Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said profits in the third quarter leapt nearly 90% to beat even the most optimistic forecasts thanks to higher oil prices and better refining margins.
The Anglo Dutch oil company reported a clean underlying profit of $4.9 billion, an 88.5% rise from the same period a year earlier and 14% above the consensus forecast of $4.4 billion.
That was helped by a 15% increase in oil prices and a 17% rise in gas prices.
Shameless bosses of Britain’s biggest companies pocketed an average of £4.9 million last year – a 55 per cent increase on their earnings: here.
Seven companies including oil giant Royal Dutch Shell agreed today to pay the US government $236.5million (£145m) to settle criminal and civil charges that they bribed foreign officials: here.
A new government report says the U.S. agencies spending the most in Afghanistan can’t easily show where their money goes.
The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction also found federal agencies still aren’t tracking their contracts in a shared database.
The lack of coordination and agency reporting on U.S. spending led the watchdog office to develop its own list of contractors tapped for Afghanistan work. Nearly 7,000 contractors received almost $18 billion between 2007 and 2009 from the Defense Department, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Those three agencies are the biggest spenders on Afghanistan projects, yet they don’t separate money for that work from other U.S.-funded projects around the world. And the report says that makes it difficult to track where the money is going.
Afghan Women Demand Liberation, Not Lip Service: here.
From Afghanistan source, “First Americans kill us, then they want to put us on camera” reports Jeremy Scahill. On DN now here.
Six fighters from the private army of Afghan warlord, drug trafficker and highway robber Matiullah Khan were recently in Australia for training with the Australian Defence Forces, the October 29 Sydney Morning Herald said: here.
Britain: Hero of the anti-war movement Joe Glenton will return his Veteran Badge to Downing Street before a national demonstration against the war in Afghanistan, he announced on Saturday: here.
Leading anti-war figures urged the British public on Saturday to “intensify” pressure on the government for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the end of the ongoing occupation of Iraq: here.
Several hundred people took to the streets of Kabul today to protest against September’s [fraudulent] parliamentary election outcome: here.
Military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to use waste methods that expose troops to potentially toxic emissions without fully understanding the effects, according to a new government audit obtained by CNN: here.
The remote Mentawai islands off the west coast of Sumatra were devastated on Monday night after a 7.7 magnitude undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami that swept across coastal areas. Poor weather has hampered efforts to assess the extent of the damage and to get relief supplies to the islands.
West Sumatra’s disaster management agency coordinator, Ade Edward, reported yesterday that at least 311 people were dead and another 410 were missing. However, the final toll could be much higher as rescue workers are yet to reach some of the worst-affected areas. The tsunami wave was at least 3 metres high and swept up to 600 metres inland.
The National Disaster Management Agency said most deaths had occurred in the Pagai Utara and Pagai Selatan districts. Hundreds of wooden and bamboo homes had been washed away in more than 20 villages. More than 20,000 people have been displaced and are sheltering in makeshift emergency camps or staying with friends and relatives. …
None of the victims received any warning of the impending danger. Six years after a tsunami devastated much of northern Sumatra, as well as large areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, and killed an estimated 225,000 people, a tsunami early warning system is still incomplete.
Ferdinand Salamanang, who lives on North Pagai Island, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “There wasn’t any siren to warn people in Sikakap. Yes there was an earthquake and tsunami detection system in our port, but it is broken. We did not hear any warning this time.”
Ridwan Jamaluddin, from the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, told the media: “We don’t say they [two early warning buoys] are broken down, but they were vandalised and the equipment is very expensive. It cost us five billion rupiah [$US560,000] each.”
Responsibility for the lack of a functioning tsunami warning system rests not just with the Indonesian government but with the major powers that pledged to establish a region-wide system in the aftermath of the 2004 tragedy. UN disaster specialist Tiziana Bonapace told the BBC that the warning system was meant to be finished in 2010 but was still a work in progress. “Earthquake and sea-level monitoring systems are in place, but what has proven more difficult is how to get warnings out to remote areas in time,” she said.
Ridwan Jamaluddin dismissed the lack of warning, claiming that even if the buoys had been working the alert might not have given people enough time to escape. “Pagai Island is very close to the epicentre, so the waves reached Pagai Island in just 5 or 10 minutes,” he said. Whether these claims are true or not, the official gave no indication as to when the buoys were going to be fixed and the warning system restored. …
Even as relief workers struggle to cope with the situation in the Mentawai Islands, another disaster is unfolding in central Java following the eruption of Mount Merapi on Tuesday. At least 29 people are dead and 38 injured. About 42,000 people had been evacuated following earlier warnings, but a number of people, concerned about their crops, homes and possessions, returned to the area or refused to leave.
Scientists are concerned about further eruptions. The head of the Indonesia’s centre of vulcanology, Surono, told the Guardian: “A lot of energy is pent up back there. There’s no telling what’s next.” Large areas around the volcano are caked in ash. Mount Merapi, to the north of the city of Yogyakarta, is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, but the surrounding area is densely populated.
Rescuers searching islands ravaged by a tsunami off western Indonesia raised the death toll to 343 today as more bodies were found: here.
There is mounting criticism of the government as relief workers struggle to cope with two disasters involving tens of thousands of people—the October 25 tsunami in the Mentawai islands and the eruption of Mount Merapi in central Java: here.
Searing gas poured down Java’s Mount Merapi volcano today, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled: here.
This video is about French workers and students demonstrating.
France: Strikes continued yesterday against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension cuts, despite the National Assembly’s approval of the final pension bill passed by the Senate: here.
“The Red Cross Report, the Torture Memos, and Political Accountability”.
Mark Danner, Professor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley
Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes writer Mark Danner for a discussion of his recent articles in the New York Review of Books on the torture policies of the Bush Administration. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22530 The conversation addresses these topics: how interrogation turned to torture in response to the 911 attacks, the mind set of Cheney and Rumsfeld, the impact of the Church Committee reforms, the political dimensions of uncovering scandal in an empire that is also a democracy, the implications of torture for American identity, and the politics and necessity of establishing accountability.
The Guardian newspaper has obtained documents that reveal that British soldiers have been trained in torture techniques and have put these practices to use in Iraq: here.
Britain: Legal group Reprieve challenged MI6 chief today following claims that his organisation had no involvement in torture: here.
A team set up to investigate allegations of abuse by British troops in Iraq has begun work under the leadership of a retired detective, Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey said today: here.
A court hearing on a case about the torture of 142 Iraqis in UK detention opens this Friday, November 5th: here.
Iraqi MPs demanded on Thursday that parliament hold a special session to investigate evidence that mostly Sunni prisoners have been routinely tortured at the hands of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Iranian-backed administration: here.
The sentencing of former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz to hang is a barbaric act of political vengeance by the US puppet government in Baghdad and yet another in the litany of war crimes committed by Washington since the 2003 invasion: here.
Holy See condemns Tariq Aziz death sentence: here.
Fluffy, World’s Longest Snake, Dies At Columbus Zoo
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 3:09 PM
Updated: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 6:15 PM
POWELL, Ohio — The world’s longest snake died unexpectedly on Tuesday night at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.
Fluffy, a gigantic reticulated python who had called the zoo home since March 2007, died of an apparent tumor, zoo officials announced on Wednesday.
Fluffy, 18, was 24 feet long and 300 pounds. The snake was named the worlds longest by the Guinness Book of World Records, 10TV’s Danielle Elias reported.
Fluffy was originally brought to the zoo on loan, but drew such large crowds as part of the zoo’s Asia Quest exhibit, that it became her permanent home.
“She was greatly loved here by the staff, mainly because she was a gentle snake,” said zoo spokeswoman Carrie Pratt.
Preliminary findings of a necropsy performed by The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine revealed the presence of a mass on her ovary.
Reticulated pythons are found in tropical forests in Southeast Asia, the zoo said.
They are the world’s longest snakes, averaging 10 to 20 feet in length.
The reticulated python skin has a geometric pattern that camouflages the snake protecting it from predators and allowing it to ambush prey, the zoo said. Reticulated pythons are widespread but they are killed for their skin and numbers are dwindling.
