Record oil prices should mean boom times for Nigeria’s oil industry, but rising militant violence, labour unrest and years of government neglect cast a shadow over its future. Africa’s largest oil producer saw its two million barrel-a-day production halved last month by an eight-day strike at United States oil major Exxon Mobil.
This week Switzerland will become ground zero for the future of health policy in Africa. The World Health Organisation’s intergovernmental working group is meeting in Geneva to discuss public health, medical innovation and intellectual property. Many participants are expected to express their support for efforts to undermine patent protections for drugs.
The main militant group behind a string of recent attacks in Nigeria’s southern oil region said on Friday it had sabotaged another pipeline. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said its fighters hit a pipeline late on Thursday in southern Rivers State — bringing to four the number of pipelines the group has reportedly hit in the past week.
Federal cybersecurity officials are trying to develop an early-warning system that alerts authorities to incoming computer attacks targeting critical United States infrastructure, says Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. His keynote speech on Tuesday at the RSA security conference, however, was light on details.
On a screen at the front of a classroom, Gene Fishel flashed an online social-networking profile of "hotlilflgirl", which said she was 15, enjoyed being around boys and wanted to meet new people. The next image revealed the real "hotlilflgirl" — a mug shot of a man who was convicted of sexually abusing 11 children he met online.
Comoran and African forces on Wednesday battled die-hard supporters of Anjouan’s fugitive strongman as the federal authorities pledged a transition government in the Indian Ocean isle by the end of the week. Mohamed Bacar (45) was still on the run on the second day of the military operation.
Call them Pavlov’s fish: scientists are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time. If it works, the system could eventually allow black sea bass to be released into the open ocean, where they would grow to market size, then swim into an underwater cage to be harvested.
A coalition of Comoran and African Union (AU) troops on Wednesday combed Anjouan hunting for its renegade leader after invading the Indian Ocean island the day before. The coalition staged its long-awaited landing in Anjouan’s capital and main port of Mutsamudu, where they were greeted by cheering residents.
The road from Harar runs for more than 960km east towards the border with Somalia, penetrating deep into the desiccated badlands of the Ogaden desert, the dusty heart of Ethiopia’s war-torn Somali regional state. This is the land that the self-styled separatists of the Ogaden National Liberation Front claim as their own.
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma called on Tuesday for eleventh-hour talks in Comoros as African Union troops prepared to support federal forces in a bid to take control of the rebel island of Anjouan. ”The federal government first wants the disputed elections dissolved,” she said.
Animal rights activists declared themselves human shields on Saturday and vowed to prevent authorities from killing kangaroos that have overrun a Canberra military base. Last week, the Australian government enraged animal lovers by approving the killing of about 400 kangaroos at risk of death from starvation.
The prospect of recession is looming over the American presidential election campaign, amid a wave of job losses and collapsing home prices that could see the political battle being fought in the middle of an economy in crisis. Last week was marked by rising oil prices, tens of thousands of lost jobs and plummeting share prices.
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/ 14 January 2008
It’s an exacting task campaigning for president — you have to be an expert on everything, including gas-electric hybrid propulsion systems for a new generation of sedan cars. Campaigning for Tuesday’s Michigan primary, the leading Republican candidates dropped in on the Detroit motor show to emphasise their dedication to helping the region’s shrinking car industry.
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/ 14 December 2007
For the first time in more than 40 years a United States state is to abolish the death penalty. A 44-36 vote in the New Jersey legislature to abolish executions in the state on Thursday followed approval for the measure in the state senate on Monday.
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/ 4 December 2007
Brad Pitt launched his own regeneration project for Katrina-ravaged New Orleans on Monday, unveiling designs for a range of eco-friendly and flood-proof homes. Pitt, who had ambitions to be an architect if he had not taken up acting, commissioned 13 architectural firms to produce houses that would incorporate solar power and other environmentally-sound designs.
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/ 23 November 2007
A series of near-simultaneous explosions ripped through courthouse complexes on Friday in three north Indian cities, killing at least 13 lawyers and injuring dozens more, officials said. Federal authorities blamed militants trying to spark unrest between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority.
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/ 15 November 2007
Unknown attackers blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline on Thursday, extending a month-old resurgence of violence against Africa’s top oil producer and dashing hopes for a government peace drive. The pipeline attack at Royal Dutch Shell’s Forcados oil terminal was a setback to the company’s efforts to restore output from the Niger Delta.
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/ 10 November 2007
Rudy Giuliani’s bid to become Republican candidate for United States president faces months of questioning on the campaign trail, after his friend and protégé Bernard Kerik was on Friday charged with corruption and lying to cover up his misdeeds.
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/ 24 October 2007
After three days of a vicious firestorm, exhausted firefighters and weary residents looked forward on Wednesday to a break — an expected slackening of the gale-force winds that have ignited California’s largest complex of wildland blazes. ”By Thursday, we’re expecting it to be pretty much over,” said a meteorologist.
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/ 24 October 2007
Japanese Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said on Wednesday he wanted to consider more ‘tranquil’ methods of execution. ”I am fully aware that ‘death by hanging’ is written in the criminal code,” Hatoyama said after a parliamentary committee meeting. It was not clear what other methods he was considering.
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/ 30 September 2007
A court case brought by Nigeria against Pfizer resumes on Tuesday with the United States drug maker saying it answered a call for help to save the lives of African children during a meningitis epidemic. Nigeria alleges Pfizer deceived patients and caused the death of 11 children in 1996 when it performed clinical trials for a new drug.
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/ 30 September 2007
For Barack Obama it was a daring move: hold a rally last week in the heart of New York, the fortress home of his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton. It seemed to pay off. As he bounded onto the stage in Manhattan’s Washington Square in front of a packed crowd of 25 000, he beamed his broad smile and shouted: ”Look at this crowd!”
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/ 24 September 2007
Western oil companies reinforced security in Nigeria on Monday after a rebel group threatened to resume attacks on Africa’s largest oil industry, but security sources played down the risk of a major disruption. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta threatened fresh attacks on oil facilities.
The King of New Orleans, Fats Domino, is one of the few optimistic people in the still devastated city. ”Everybody is doing the best they can. I think New Orleans will recover,” he says on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. That is not a view shared by many of the city’s 250 000-plus residents still waiting to return to their homes.