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In Response To 6 Deaths, Oman Protesters Block Roads To Main Export Refinery, Burn Down Police Station
After two deaths resulted from protests spreading to that other Yemen (and Saudi) neighbor over the weekend, the situation has deteriorated once again, as Reuters reports the death tool has hit 6, and now "Omani protesters
demanding political reforms blocked roads leading to a main export port
and refinery on Monday as the death toll from Sunday clashes with police
in the Gulf Arab sultanate rose to six. About 1,000 protesters were standing in the road to block the entrance to the industrial area of the coastal town of Sohar, which includes a port, refinery and aluminium factory. Hundreds more were protesting at a main roundabout, angry after police opened fire on Sunday at stone-throwing protesters demanding political reforms, jobs and better pay. Protesters later burned the town's police station and two state offices." Apparently not even Oman's attempt to follow through in Saudi's footsteps and paradrop money is having much of an impact: "The government, under pressure over its response to the Sohar protests,
pledged on Sunday to create 50,000 more government jobs and hand out
unemployment benefits of $390 a month to job seekers." In the meantime, according to Merrill there is little hope of a return to normalcy in Libya for a long time: "With Libya apparently at risk of a civil war, there are reasons to believe that oil supplies in that country could be off for months," it said in a note to clients, received by Reuters on Monday. So now that Saudi Arabia is the only gulf country not to be rioting, maybe someone can update us on what is happening in suddenly very quiet and even more peaceful Algeria.
From Reuters:
"We have received a total of six deaths yesterday from the protests in Sohar," an emergency doctor at the state hospital in Sohar said.
Witnesses had earlier put the death toll at two. Several said police had used rubber bullets but at least one witness said they fired live ammunition.
The unrest in the northern port of Sohar, Oman's main industrial centre, was a rare outbreak of discontent in the normally sleepy sultanate and followed a wave of pro-democracy protests across the Arab world.
In Sohar, a main supermarket was burning on Monday morning after being looted, witnesses said. Troops deployed around the town but were not intervening to disperse protesters.
Exports of refined oil products from Sohar's port were continuing although the flow of trucks into the port was blocked, a port spokeswoman said.
Sultan Qaboos bin Said, trying to ease tensions in U.S. ally Oman, reshuffled his cabinet on Saturday, a week after a small protest in the capital Muscat. He has ruled for four decades, exercising absolute power. Political parties are banned.
The government, under pressure over its response to the Sohar protests, pledged on Sunday to create 50,000 more government jobs and hand out unemployment benefits of $390 a month to job seekers.
Mostly wealthy Gulf Arab countries have stepped up reform measures to appease their populations following popular unrest that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and is threatening the position of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
As for Libya:
Unrest in Libya could make oil supplies from the North African producer unavailable to the market for months, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.
The U.S. bank said initial reports suggested companies had already shut onshore production, and it estimated as much as 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil may have been shut down in the country.
It said Libya's oil infrastructure was on the eastern side of the country and could be prone to attacks by either supporters of Muammar Gaddafi or opposition forces, "creating the risk of a prolonged output loss".
The bank said it saw substantial upside risks to Brent crude oil prices over the next few months and that its forecasts for oil prices were "skewed to the upside".
Intuitively, Bank of America, and its Calcutta-grade analysts pushing for higher oil price, is the only catalyst we can see to implement a short crude thesis.
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Sultan Kaboose. That name slays me.
"Reporting from Washington — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned Friday that the U.S. should avoid future land wars like those it has fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, but should not forget the difficult lessons it has learned from those conflicts.
"In my opinion, any future Defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it," Gates said in a speech to cadets at West Point."
“And I must tell you, when it comes to predicting the nature and location of our next military engagements, since Vietnam, our record has been perfect,” he quipped. “We have never once gotten it right, from the Mayaguez to Grenada, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Kuwait, Iraq, and more – we had no idea a year before any of these missions that we would be so engaged.”
http://themoderatevoice.com/102649/gates-warns-against-more-wars-like-iraq-and-afghanistan/
Transcript;
http://www.dennismansfield.com/business/2011/02/sec-robert-gates-address-to-west-point-today-february-25th-2011.html
Ghadhafi house destroyed in pictures
http://dawnwires.com/politics/ghadhafi-luxury-house-torn-down-in-pictures/
One thing I don't quite understand with regards to the confiscation of wealth (Gaddafi, Ben Ali, Mubarek) - I'm not saying it's not the right course of action, but what right exactly do the British have to confiscate a dictators wealth? Yes, they most likely committed crimes against their native populations, but surely that's an issue for the nation in question, and not an international one?
We are talking about thieves now, aren't we?
There is something very funny with that.
They block it, and after that the country will have to prove what assets are not legit and should come back.
Second is that Mubarek has to prove which one of his assets are legit.
1. What the country can prove is there's will be refunded.
2. What Mubarek can prove legit will be refunded (HAHAHA!!)
All the rest will be put on a "account" where it will rest until prove of legitamicy and will be used by the bank.
It's about the same as the Swizz bank accounts of the Jews after WOII. Those banks just kept it and didn't say a word about it hopping everybody forgot about it.
Might is right.
EscapeKey says: "One thing I don't quite understand with regards to the confiscation of wealth (Gaddafi, Ben Ali, Mubarek) - I'm not saying it's not the right course of action"
Are you a fucking CNBC twat with a ZH pseudonym??? These MidEast dictators have 98% of their wealth overseas!!!! Go to the bathroom and put some make-up on in the mirror with Becky Quick and save us today's installment of "Twat Box" would you please???
Yeah, because if there's one thing you see a lot of, it's me in agreement with the establishment.
As for your incoherent rant - perhaps you should shut the fuck up about something you clearly have no understanding of. Or did you just vent because the sand in your vagina is impossible to get rid of?
EscapeCunt--
More "Twat Box" updates to follow??? Are you planning a personal interview with Gaddafi explaining the finer details of his "rights" when he parks all his wealth overseas?? I think you have made very clear who the ignorant party is in this. It's usually the dumbest cunt that feels the need to put the most comments up in a single thread.
The toilet is starting to swirl around the custodian of the two holy mosques in mecca and medina.
Bring it on
Once the news regimes take over, it will only be a matter of time before those countries will get hyperinflation because the new regimes will try to satisfy the needs of the population and spend everything they have to get votes.
And if you don't have money to spend, you print it. And printing is no problem because all of those countries have printing presses.
And that will be followed by a all out civilian war.
"Votes"? You're an optimist. Who says the military is willing to relinquish control?
deals will be made, and the military will be well taken care off.
History has already shown plenty of times that the military will have a huge control or coalition with the leaders when the dust settles.
This time it won't be any different.
Please explain how this is a "new" regime. On the one hand much has been made about the gains that the populace has made, but you yourself have just said "nothing has changed."
Have the Banks left?
Has the fiat currency changed?
Has the populace changed their diet?
So...
Nothing has changed, just musical chairs with the puppet, the focus of ire has been removed, and the sheeple can go back to their grass.
Nothing has changed, but the population expects changes so those new governments will try to prove it that everything has changed.
And they'll prove it by handing out presents.
"More government jobs" is the solution to every problem under the sun.
Sure, as Escape key is in programs. *fix*: it's not ESC, it's CTRL+ALT+DEL combo. So what's the combo solution for our problems?
ALT+F4
If you press the ESC key your avatar stops moving
my achilles weakness...
I've got you now.
Thank you!
iddqd
In fact, I have nothing against more government jobs, if that jobs are created in profitable activities, jobs in activities that create wealth and give the government a profit, so the government will have a smaller deficit, and will not have to raise taxes.
We will create 50k jobs....10k of them will include PAY.
You mean hiring genital custodians at each airline boarding gate? "Let me stick this finger in you. Bend over puleezee." At least they are paid to say "puleeze."
Move along,nothing to see here...
Is anybody else long oil? Muuuuhaaaaaahahahahaha.
Note how the responses resemble one another; SA's, Oman's and the U.S.
The governments presume they are needed; they dole out pittances to the serfs and pledge to create more jobs. Clearly the wheels of life cannot turn without them.
And it is their police that are apparently most hated.
I am beginning to think all politicians, of whatever race and creed, have the same disease. Yes, there are a few exceptions. But exceptions define the rule.
If only police outside of Wisconsin could see through this ruse too.