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High oil prices trouble Europe’s economies

By STEFAN NICOLA
UPI Energy Correspondent

BERLIN, May 23 (UPI) — First the high euro, now this: ever-rising oil prices have shocked observers, who fear Europe’s export-driven economies will take a beating.

Anyone remember 2002? The New England Patriots won their first Super Bowl, Ben Affleck was dating Jennifer Lopez, and oil prices were at roughly $30 a barrel. An Iraq war, an Iranian nuclear crisis and some worrying global warming reports later, prices this week for the first time jumped above the $135 mark.

German industry, which is fueled by its exports, is worried:

“It is the sum of rising oil prices, strong euro, slower U.S. economic growth and the financial crisis that gets to companies,” Matthias Kraemer, economic expert at the Federation of German Industries, or BDI, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

KLM-Air France, Europe’s biggest airline, already has warned of severe changes to be faced by the air travel industry in light of the high prices, and German carmakers like Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and Porsche are worried that the high prices for gasoline may have a negative impact on sales of their most powerful cars. And German companies are already battling the effect of the weak dollar — euro-valued goods are becoming increasingly expensive for customers in the United States, still the largest importer of German goods.

Of course, the strong euro also has its positives, because it was able to somewhat absorb the rising prices for oil, which is valued in dollars.

“That’s why there is no cause for panic,” Claudia Kemfert, energy analyst at the German Institute for Economic Affairs, a Berlin-based think tank, told United Press International Friday in a telephone interview. “The economic upswing in Asia continues, and German exports will benefit from that. … Only if energy prices remain on such a high level for the next six months or so, will we have to start worrying.”

But that just may be the case: Analysts are revising their price forecasts, with some saying $140, and others $200, could be written on the tag for a barrel of crude in the future.

Analysts for the past months also have warned about possible oil shortages over the next years as production and new discoveries fail to keep up with rising demand.

The United States has just published weaker-than-expected weekly oil inventory data; Russia has failed to push forward with developing its oil fields in the Barents Sea; and as for the reserves of the OPEC countries — no one knows what they are exactly. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, was expected to raise production levels from 12 million barrels to 15 million barrels a day, but that hasn’t happened yet. Whether they can’t, or they simply don’t want to, remains a matter of speculation.

“Speculation” is one of the dark words in the oil business: Whether scalpers are the cause of high oil prices or simply the drying out of wells is a source for hot debates.

This has led several groups in Europe to warn that the oil age is coming to an end, with the peak of production already reached or at least imminent, they say. Add to that the growing thirst for oil in countries like China and India, and you know why some predict an oil shortage of as much as 15 million barrels a day by 2030.

Even the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based policy advisory group for industrialized countries, said earlier this week it was revising its new oil supply prospects, sparking yet another price hike in midweek trading.

Of course, the end of the oil age has been announced for years, and concerns about future supplies have always been there. Yet it seems inevitable for oil producers to increase their investments in prospective new fields to avert the oil shortage everyone is warning of.

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/05/23/analysis_europe_worried_by_oil_prices/3348/

Iran mosque blast plotters admit Israeli, US links: report

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s chief prosecutor said bombers who caused a deadly blast at a mosque in Shiraz had confessed of links to Israel and the United States, the ISNA student news agency reported on Friday.

“Those responsible for the attack against the Shiraz mosque have confessed to having links to worldwide oppression, in particular the United States and Israel,” Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi was quoted by the agency as saying.

They also admitted carrying out “one or two minor operations,” the agency said, without providing further details except to say the group launched military operations a year ago.

The April 12 blast in the southern city left 13 people dead and more than 200 wounded. Authorities subsequently announced the arrest of 15 people.

Earlier Friday, senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami said people had also plotted attacks in the holy city of Qom, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Tehran, and at a book fair held in the capital.

Iran has already accused Britain and the United States of training and financing those behind the bombing. In the past it has also blamed US and British agents based in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan for launching attacks on border provinces with significant ethnic minority populations.

The strike in Shiraz was the first in decades in Iran’s Persian heartland. The normally placid city is not in a border zone, nor is it home to any significant ethnic or religious minority population.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080523/wl_mideast_afp/iranunrestusisraeltrial

Army medic admits torturing Iraqi boy, 14

By Christopher Leake 

An Army medic who has admitted kicking and punching a 14-year-old Iraqi boy once served alongside Victoria Cross hero Johnson Beharry
A junior Army medic has admitted kicking and punching a 14-year-old Iraqi boy, then watching as colleagues ‘hooded’ him with a sandbag.

The Lance-Corporal told how the teenager was bound and kicked before being left in stifling heat inside a Warrior armoured vehicle for more than an hour without water.

According to the admissions – in statements to the Royal Military Police – the boy, who survived the ordeal, was kicked and punched each time he asked for water.

The medic, in his early 20s and from the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, was commended for his bravery after an operation in Iraq, and once served alongside Victoria Cross hero Johnson Beharry.

His confession has reignited a row over the alleged abuse of prisoners of war by British troops. Sources say RMP officers are investigating whether other soldiers cleared of wrongdoing in the same incident lied.

The alleged abuses came in the aftermath of a bloody firefight in Iraq in 2004 which led to the deaths of at least 20 Iraqi civilians. The so-called Battle of Danny Boy has led to allegations that soldiers covered up the alleged torture and execution of civilians.

The revelation that a boy was the victim of alleged brutality will raise fresh concerns about why the ‘hooding’ of prisoners of war – a practice banned by former Prime Minister Edward Heath more than 30 years ago – was still taking place in Iraq.

The row comes as the Army braces itself for a public inquiry by a judge into the death in custody of Iraqi hotel worker Baha Mousa, who was arrested with nine other Iraqis after a raid in Basra. A postmortem examination revealed he had suffered asphyxiation and 93 injuries to his body.

An MoD spokesman said: ‘This is the subject of an ongoing investigation which means it is inappropriate for us to comment.’

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Medvedev to build Strategic Partnership

with Peoples Republic of China

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday that Russia and China will continue to develop their strategic partnership despite any objections from third countries.

The president, on the second day of his official visit to Beijing, told students at Peking University: “Perhaps such strategic cooperation between our countries does not please everyone, but we understand that interaction is in the interests of our nations, and we will strengthen it in all possible ways – whether people like it or not.”

Russia and China have taken a shared stance on many global issues in recent years, often opposing the position of the United States.

On Friday, the Russian leader signed a joint declaration with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, condemning U.S. moves to establish a global missile defense system, and saying the plans threaten the global strategic balance.

The plans also weaken “confidence-building measures between countries and the consolidation of regional stability,” yesterday’s statement said.

Medvedev told the group of students: “Russian-Chinese cooperation is now becoming a key factor in international security – a factor without which it would be impossible to take fundamental decisions through international cooperation.”

He also said new spheres of cooperation should be developed through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), particularly the sphere of energy.

The SCO, a regional bloc comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, primarily addresses security issues, but has recently moved to embrace various economic and social projects. The SCO has been widely seen as a counterweight to NATO in the region.

“Within the framework of this organization we are able to coordinate new directions of cooperation, including on the energy issue,” Medvedev said.

Earlier in the day, the president visited a monument on Tiananmen Square, and later met with the chairman of the National People’s Congress.

He laid a wreath at the Monument to the People’s Heroes, built in the 1950s to commemorate those who died defending China in the 19th and 20th centuries.

During his meeting with National People’s Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo, Medvedev stressed the importance of parliamentary ties between the two countries.

“These are vital contacts. It is good that our contacts are being developed not only on the level of the top leadership… We hope that parliamentary cooperation will continue in the future,” Medvedev said.

The president also expressed his condolences to the Chinese people over the May 12 earthquake in the Sichuan province, which has claimed between 60,000 and 80,000 lives.

Wu told Medvedev his country highly values Russia’s support in the quake-hit area.

Russia “sent humanitarian aid, and swiftly came to us with a team of Russian rescuers. Real friendship is shown in difficult times, as we say in China. This is a genuine reflection of the nature of our relations,” the chairman said.

Russia will send nine military planes to China later today carrying equipment for the ongoing relief operation, in line with instructions issued by Medvedev to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

Gen. Vladimir Isakov, a deputy defense minister, said: “Nine planes will urgently be sent to deliver 23 mobile kitchens, 300 large army tents, and 3,000 woolen blankets.”

A Russian Mi-26 helicopter left for China today carrying two rescue teams to help with the relief operation.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier that the death toll in the Sichuan province could rise to 80,000 as most of the missing are presumed dead.

The disaster has left over five million people homeless.

For more information in Russian
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080524/108264551.html

Shouldn’t that be the US there doing business with Russia . No, USA chooses to attack Russian interest in the former Republics instead

Syria rejects linking Israel peace with cutting off Iran

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria will not accept preconditions over its resumed peace talks with Israel and will not compromise its relations with other states, the government daily Tishrin said on Saturday, referring to Iran.

“Damascus rejects all preconditions concerning its relations with other countries and peoples,” it said after an Israeli call for Damascus to distance itself from Tehran, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.

“Damascus will make no compromise on these relations,” an editorial said.

Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday they had launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as go-between, after an eight-year freeze.

Israel’s Housing Minister Zeev Boim said peace “can be reached with the Syrians only if they end all terror activities, including supporting and arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and giving up their strategic dependence on Iran.”

Israel regards Iran as its greatest strategic threat.

A three-decade alliance between Damascus and Tehran was bolstered in 2006, when they signed an agreement on military cooperation.

A first round of peace feelers between Syria and Israel last year ran up against Damascus’s objection to any explicit linkage between a peace deal and its support for Iran and Arab militant groups.

Last June, Syria’s ruling coalition, the National Progressive Front, accused Israel of trying to “impose conditions which have nothing to do with the principles of peace.”

Israel also wants Syria to stop supporting Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups. Damascus has repeatedly denied having links to such organisations.

Tishrin said on Saturday that adding non-negotiable conditions to the indirect talks would hamstring efforts to achieve peace.

“Syria is not concerned with Israeli (policy) but with peace and achieving it by the shortest route,” the editorial said.

Damascus says it has received Israeli commitments for a full withdrawal from the occupied-Golan Heights, the main sticking point in previous talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has carefully avoided mentioning the Golan but has drawn fire after hinting that Israel would have to pay a painful price for a peace accord.

The strategic Golan plateau was seized by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised internationally.

On Wednesday Boim, of Olmert’s centrist Kadima party, said he opposes “in principle any withdrawal from the Golan Heights.”

“Nevertheless we should hear exactly how and on what issues the negotiations are held,” he added.

Syria insists that any negotiations with Israel must be based exclusively on the principle of the exchange of land for peace.

The Golan, which rises from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is now home to some 20,000 Israeli settlers and key military installations.

In the past Damascus has insisted that the entire Golan Heights be returned, and also that it have access to the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main source of fresh water.

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