BP reportedly in talks to sell Alaska oil field
Prized Prudhoe Bay asset part of $12 billion deal to help pay for Gulf disaster
msnbc.com
LONDON – BP is in talks to sell up to $12 billion of assets, including its big stake in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in North America, The Sunday Times of London reported.
A sale would be the latest of several steps the beleaguered oil giant is taking to raise money to pay for damages from the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Times said.
BP has entered talks with American rival Apache Corp., which approached the British company, the Times said. Negotiations are under way over the structure of the agreement and what other assets could be included, it said.
Native American tribe reclaims slice of the Hamptons after court victory
Shinnecock nation recovers ancestral lands in millionaires’ Long Island playground after gaining federal recognition
Paul Harris in Southampton, New York
The Observer, Sunday 11 July 2010
From a distance the teardrop-shaped peninsula looks just like any other bit of the famed Hamptons shoreline. Thick woods crowd down to the water’s edge, and through the trees houses and roads can be glimpsed.But this land is not part of the Hamptons, neither is it really part of the United States any more. This patch – in the middle of the playground to Manhattan’s social elite – is proudly and fiercely Native American country.
Almost four centuries since their first contact with the white man and after a 32-year court battle that has just ended in victory, the tiny Shinnecock tribe has now been formally recognised by America’s federal government.
USA
BP works to swap out oil well cap in undersea maneuver
By T.W. Farnam and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 11, 2010
BP took one step back Saturday in order to take two steps forward in its struggle to tame the gushing Macondo oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, removing a cap that was catching some of the oil in the hopes of replacing it with one that would capture most or all of the leaking crude.
The effort was broadcast live via Web video cameras attached to remotely operated vehicles at the sea floor, revealing movements as frenetic as the final minutes of a close soccer match and as slow-motion as a space walk. Ungainly robotic arms and claws lassoed tools, wrestled the first of six giant bolts off a piece of broken pipe and nudged devices into position while a brightly illuminated brownish geyser of oil and gas surged upward.
Scientists expected Obama administration to be friendlier
A culture of politics trumping science, many say, persists despite the president’s promises. The use of potentially toxic dispersants to fight the gulf oil spill is cited as just one example.
By Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger, Tribune Washington BureauReporting from Washington – When he ran for president, Barack Obama attacked the George W. Bush administration for putting political concerns ahead of science on such issues as climate change and public health. And during his first weeks in the White House, President Obama ordered his advisors to develop rules to “guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch.”
Many government scientists hailed the president’s pronouncement. But a year and a half later, no such rules have been issued.
Europe
Spanish bulldozers target Britons’ homes
More than 300,000 houses in Andulcia have been declared illegal, many owned by retired expats
By Alasdair Fotheringham Sunday, 11 July 2010
John Pritchard, a British pensioner living in Spain, is having problems sleeping at nights but it has nothing to do with age. He just can’t stop imagining the noise that bulldozers sent by the town hall will make if they come to knock down his house. “I think I can hear them. It’s the stress,” he says, while his wife is so distraught about the possibility, she will not even be interviewed.Mr Pritchard is not the only British expat worried about his house being declared illegal by one set of Spanish regional government officials, despite local planners originally giving it the green light.
Survivors seek answers on Srebrenica massacre anniversary
Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday mark 15 years since 8,000 Muslim men and boys were systematically killed by Bosnian Serb forces in what became known as the Srebrenica massacre. But questions still surround the tragedy.
WAR CRIMES | 11.07.2010
The Srebrenica massacre on July 11, 1995 was Europe’s worst since World War Two.Srebrenica was a UN protected enclave besieged by Serb forces throughout the 1992-95 war. But UN troops there offered no resistance when the Serbs overran the town, rounded its Muslim Bosnian population and killed over 8,000 men and boys.
The 1992-95 Bosnian war left 100,000 dead and displaced 1 million on all sides.
Slow search for victims
On Friday, thousands of people lined the main street of Sarajevo as trucks bearing more coffins passed through on the way to Srebrenica, some 100 miles to the south-east in eastern Bosnia. On Sunday, 775 recently identified massacre victims will be interred at the Potocari war cemetry.
In the Drina Valley, the remains of 8,372 victims of the Srebrenica massacre have been exhumed from 275 mass graves in recent years. So far 6,557 victims have been identified, and many more murdered Muslim civilians are still missing.
Middle East
Israeli academics hit back over bid to pass law that would criminalise them
Backlash over threat to outlaw supporters of boycott movement aimed at ending the continued occupation of the West Bank
Rachel Shabi in Jerusalem and Peter Beaumont
The Observer, Sunday 11 July 2010
An academic backlash has erupted in Israel over proposed new laws, backed by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, to criminalise a handful of Israeli professors who openly support a campaign against the continuing occupation of the West Bank.The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel has gained rapid international support since Israeli troops stormed a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships in May, killing nine activists. Israeli attention has focused on the small number of activists, particularly in the country’s universities, who have openly supported an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.
Libyan aid ship sails for Gaza
SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2010
A Libya-sponsored ship carrying 2,000 tonnes of aid has set sail from Greece for the blockaded Gaza Strip in spite of warnings from Israel not to approach the Palestinian territory.The captain of the Al-Amal vessel, a Cuban national, confirmed to Al Jazeera on Saturday shortly before leaving the Lavrio Port, in southeastern Greece, that he planned to head for Gaza.
That would contradict a statement from the Israeli foreign ministry, which claims to have reached an agreement with Greece and Moldova to have the ship diverted to Egypt.
Asia
Japanese voters head to polls
SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2010
Voters in Japan have been casting their ballots in a parliamentary election seen as a crucial test for the country’s prime minister after just a month in office.Opinion polls have forecast that Naoto Kan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will likely lose seats in the 242-member upper house of the Japanese parliament, where half the seats are up for grabs.
The result of Sunday’s vote will not directly affect the DPJ’s grip on power because it has a majority in the more powerful lower house.
Revealed: How strategy to train Afghan forces is in deep trouble
IoS investigation finds Afghan army and police riddled with addicts, illiterates and insurgents
By Jonathan Owen and Brian Brady Sunday, 11 July 2010
The strategic plan of creating an Afghan security force to replace US and British troops fighting in Afghanistan is in serious disarray with local forces a fraction of their reported size, infiltrated by the Taliban at senior levels, and plagued by corruption and drug addiction, an Independent on Sunday investigation can reveal.And the way in which their capacity has been assessed over several years, during which time tens of billions of dollars have been spent on building up Afghan security forces, is so flawed that it has been scrapped.
Africa
Africa’s untold story is of a booming continent and a growing middle class
Images of war, poverty and famine are being replaced by expanding economies and a new global potential
David Smith in Johannesburg
The Observer, Sunday 11 July 2010
Ten years ago the Economist pulled no punches in a cover story about Africa with its headline: “The hopeless continent.” Now Africa is leading the way with a “spectacular” recovery from the global recession thanks to decades of market reform and strong trade ties with China, the African Development Bank’s (ADB) chief economist said last week.Mthuli Ncube, predicted a growth rate of 4.5% for the continent’s economies this year. The bank expects more than 5% growth next year, then a return to the average of about 6% Africa enjoyed between 2003 and 2008 before the recession bit.
Winners and losers: The legacy of the 2010 World Cup
What will it all mean for South Africa when the circus has packed up and gone?
By Steve Bloomfield and Simon Hart Sunday, 11 July 2010
Spain or Holland will lift the most coveted trophy in sport tonight, but it is the success or failure of only one nation that matters in the longer run. After months of toil, media inquisition, doubts and controversies, South Africa is about to discover whether hosting the world’s biggest sporting event will pay off.South Africa, despite its national team going out in the first round, is already benefiting from a new sense of national pride and identity, as well as an economic boost from the thousands of travelling fans and £2.8bn of infrastructure projects.
Latin America
In Haiti, the Displaced Are Left Clinging to the Edge
By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: July 10, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hundreds of displaced families live perilously in a single file of flimsy shanties planted along the median strip of a heavily congested coastal road here called the Route des Rails.Vehicles rumble by day and night, blaring horns, kicking up dust and belching exhaust. Residents try to protect themselves by positioning tires as bumpers in front of their shacks but cars still hit, injure and sometimes kill them. Rarely does anybody stop to offer help, and Judith Guillaume, 23, often wonders why.