Libya has plunged into lawlessness and ruin

Libya has almost entirely stopped producing oil as the government loses control of much of the country to militia fighters.

Mutinying security men have taken over oil ports on the Mediterranean and are seeking to sell crude oil on the black market. Ali Zeidan, Libya’s Prime Minister, has threatened to “bomb from the air and the sea” any oil tanker trying to pick up the illicit oil from the oil terminal guards, who are mostly former rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi and have been on strike over low pay and alleged government corruption since July.

As world attention focused on the coup in Egypt and the poison gas attack in Syria over the past two months, Libya has plunged unnoticed into its worst political and economic crisis since the defeat of Gaddafi two years ago. Government authority is disintegrating in all parts of the country putting in doubt claims by American, British and French politicians that Nato’s military action in Libya in 2011 was an outstanding example of a successful foreign military intervention which should be repeated in Syria. Read more >>

Is silver back in the bull market?

It is silver's time to shine after the precious metal climbed for seven straight sessions to notch gains not seen in nearly five years, and analysts say its winning streak is far from over.

Silver prices rallied to almost $23 a troy ounce on Thursday, after logging collective gains of 17 percent in over the past seven sessions, as a surge in gold prices and a more positive outlook for global industrial production boosted sentiment.

"It's something that you can't really ignore at the moment...There is plenty of talk about silver being in a bull market now, after the recent gains, it does look like it is in really good stead," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at trading firm IG.

Silver prices, which are closely correlated to gold, have followed steep falls in the yellow metal this year. Silver plunged 40 percent from the highs of at the start of the year to lows of $18.19 in June 28, while gold dropped 29 percent over the same period.

Demand for the precious metals, which are viewed as safe havens, waned as investors grew more confident over a more stable global economy. However, prices have recovered in recent weeks as Fed dialogue suggested tapering plans could be delayed and a flare up of violence in Egypt renewed appetite for the safe haven assets. Read more >>

Gas prices expected to surge again

Rising crude oil prices and a fall in U.S. supplies are driving wholesale gas prices up sharply. That has yet to be fully reflected at the retail level.

Prices at the pump — up 4 cents the past week to a national average of $3.52 a gallon — could climb another 15 cents or higher over the next two weeks. A year ago, the national average was $3.38.

"It's getting ugly,'' says Patrick DeHaan, senior analyst for GasBuddy.com. "First and foremost, the political problems in Egypt are driving crude oil prices, but there has also been a sharp drop in oil supplies the past two weeks. This is coming at a time when demand is at its annual July peak."

Egypt is not a major oil supplier, but ongoing political woes threaten Middle Eastern shipments and were the catalyst behind crude oil prices rising to 15-month highs earlier this week. Benchmark West Texas crude oil eased 1.5% to $104.91 a barrel Thursday. Wholesale gas prices — up 30 cents to 50 cents a gallon on some markets since late June — rose 0.8% to $3.04 a gallon for mid-August delivery. Typically, pump prices are about 75 cents higher. Read more >>

Egypt: Protesters storm Muslim Brotherhood HQ

Protesters stormed and ransacked the Cairo headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group early Monday, in an attack that could spark more violence as demonstrators gear up for a second day of mass rallies aimed at forcing the Islamist leader from power.

Organizers of the protests, meanwhile, gave Morsi until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to step down and called on the police and the military to clearly state their support for what the protest movement called the popular will.

Sunday saw millions of Egyptians flood the streets nationwide in a massive outpouring of anger and frustration with the president and the Brotherhood, the Islamist group that propelled Morsi to power. The protests were largely peaceful, although in a sign of the volatility of the country's divisions, clashes erupted in the evening around the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters between armed Morsi supporters barricaded inside the building and young protesters pelting it with firebombs and rocks. Read more >>

Egyptian Military Coup In 48 Hours If No Solution Found

The Egyptian Military just made a publc statement on Egyptian TV and it appears the country is close to another military coup:

*EGYPTIAN MILITARY SAYS WON'T BE PART OF POLITICS

*EGYPT MILITARY SAYS NATIONAL SECURITY SUBJECTED TO GRAVE DANGER

*EGYPTIAN MILITARY SAYS PROTESTS 'UNPRECEDENTED'

*EGYPTIAN MILITARY SAYS HOMELAND FACING DIRE SITUATION

*EGYPT'S MILITARY SAYS WILL NOT BE PARTY TO POLITICS OR POWER

*EGYPT MILITARY SAYS CALLS FOR MEETING THE DEMANDS OF THE PEOPLE

*EGYPT MILITARY MAY HAVE TO OFFER ROADMAP AFTER 48 HOURS

Read more >>

The Effect of Cell Phone Coverage and Political Violence in Africa

Cell phone use in Africa has increased significantly in recent years; its nearly 649 million mobile users in 2011 made it the second-largest market for mobile phones in the world after Asia.

Furthermore, the continent has the fastest-growing cell phone market in the world, maintaining an annual growth rate of almost 20% since 2007. This has substantially contributed to economic development within the continent as a result of various innovations and improvements, from mobile banking to faster communications between merchants and customers, as the World Bank notes.

In Kenya, the success of the mobile banking system M-pesa has opened the door for a multitude of mobile phone tech startups, prompting some to refer to the country as the “Silicon Savannah.” (It should be noted, however, that mobile phone technology in Africa frequently does not afford robust Internet access, with all its innovation potential.)

The benefits of mobile technology in other regions are widely hailed. The availability of cell phones and use of social media is often credited with playing a key role in the Arab Spring, which toppled dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia, and sparked protest movements throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Read more >>

Food prices may be catalyst for 2013 revolutions

What is the trigger for a revolution? Sometimes it a brutal act of repression. Sometimes it a lost war, or a natural catastrophe, that exposes the failings of a regime. But more often than not, it is soaring food prices.

The easiest prediction to make for 2013 is that everything we eat will once again rise sharply in price. So where will the revolutions start this year? Keep an eye on Algeria and Greece — and if you want to feel very nervous, Russia and China. And if you are smart, keep your money out of those countries as well.

Reuters Food prices around the world could soar this year if there’s a repeat of 2012’s drought in the American Midwest.

The link between the cost of feeding your family and political turmoil is too well-established to be ignored. We saw it most recently with the Arab Spring of 2011. The uprisings that deposed the autocracies of the Middle East had their roots in food inflation. Most of the Middle East countries import 50% or more of their food, making them acutely vulnerable to rising commodity prices. In Egypt the food inflation rate hit 19% in early 2011. For President Hosni Mubarak that was game over. The regime was finished.
Read more >>

Egypt uprising film depicts crippling social divide

When horse and camel riders attacked protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square during last year's uprising, Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah was struck by one of the most vivid examples of how Egypt's huge class divide is exploited by powerful elites.

Nasrallah's "After the Battle" tells the story of how one of the horsemen struggles to come to terms with his role in the aftermath of one of the most violent incidents of the 18-day-uprising which toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Actor Bassem Samra portrays impoverished tour guide Mahmoud from Cairo's Pyramids area, who is coerced into taking part in the brutal attack on crowds of anti-government demonstrators packed into Cairo's streets that has since become known as "The Battle of the Camel".

He is badly beaten by protesters and in the months afterwards he and his family are taunted and ridiculed for allowing himself to be duped into taking part in an attack that is widely thought to have been instigated by the agents of Mubarak's state apparatus. Read more >>

Egypt allows Iranian warship through Suez despite U.S. objection

Egypt has again allowed an Iranian Navy ship to pass the Suez Canal toward Syria. A senior official said the Egyptian Navy approved the passage of an Iranian ship loaded with weapons to move from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

The official said Egypt dismissed a request by the United States to stop the Iranian ship at the canal. “The Egyptian Navy refused a U.S. request to strike an Iranian ship loaded with weapons that was on its way to Syria through the Suez Canal,” Mohab Mamish, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said.

In an Aug. 26 interview with an Egyptian television station, Al Hayat, Mamish, replaced as Egyptian Navy commander earlier this month, did not say when the Iranian weapons ship traveled through the canal. Mamish, a former member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said he was authorized to make all decisions on the canal, a leading earner of revenue for Egypt. Read more >>

10 Things We Can Learn From Egypt About Preparing for Economic Collapse

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
As riots spread across the world, having started first in Europe and now engulfing the Middle East, most people in the U.S. outright reject the possibility that the same could happen right here at home. But the fact of the matter is that we remain in economic crisis and there is a real possibility of a total collapse of the system we have come to know.

If the system does happen to collapse, be it because of a hyperinflationary currency meltdown, political uprising or anything in between, here are ten things you can expect to happen, just as they are happening in the Middle East today:

How the Corporate Media is Snookering You on Syria

For those versed in the black arts of propaganda, the hijacking of Arab Spring must be a beauteous thing to behold. First came evidently spontaneous uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Then some up-and-comer in Washington or London or Paris had a brainstorm, a new twist on a very old idea: if you can’t beat em, join em. Or even better, co-opt them, and use them for your own purposes.

The old way of getting rid of “inconvenient” leaders was so 20th-century—in the case of Saddam Hussein, a monstrous lie followed by a massive bloodletting on both sides. Tahrir Square suggested how to bring down a regime in a manner far less costly and far more palatable to the public: lots of medium-sized and little lies, war through Twitter, war through expendable proxies. Provide financial incentives to key figures to publicly renounce the old leadership, create a steady stream of heart-rending moments and photos and allegations, generate endless “human rights violations” by baiting the government into a military response, then very publicly petition international bodies for redress of humanitarian concerns. Read more>>

Israel Prepares for War

Israel’s IDF has called up six reserve battalions as the situation on the Syrian and Egyptian borders deteriorates. The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, has given permission to call up an additional 16 reserve battalions if necessary, the Times of Israel reported on May 2.

“This signifies that the IDF regards the Egyptian and Syrian borders as the potential source of a greater threat than in the past,” said former deputy chief of staff, Dan Harel. “The army needs a better ‘answer’ than in the past to the threat,” he added, mentioning Egypt’s loss of control over the Sinai.

The Egyptian daily al-Arabiya reports that since the end of January police located at Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula have been attacked approximately 50 times by armed Palestinian groups and what is described as a local branch of al-Qaeda.

In April, Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received intelligence that Egypt and Israel are close to war, according to DEBKAfile. More...

Country-by country update of Arab unrest

www.sbs.com.au/news
LIBYA: The premier denounced a "plot" to turn his country into a terrorist base, as anti-regime protests reached the capital and world powers slammed an iron-fisted crackdown said to have cost hundreds of lives.

IRAN: A massive police deployment in Tehran prevented large-scale protests from erupting, although Iranian opposition websites reported stray clashes and officials said the capital remained calm.

BAHRAIN: Bahrain's Sunni Muslim ruling family came under increased pressure to open in-depth talks with the Shiite-led opposition, as protesters erected more tents on the capital's Pearl Square and unions called off a strike.

MOROCCO: Thousands staged rallies in Moroccan cities demanding political reform and limits on the powers of King Mohammed VI, with protesters shouting "the people want change."

KUWAIT: Hundreds of stateless Arabs demonstrated for the third day running to press for basic rights and citizenship of the oil-rich Gulf state, and Human Rights Watch called for the release of dozens detained on Friday.

YEMEN: Hundreds of students demonstrated on the eighth straight day of anti-regime protests in Sanaa, while police shot dead a protester in south Yemen and the opposition vowed to join protests.

EGYPT: Three police officers in Alexandria face questioning over the shooting of protesters in the early days of the Egyptian uprising, as banks reopened and workers at Egypt's largest factory ended a strike.

TUNISIA: Tunisia's interim government asked Saudi Arabia to extradite deposed strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as it faced a second day of protests on the streets of Tunis, demanding its resignation.

DJIBOUTI: Djibouti authorities have "provisionally released" three top opposition leaders briefly detained after unprecedented protests demanding regime change, the state prosecutor said.

IRAQ: At least eight people, four police and four civilians, were reported wounded when clashes erupted during a rally in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

JORDAN: King Abdullah II urged speedy reforms, comprehensive dialogue and more efforts to battle corruption amid popular discontent and pro-reform protests.

SYRIA: A jailed Syrian Kurdish blogger and rights activist, Kamal Hussein Sheikho, is on a hunger strike, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

ALGERIA: Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told Spain's El Pais newspaper the anti-government revolts in Tunisia and Egypt will not spread to Algeria, a day after riot police clashed with protesters in the centre of Algiers.

WikiLeaks exposes US complicity in murder, torture by Egyptian government

On Friday, WikiLeaks released dozens of diplomatic cables that together reveal the US has long been aware of the criminality of the Mubarak regime in Egypt and its savage abuses, including torture, random arrest, and extra-judicial killings. The documents also reveal that plans for the military-supervised transfer of power from Hosni Mubarak to his son, Gamal, were presented to Washington.

The document release, which coincided with mass demonstrations and clashes with police in Cairo, Suez, and other cities, will only serve to further discredit Mubarak, and is a major embarrassment to the Obama administration, whose leading representatives, including President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have continued to insist that the Mubarak regime is not a dictatorship, while hypocritically calling for “restraint.”

The documents, diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Cairo from 2009 and 2010, make clear that the Obama administration was well aware that the Mubarak regime held onto power by terrorizing the population. Read more...

Wheat Poised for Longest Rally in 14 Months

Image via WikipediaWheat rose in Chicago, set for the longest winning streak since November 2009, as North African importers boost purchases to curb food inflation amid riots over high prices.

Egypt purchased 659,800 metric tons of U.S. wheat from the start of the marketing year on June 1 through Jan. 6, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. That’s up from 366,000 tons last year, according to the USDA. Tunisia bought 100,000 tons of wheat on Jan. 24, Reuters reported. Elevated food prices contributed to outbreaks of rioting in both countries.

“In the case of wheat, prices are reflecting food-security issues we’ve seen recently,” said Erin FitzPatrick, an analyst at Rabobank in London. “There’s certainly some correlation with a lot of those countries coming into the market and saying they want to increase their stock levels.” Read more...

Australia Inflation - Tomatoes soared 20%, bananas, grapes & sweet potatoes up 10%

Tomato prices soared 20 percent in the past week and bananas, grapes and sweet potatoes are up 10 percent, said Maurice Sorace, owner of Sylvania Best Fresh, who gets about a third of his fruit and vegetables from flood-ravaged Queensland state. “Prices will be higher in the next week” as the deluge drowns more crops and clogs roads, he said.

The crisis may force the RBA to accept higher inflation in coming months as the floods spur food and commodity costs and slow growth in a disaster zone the size of Egypt. A gauge of inflation in the bond market showed the expected rate surpassing the RBA’s target as the damage, along with future rebuilding in a country already near full employment, risked stoking prices. More...