made…


Timor-Leste: East Timor Starts New Gas Field Arbitration

Sep 24, 2015 | Michael Roddan, Business Spectator

East Timor has started new arbitration proceedings to resolve a dispute with Australia over access to offshore petroleum resources, including the Greater Sunrise fields that Woodside Petroleum hopes to develop. After…


Myanmar: Farmers Confront Minister During Rally

Sep 24, 2015 | Swan Ye Htut, Myanmar Times

Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation U Myint Hlaing came under pressure from constituents yesterday over allegations land had been taken from farmers and placed in…


Myanmar: One Dead, Several Injured as Mine Accident Floods Village

Sep 24, 2015 | Ko Htwe & Yamin Oo, Democratic Voice of Burma

A 12-year-old child was killed and several elderly residents were injured when the embankment of a tailing pond at a mine site collapsed, triggering a…


Myanmar: Election Takes a Back Seat as Flood-Hit Magwe’s Farmers Struggle to Rebuild

Sep 23, 2015 | Nay Aung, Myanmar Times

For the tens of thousands of farmers in Magwe Region still reeling from last month’s floods, the November election may not register as high-priority. With…


Liberia: Ellen Submits “Liberia Land Authority” Bill

Sep 23, 2015 | J. Burgess Carter, Liberian Observer

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf submitted to the Senate for enactment into law an Act to create the Liberia Land Authority. In her letter to that august…


South Sudan: S. Sudan Official: Oil Companies Did 'Nothing' to Protect Environment

Sep 23, 2015 | Radio Tamazuj

A petroleum ministry official has admitted that oil companies before and after independence have done nothing to stop environmental damage caused by oil extraction, while…


Australia: Australian Defence Under-Prepared for Climate Change Security Threat

Sep 22, 2015 | Michael Brissenden, ABC News

A former head of the Australian military has warned that the ADF needs to do more to integrate climate change impact into defence planning. Retired…


DRC: NGO Ranks 155 Companies Across 20 Industries Revealing Significant Supply Chain, ESG Risks for Major Brands

Sep 22, 2015 | PRNewswire

Most U.S. large cap companies are still lagging in efforts to affect positive change with regard to global humanitarian issues, according to research released today…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraqi Kurds Dealt Setback by U.S. Court Ruling on Oil Sale

Sep 22, 2015 | Bruce Stanley and Laurel Brubaker Calkins, Bloomberg

A U.S. federal court dealt a setback to efforts by Iraq’s self-governing Kurds to sell Iraqi crude oil in the U.S., further complicating the Kurdish…


Sudan: Sudan Says Oil Companies Refusing to Repair Faulty Wells amid Oil Slump

Sep 22, 2015 | Sudan Tribune

The Sudanese government disclosed on Tuesday that it has been unable to raise its production of oil due to the global slide in crude prices.…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraqi Kurds Reassert Right to Export Oil to U.S. Despite Court Ruling

Sep 22, 2015 | Reuters

Kurdistan reasserted its right to export oil independently to the United States and other countries on Tuesday despite a court ruling in favor of the…


Syria: Syrian War Spurs First Withdrawal from Doomsday Arctic Seed Vault

Sep 21, 2015 | Alister Doyle, Reuters

Syria's civil war has prompted the first withdrawal of seeds from a "doomsday" vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies, officials…


Iraq: Four Killed in Suspected Iraq Cholera Outbreak

Sep 19, 2015 | AFP

A suspected cholera outbreak has killed four people west of Baghdad, where vulnerable displaced populations have been affected by the lack of clean water, health…


Myanmar: UK Mining Firm Withdraws Permit for Jade Area in Kachin State

Sep 19, 2015 | Kachin News

Aurasian Minerals Plc (AuM) a British mining firm that last year had applied for a mineral exploration permit in a jade mining area in Burma…


Iraq/Kurdistan: KRG Gas Unlikely to Arrive in Turkey Earlier Than 2019

Sep 18, 2015 | Ali Ünal, Daily Sabah

As the future of the Turkish Stream is still uncertain due to disagreements between Russia and Turkey, natural gas resources from the Kurdistan Regional Government…


DRC: Congo's Conflict Minerals: US Companies Struggle to Trace Tantalum, Tungsten, Tin, Gold in Their Products

Sep 18, 2015 | Morgan Winsor, International Business Times

US firms are spending millions to comply with a complex provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that requires companies to divulge their use of…


Liberia: Imminent Land Crisis If… -As G/Gedeh Seeks Intervention

Sep 17, 2015 | In Profile Daily

Grand Gedeh County Superintendent, Peter L. Solo, has made a passionate plea to United Nations Secretary General Special Representative to Liberia to help use diplomatic…


Myanmar: Surge in Illegal Logging by Chinese in Myanmar Alarms Activists

Sep 17, 2015 | Tom Phillips, The Guardian

A torrent of illegal timber worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year is pouring across Myanmar’s border into China as loggers reach deeper into…


China/Philippines/South China Sea: China Reportedly Building Runway on Reef Near Philippine-Claimed Gas Field

Sep 17, 2015 | Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes

China appears to be building an airstrip on a dredged reef near an oil and gas field also claimed by the Philippines, a move that…


Iraq/Kurdistan: To Boost Local Production KRG Invites Bidders to Build Oil Refineries

Sep 16, 2015 | Rudaw

In a bid to increase domestic refining capacity, the Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) calls on interested companies in the oil refining industry to…


Japan/United States/Okinawa: Pentagon Blocks Report on ‘Toxic Contamination’ at Base Outside Okinawa Capital

Sep 16, 2015 | Jon Mitchell, Japan Times

The U.S. military is refusing to release a report detailing environmental contamination at Camp Kinser, a 2.7-sq.-km U.S. Marine Corps supply base near Okinawa’s capital,…


China/Vietnam/Japan/South China Sea: Japan to Give Vietnam Boats, Equipment Amid China's Buildup

Sep 15, 2015 | John Boudreau, Bloomberg

Japan will extend 100 billion yen ($832 million) in infrastructure aid to Vietnam and provide patrol boats as the two countries vow to expand ties…