more oil, moil

Royal Dutch Shell has won the contract for the expansive Manjoon oil field in Iraq, beating Total of France. Shell accepted a fee of $1.39/barrel and promised to boost production to 1.8m barrels/day from 46,000 barrels/day currently.
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As Central and South American drug cartels have expanded their cocaine trade to Europe, West African nations have fallen under the corrupting influence of these powerful organizations. The central governments of Guinea-Bissau, Ghana and Burkina Faso (among others) are crying foul as the criminal networks within their countries have flowered and expanded control in partnership with militant Islamist groups.

In 2001, 273kg of cocaine were seized off the West African coast. In 2007, seizures totaled 14.5 tons. The UNODC estimates that 50 tons, valued at around $2b, flows through the region annually.

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The American students apprehended in eastern Pakistan will be deported to the United States, according to Pakistani officials. The 5 DC area students attempted to connect with Islamic extremist networks in the Af-Pak border region through Facebook and Youtube. Bloomberg reports the total number of American scheduled for deportation following Pakistani investigation at 6 (idk?).

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The Pakistan military offensive into Taliban strongholds in North and South Waziristan has forced militants back to Afghanistan. 'The Paks, I think, are doing a good job of putting pressure on their side of the border and we're obviously going to do an even better job of putting pressure on the Afghan side the border,' Gates said, referring to US President Barack Obama's decision to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

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Firebomb attack on a mosque in Yasuf, West Bank. BBC News implicates Israeli settlers.

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The “music” may have stopped for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.