Bartle Doo Article Archives

Nigeria agency to allow LNG exports after $475 mln loss

A Nigerian agency that has blockaded liquefied natural gas exports for three weeks, costing $475 million in revenue, agreed Friday to end its action after resolving a fees dispute, the company said.

Nigeria LNG Limited said it had decided under protest to pay $140 million in the dispute over levies claimed by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, known by its acronym NIMASA.

That amount is in addition to an earlier $20 million paid under protest.

NLNG’s shareholders include Shell at 25.6 percent, state firm NNPC with 49 percent, Total LNG Nigeria at 15 percent and Eni at 10.4 percent.

“In addition, NLNG has agreed to pay, again under protest, the levies as they become due until a judicial ruling on whether these payments are justified can be obtained,” NLNG said in a statement.

The company maintains it is exempt from such levies under a law setting out conditions for Nigeria’s LNG industry.

The agency had continued to block shipments from the facility in southern Nigeria which provides some seven percent of global LNG supply despite court rulings ordering it to end the action, NLNG said.

A NIMASA spokesman did not return calls for comment.

Asked whether the agency would now lift the blockade, NLNG spokesman Kudo Eresia-Eke told AFP “that was what was agreed.”

“Owing to the NIMASA blockade which persisted in spite of court orders, the company has lost revenues of over 76 billion naira ($475 million), 65 percent of which belongs to the federal government, which has thus lost about 50 billion naira in dividends, taxes, etc.,” NLNG said in a statement.

According to NLNG, the blockade that began on June 21 also cut into cooking gas supplies in Nigeria because the facility produces liquefied petroleum gas as a byproduct.

According to local media reports, NIMASA has contracted with a security firm linked to a prominent ex-militant from the country’s oil-producing Niger Delta region. The security firm, Global West, was named in court documents seeking an end to the blockade.

Nigeria exported some 19.6 million metric tons of LNG in 2012, the fourth-largest output worldwide, according to data compiled by research firm IHS. Qatar was first with 74.2 million metric tons.

LNG, which sees natural gas super-cooled and transformed into liquid for transport on tankers, has represented around nine percent of global gas demand, according to figures from the International Energy Agency.

Tunisia TV boss on trial for corruption

The trial of Tunisian television chief Sami Fehri, accused of corruption during the rule of now-toppled strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, opened Friday with the defence requesting bail and the court denying it.

Fehri, who runs the private Ettounsiya TV and was a business partner of Ben Ali’s fugitive brother-in-law Belhassen Trabelsi, was arrested last August accused of having illegally used state television funds to bolster his own production company Cactus Prod.

If found guilty he could be sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Six former regime officials are being tried alongside Fehri on similar charges of corruption, including Abdelwaheb Abdallah, a former Ben Ali adviser.

They also risk a 10-year jail sentence if convicted.

The six have also been behind bars but the court agree on Friday, following a brief hearing devoted to procedure, to set them free on bail, Sonia Dahmani, a member of the defence team, told AFP.

Technically it also agreed to release Fehri on bail, but the decision was immediately overruled because he is also in custody in connection with another case, Dahmani said.

A new hearing has been set for October 25.

Fehri founded Ettounsiya TV in 2011, after the popular uprising that toppled Ben Ali.

Before that he was a producer and business partner of Belhassen Trabelsi who held 51 percent of the shares in Cactus Prod.

Trabelsi, a brother of Ben Ali’s powerful and hated wife Leila Trabelsi, fled to Canada and his stake in Cactus Prod has been seized by the authorities.

Fehri’s arrest in August triggered condemnation in Tunisia as it came just after the television boss announced he was pulling the plug on a satirical show, claiming he took the decision following government pressure.

80,000 pray at Al-Aqsa on first Friday of Ramadan

About 80,000 Muslims attended prayers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the first Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Israeli police said.

“There were close to 80,000 worshippers,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

There was a peaceful show of support for ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and against army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Women held Palestinian and Egyptian flags and signs reading, “Sisi go! Morsi is the president” and “Jerusalem is for legitimacy and against the coup”.

More than 3,000 Israeli police were deployed in the walled Old City, where the compound is located, and elsewhere in occupied east Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities relaxed usual restrictions on entry to Jerusalem by West Bankers but limited entry by men to the Al-Aqsa compound to those over 40 years of age.

The site houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

In a Ramadan concession, the military extended the opening hours of crossing points from the West Bank and allowed those aged 60 and over to pass without the usual mandatory entry permit.

Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are usually barred from Israel and from east Jerusalem, which the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 Six-Day war and then unilaterally annexed.

11 hostages in Philippine Muslim clan feud

Armed Muslim clans in the strife-torn southern Philippines are holding 11 people, including several children captive, as part of a decades-long feud, the military said on Friday.

The tit-for-tat kidnappings are part of a battle for land between two clans that began 30 years ago on Basilan, a small, remote island dominated by Islamic militants and separatist rebels, said Colonel Rodrigo Gregorio.

The feud has previously led to exchanges of gunfire and claimed about 20 lives from both sides, according to Gregorio, the regional military spokesman.

“Hopefully, there won’t be any violence. The two sides are still talking,” he told AFP.

The latest hostilities began on Tuesday when three daughters of clan leader “Commander Hassan” were abducted by a rival family on Basilan, said Gregorio.

Hassan’s armed followers retaliated by abducting 12 members of the rival clan, including seven children on Thursday.

Gregorio said the local government and military were negotiating with both sides and had successfully obtained the release of four children.

The ages of the kidnapped children ranged from five months to 15 years, the military said. But it was not clear which of them were released.

They are still trying to get the two rivals to release the rest of the captives while preventing any new outbreak of fighting, Gregorio added.

Commander Hassan is a member of the Moro National Liberation Front, a former Muslim separatist rebel group, but the feud does not involve his organisation, the military said.

Muslim clans in the southern Philippines are well known for waging prolonged feuds, typically over land, political power or influence. They often use armed followers to attack each other.

Such feuds in the southern Philippines, which the country’s Muslim minority regard as their homeland, claimed more than 5,500 lives and displaced thousands between the 1930s to 2005, according to a study by the Asia Foundation.

During such feuds, the government including the military, typically tries to negotiate for peace between rival sides rather than move to apprehend the contending parties.

'Several dead', in French train derailment

Emergency workers said Friday that several people were killed and dozens injured following a train derailment in the Paris suburb of Bretigny-sur-Orge.

“There are several dead,” a senior emergency worker told AFP, while another source in emergency services said there were “several dozen wounded”.

Fire on Boeing 787 Dreamliner shuts London's Heathrow

London’s Heathrow airport suspended both of its runways on Friday after a parked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner caught fire, but no casualties were reported.

“Both runways have been suspended after a fire onboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane,” a spokeswoman for the west London airport told AFP.

“Emergency services are currently dealing with the incident. No one was on board so there were no casualties.”

Television images showed the Dreamliner surrounded by pools of foam, with three fire engines on the scene.

Boeing temporarily withdrew its troubled next-generation jet from service earlier this year for modifications after concerns that batteries on board could cause fires.

The global grounding order was issued in January after lithium-ion batteries overheated on two different jets, with one of them catching fire while the aircraft was parked.

Boeing has not been able to identify the root cause of the problems, but rolled out modifications it said would ensure they were safe.

In April, an Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner — reported to be the same plane that caught fire at Heathrow — flew from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on the first commercial flight since the grounding.

Heathrow is London’s main airport and one of the busiest passenger hubs in the world.

Suicide bomber targets police on edge of Kabul: officials

A suicide bomber targeted an Afghan police checkpost on the outskirts of Kabul, killing one person and wounding two others on the first Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, police said.

The attack came on the third day of the Muslim holy month in the war-torn country, where Taliban-led insurgents are fighting against the Western-backed government.

“This morning, a suicide bomber wearing a suicide vest detonated his explosives outside the city of Kabul,” Kabul police chief, Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP.

“The bomber was in a passenger Toyota sedan. Police stopped the vehicle and wanted to search everyone. The bomber ran away and blew himself up. As a result of the explosion, one passenger was killed and two others wounded,” Salangi said.

Kabul crime branch chief, General Mohammad Zahir, said the attack happened in Mir Bacha Kot district, on the outskirts of Kabul. Two people were wounded, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Taliban last Friday vowed to increase their attacks during Ramadan. The insurgents have stepped up attacks on Afghan forces since they took responsibility for national security last month.

Some 100,000 US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan are preparing to withdraw from the country by the end of next year.

Egypt police arrest top Islamist Shater: general

July 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Egyptian police arrested on Friday Khairat al-Shater, widely seen as the most influential Islamist politician behind deposed president Mohamed Morsi, an interior ministry general told AFP.

“Khairat al-Shater and his brother have been arrested at the request of the prosecution,” said the general on condition of anonymity. “They went quietly.”

Science & Technology

Nobel prize-winning French biologist dies

April 21, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

French biologist Francois Jacob, who won the 1965 Nobel prize for medicine for his research into enzymes, has died at the age of 92, a relative told AFP on Sunday.

From: http://phys.org/news285783481.html

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/4q44yPFSxt8/

Belarus court says book of news photos 'extremist'

April 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A court in Belarus has branded a book of news photographs “extremist,” agreeing with the state security agency that the book set out to humiliate the country.

The work consists of photos taken in 2010 that won prizes in the 2011 Belarus Press Photo competition, including images of people protesting against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and a police crackdown on them.

Some of the photos were made by photographers working for international news agencies, including The Associated Press, Reuters and AFP.

The security agency, which is still called the KGB, said the photos were selected to “humiliate national honor and dignity.”

Articles of Interest

Pakistan’s Transgender Political Candidates Stake Claim In National Vote

April 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

Stereotyped as dancers, beggars and prostitutes, Pakistan‘s vibrant but shunned transgender community is striking out into politics with individuals contesting elections for the first time.

They may only be seven out of 23,000 candidates with little chance of getting elected, but they have livened up an otherwise lacklustre campaign and set an important marker for their rights in the conservative Muslim country.

“People don’t believe we can be corrupt because we don’t have children and families,” says independent candidate Sanam Faqeer in the southern city of Sukkur.

“We don’t need to collect wealth and build villas for our next generations by stealing people’s money as other politicians do,” she added.

In Pakistan, there are an estimated 500,000 “eunuchs” — a community of castrated men, hermaphrodites, transsexuals, transvestites and homosexuals, traditionally paid to help celebrate the birth of a son or to dance at weddings.

When the Supreme Court in 2009 recognised them as a “third gender”, ordering they be issued with separate identity cards, it was hailed as a landmark decision in a nation battling enormous human rights abuses and chronic violence.

But in a country where sexual relations outside marriage are taboo and homosexuality is illegal, transgender people are treated as sex objects and often become the victims of assault, ending up as little more than beggars.

Now Faqeer has given up dancing to focus on campaigning for the May 11 polls, telling AFP that the world of politics is more serious.

“My aim is to give justice to the poor, welfare to the old, promote meritocracy and the lives of cleaners and remove unemployment. Once elected, I will make my city cleaner and end the traffic chaos,” she said in her office.

Born in 1975 as Essa Gul, the son of a radical prayer leader, she has overcome immense personal pain.

Her strict father kept his children at home to be taught only the Koran and she was bullied by her brothers for “girlish” tendencies.

After her father died, her brothers forced her out aged 15 and she was taken under the wing of a prominent member of the transgender community.

She changed her name, grew out her hair, dressed permanently as a woman and spent the next decade dancing and working as a prostitute. She became popular and earned good money, but her ambitions spread wider.

She invested in a textiles business and started supplying bed sheets and ladies clothes door to door, allowing her to make new contacts in the city.

Then she branched out into welfare, providing care to elderly eunuchs and registered her own charity in 2009.

Today, her two-room apartment serves as a home, an institute offering transgender people computer training and therefore the prospect of more respectable work, the headquarters of her charity and as a campaign hub.

“I decided to live for others, because everybody lives for themselves but nobody sacrifices their life for others,” she said.

Having won the hearts of Sukkur’s transgender community and hundreds of poor people, she says her community asked her to stand for election.

All the transgender candidates are running as independents, limiting

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/pakistan-transgender-political-candidates-_n_3106370.html

Articles of Interest

Fakhrul Islam Shot Dead By Taliban: Pakistani Election Candidate Dies In Drive-By Killing In Hyderabad

April 11, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

A Pakistani grocer standing in next month’s historic polls was shot dead Thursday in a drive-by killing in the southern city of Hyderabad, the first candidate to die in the election campaign in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

Fakhrul Islam, 46, was a candidate for the secular Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a coalition partner in the outgoing government which has previously been threatened by Pakistan‘s umbrella Taliban faction.

He was killed by gunmen on motorcycles when he left the shop he owned with his father, police said.

Pakistan‘s interim prime minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso ordered an immediate tightening of security for all candidates.

“He sustained four bullets in his head and abdomen and died on the spot,” police official Akhtar Hussain told AFP.

Islam’s father was not injured, but police said he was in “deep shock”.

“We carried out this attack and shot dead Islam,” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP from an undisclosed location.

He said “the killing is part of our war with secular parties including MQM, Pakistan People’s Party and Awami National Party, which committed genocide of our tribal people and Muslims while remaining in power for five years.”

The Pakistani Taliban has directly threatened the main secular coalition partners in the outgoing government.

The killing of Islam, who was running for the Sindh provincial assembly, is likely to fuel concerns that violence will mar the national and regional elections on May 11.

The polls will mark the first democratic transition in the nuclear-armed country, which has been subject to extended periods of military rule.

The MQM said Islam had been targeted deliberately and accused “terrorists” of trying to sabotage a peaceful democratic process.

“The way he has been killed and his father remained unhurt shows the precision the killers have and also their intention to target him in particular,” said party spokesman Wasay Jalil.

“Terrorists are threatening to sabotage elections… but these terror acts will not deter us from taking part in elections and our stance against extremism and terrorism,” he added.

Hyderabad is the second largest city in Sindh after the port city of Karachi, which is deeply troubled by ethnic and political killings.

Philippines’ Black Market For Guns Thrives In Absence Of Trust In Security Forces

April 11, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

Bespectacled and clean shaven, 37-year-old Jomari Paraas could pass for a typical office employee in the Philippines, except he has six guns in his backpack that he will soon sell.

The father-of-two is a prolific player in the country’s enormous and lucrative weapons black market, which has been under scrutiny following a spate of high-profile massacres and shoot-outs this year.

“Why do I trade guns? Because there is a demand for it. And it’s extra income,” said Paraas, a former communist guerrilla whose day job as a community organiser for a non-government organisation is not enough to pay his bills.

Speaking to AFP in a crowded Manila slum where he was planning to sell the six guns, Paraas said he had been a firearms trader for more than a decade, starting in his late 20s when he quit the rebel movement.

Paraas is a made up name for security reasons, but his real identity has been vetted by a Filipino expert on security issues who advises local law enforcement officials on the gun trade.

Paraas started selling used guns and knock-offs of foreign brands made by illegal gunsmiths in the central and southern Philippines, before moving to more expensive weapons smuggled from abroad.

The American-made .22 calibre Magnum Black Widow revolvers in his bag were ordered by a buyer through a shadowy network of small-time gun runners who take advantage of the city’s urban squalor to peddle their deadly wares.

Their clients range from security-conscious house wives to slum dwellers and members of “private armies” employed by political warlords.

“They are light and easy to move, and in demand from many people because they primarily use it for self-defence,” Paraas said of the revolvers, which he sells for 5,000 pesos (120 dollars) each.

“Higher calibre guns and automatic rifles can also be bought, at a higher price.”

The proliferation of firearms in the Philippines has been in the spotlight since January, following a series of shooting-related deaths, including of two children hit by stray bullets on New Year’s Eve.

A drugs-crazed gunman also killed seven people in a slum rampage, and a shoot-out linked to a gambling turf war left 13 dead, among them corrupt police and military officers.

The Philippines has a strong gun culture dating back centuries, with a history of armed struggle against Spanish and US colonial rulers.

Today, people typically carry guns because they lack confidence in the country’s security forces to protect the public, according to security analysts and firearms traders.

There were 1.2 million registered firearms in the Philippines last year, with another 600,000 unlicensed firearms in circulation, according to national police data.

Getting a license to own a conventional gun is easy, subject to police clearance and security checks that include psychological tests, and firearms shops sit alongside clothes outlets in malls.

But getting one without a police clearance can be even easier.

Security analyst Ed Quitoriano, who regularly advises foreign embassies on threat issues, said there could be as many as four million unlicensed guns across the country.

The gun culture can be unsettling, particularly for foreign visitors.

Private security guards

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/11/philippines-guns-black-market_n_3058567.html

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Should You Buy Carnival Today?

April 10, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Royston Wild, The Motley Fool

Filed under: Investing

LONDON — Shares of cruise ship operator Carnival have endured a torrid time in recent weeks, slipping 15% from mid-February’s near-two-year high of 2,628 pence to current levels. The company has continued to endure tough press headlines following the Costa Concordia disaster in Jan. 2012, with an engine room fire and subsequent marooning of passengers on its Carnival Triumph ship in February once again denting investor interest in the company.

However, I view recent weakness as an excellent buying opportunity. Indeed, Liberum Capital has placed a 3,000 pence price target on the stock, illustrating the stock‘s excellent upside potential.

Carnival sails back into profit
Carnival announced in last month’s first-quarter update that it swung into a net profit of $37 million from a net loss of $139 million during the corresponding period in 2012. However, the results were overshadowed by news of further mechanical failures at two of its other liners, raising fresh fears over hefty repair bills and effect on customer demand.

The firm advised that, although cumulative advance bookings for this year are behind those of the same point in 2012, bookings have picked up in recent weeks, helped by attractive price promotions. And over the long term, I expect Carnival to successfully negotiate its current travails and boost passenger numbers — Investec has penciled in a compound annual capacity growth rate of 3.7% through to 2016.

In particular, Carnival looks set to make further headway into promising emerging markets, especially in Southeast Asia, and the company announced yesterday that its Sapphire Princess ship will be based in Singapore from the end of 2014. The firm told AFP that it expects cruise liner passengers in Asia to rise from around 1 million currently to 7 million by the end of the decade.

Double-digit earnings growth anchors investment case
City forecasters expect earnings per share to bounce back in the year ending Nov. 2013 after last year’s disastrous 23% drop to 118 pence. Growth of 14% is expected this year, to 134 pence, before steaming 22% higher in 2014 to 164 pence.

The holiday specialists currently change hands on a P/E ratio of 16.6 and 13.6 for this year and next, providing a discount to a forward earnings multiple of 17.6 for the broader travel and leisure sector.

Despite Carnival‘s earnings pressure in 2012, the company still hiked its dividend 21% to 63.5 pence per share, and broker estimates expect this to continue rising in the medium term. Payouts of 73.3 pence and 82.8 pence are penciled in for 2013 and 2014, correspondingly, up 15% and 13% on an annual basis and providing yields of 3.3% and 3.7%.

Not only are dividends set to shoot above the 3.2% average yield for the FTSE 100, but this exciting dividend growth is also expected to remain well protected, with coverage of 1.8 times and two times for this year and next around the widely regarded security threshold of two times.

Bolster your investment income with the Fool
If you already hold shares in Carnival and

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

France reportedly looking to buy US drones

April 7, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

France is reportedly considering buying American drones to boost the country’s defense capabilities after targeting Al Qaeda-linked extremists during a military operation in Mali.

France has made a request to Washington to purchase U.S.-made Reaper drones, which are currently being used to kill militants in Pakistan, according to French newspaper La Tribune.

“A letter has been sent to Washington to evaluate the feasibility” a French defense ministry source told AFP, France 24 reports.

On Thursday, France President Francois Hollande said the country’s troops would take part in a proposed U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali after they end their task of clearing Al Qaeda– linked rebels out of the African country’s vast northern region.

Hollande made the announcement as he spoke before Morocco‘s parliament, during a two-day visit celebrating the two nations’ close cooperation.

“France will soon complete its mission (in Mali) in a few weeks and African forces will take over,” Hollande said. “The Security Council is going to deploy a peacekeeping operation and France will play its part.”

There are currently two proposals in front of the U.N. for peacekeeping operations, including giving the lead to an African-led force currently on the ground or authorizing a full U.N.-led force of 11,200 troops that would conduct combat operations and operate alongside a non-U.N. force that would continue counter-terrorism operations.

Mali plunged into turmoil after a coup in March 2012 created a security vacuum. That allowed secular rebel Tuaregs, who have long felt marginalized by Mali‘s government, to take half of the country’s vast north as a new homeland. But months later, their struggle was co-opted by jihadists who imposed strict Islamic law in the north.

France launched a military operation on Jan. 11 against the Islamic extremists, many of whom are linked to Al Qaeda, after they began moving south and captured key towns. Backed by Chadian troops, the French ousted the militants from major towns in northern Mali, though many went into hiding in the desert and continue to stage attacks.

Hollande said last week that the first of France‘s more than 4,000 troops in Mali will pull out in late April and, by July, the French contingent will be down to 2,000 soldiers. He said just 1,000 will remain by the end of the year.

Click for more from France24.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from AFP.

Women's rights activists stage international 'Topless Jihad' day

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Scores of scantily clad women grabbed attention at mosques and Tunisian embassies all over Europe on Thursday by participating in “Topless Jihad” rallies to protest what they say is an Islamist crackdown on Arab women’s rights.

AFP reported the Ukrainian women’s power group Femen staged the rallies in several European capitals, including Paris, Berlin, and Kiev, to spotlight the case of Tunisian activist Amina Tyler. Tyler caused controversy last month when she posted online photos of herself with the words “My body belongs to me” and “F— your morals” emblazoned across her naked breasts (though she fully spelled out the operative verb).

Now her supporters fear she may be criminally prosecuted for her act.

Police in Kiev immediately detained two young female activists who wrote “Free Amina” on their chests when they arrived at a local mosque.An AFP photographer witnessed police deterring some two dozen bare-breasted feminists tagged with “No Islamists” messages in Paris as they approached the Tunisian embassy there.

“We’re free, we’re naked, it’s our right, it’s our body it’s our rules, and nobody can use religion and some other holy things to abuse women, to oppress them,” Femen member Alexandra Shevchenko told AFP at a small protest at a Berlin mosque.

The Femen group has made headlines in recent years for feminist, pro-democracy and anti-corruption protests.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Friday a group of Muslim women launched a counter campaign –” Muslimah Pride Day“– on some social media sites, in response to the demonstrations. The women have posted photos of themselves with various messages to Femen like “Nudity does not liberate me.”