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Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that a letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya. "We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any...

At least 2,000 jobs will likely be lost in New Mexico’s oil and gas industry in the coming months because of sharp declines in the price of crude oil, according to estimates by the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency on Sunday described President Obama's Middle East policy as one of "willful ignorance," saying the administration needs a clearer strategy for dealing with conflicts emerging across the region. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said during an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that recent developments in the Middle East are moving in a bad direction for the United States, with Iran "clearly on the march" to influence events in a "regional sectarian war." “At the end of the day, we have just this incredible policy confusion — never mind what our strategy is to...

The full-scale social engineering of President Barack Hussein Obama in the elections of countries where he has no business being seeks to install radical Islamists to power. Even though it’s s a provable deadly blueprint that’s putting the West at great risk, no one is calling him on it. Obama’s been on the trail of replacing Christian leaders with Islamic ones before he became president, starting with Kenya where he actively campaigned to elect Islamic defender Raila Odinga in 2007. Obama got away with it because following a violent post-electoral crisis, Odinga took office as Prime Minister in April...

When the notorious Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped 278 school girls [1] from the town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria last year, Michelle Obama began a Twitter hashtag campaign [2], #BringBackOurGirls. But behind the scenes, the Obama administration was undermining Nigeria’s efforts to take the battle to the terrorists. Obama refused to sell Nigeria arms and supplies critical to the fight, and stepped in to block other Western allies from doing so. The administration also denied Nigeria intelligence [3] on Boko Haram from drones operating in the area. While Boko Haram was kidnapping school girls, the U.S. cut petroleum...

Follow link to read article with complete links to sourced material: NiceDeb: The reason Obama hasn't been helping Nigeria fight Boko Haram will make you sickAccording to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, more than 13,000 people have been killed in the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009. Some estimates put the carnage as high as 17,000 deaths. Between July 2013 and June 2014 alone, an estimated 7,000 people died in incidents related to the insurgency. Boko Haram – which means “Western education is forbidden” – recently pledged allegiance to ISIS. When these formidable jihadists rampaged through Nigeria, last year – kidnapping schoolgirls,...

President Obama released a message to the Nigerian people to "highlight the opportunity that the upcoming elections present for all Nigerians to stand together". The video is part of a multi-faceted Administration effort to press for a peaceful outcome for elections now slated for March 28 and April 14. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone last week in separate calls with President Goodluck Jonathan and his leading challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). On Saturday, a joint U.S.-UK appeal was issued by Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secerary Philip Hammond.

Locals from Damasak reported that the militant Islamic group passed through town shortly after troops from Niger and Chad secured it. Group members killed 50 and kidnapped 400 to 500 women and children as they left. Damasak had recently been freed by troops from Chad and Niger. Souleymane Ali, a local trader, told Reuters that the militants took 506 women and children, and killed about 50 of them. “We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them,” he added.

Readers: do you think the tweet was done because Rice did not know about the death of her literary hero, or did she exploit the death to give oxygen to boss Obama’s message to the people of Nigeria? Susan Rice is as phony and hypocritical a National Security Advisor as she was President Barack Obama’s first ambassador to the United Nations. Just as she blanketed the TV airways in 2012 to reinforce the Obama administration’s position that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, was the result an an...

Susan Rice, our national security advisor, is supposed to be a bona fide expert on Africa. And the credentials she brings to her job are impressive. Former ambassador to the United Nations, graduate of Stanford, Rhodes Scholar, and author of a prize-winning dissertation at Oxford on African affairs. Yet, yesterday, she sent out two tweets mourning the burial “today” of the most famous Nigerian of the last 50 years. But our sharp-as-a-tack expert on Africa didn’t realize that the man had died two years ago. Business Insider noted the beclowning, as the tweets were hastily deleted once the gaffe was...

...Brent for delivery in May fell 1.1% to $54.71 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $45.64 a barrel, down 2% from last week’s close. Both contracts gained last week with U.S. crude snapping a four-week losing streak. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s influential oil minister Ali al-Naimi told a conference in Riyadh that there was no conspiracy behind the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ decision last fall to maintain its output target. He said the group could have lost market share if it...

Nigeria has drafted “hundreds of mercenaries from South Africa” in its fight against Boko Haram. South Africans have a long-standing reputation as being among the best mercenaries in the world, and have been present in one form or another in most African conflicts for the past two decades.

Dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their 'husbands' before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama. Witnesses said the Islamist militants feared they would be killed by advancing soldiers or separated from their wives when they fled the town. They killed the women to prevent them from subsequently marrying soldiers or other so-called non-believers, they said. Sharifatu Bakura, 39, said: 'The terrorists said they will not allow their wives to be married to infidels.'

One senator wants to know if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deleted her emails regarding the very delayed designation of Boko Haram as a terrorist organization — and if a very well-heeled donor influenced that policy.The query is not new for Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), but it’s now reflected in some additional disturbing lights: the admission by Clinton that she used personal email while the nation’s top diplomat and screened which ones to keep or discard, and the ascension of Boko Haram to an ISIS affiliate.In June of last year, Vitter questioned why the State Department, under former...

Consistently low oil prices will hamper Nigeria's bid to boost output to 4 million barrels per day (bpd), Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was quoted as saying on Tuesday at an oil and gas conference in the capital Abuja. "Flexibility in capex and funding in general will be further constrained in the year 2015," the minister said in a speech read out by Joseph Dawha, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. Africa's biggest oil producer has been hit hard by global oil prices that have around halved since June, because it accounts for up to 80 percent of...

Just as the oil market appeared to be stabilizing, the price of crude resumed its descent on Friday. The drop, of about 4 percent, came after a report from the International Energy Agency warning that oil pouring into tank farms in the United States might “soon test storage capacity limits.” The agency, whose reports are closely monitored by oil traders, said that overflowing storage “would inevitably lead to renewed price weakness.” American production of oil continues to increase despite recently announced cutbacks in new drilling by producers.

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday. The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said. They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in...

Smith Jadesimi, from Nigeria, donated a kidney to Israeli Omaima Halabi through the NGO Matnat Chaim Israeli media is awash with the touching tale of how the son of a Nigerian billionaire braved all odds against him to donate his kidney to a dying lady he had never met... The Jerusalem Post in an article titled, ‘The Human Spirit: Love, Give, Live’, reported that the story of Smith Jadesimi, son of oil magnate Ladi Jadesimi, resonated in hearts across the country as an untainted demonstration of compassion beyond religion and race. Born in 1987 into the large and prosperous Jadesimi...

Chief Bayo Kuku died on Thursday, March 5, after a protracted illness. He was 85-years-old.Prominent businessman and philanthropist, Bayo Kuku is dead. Chief Kuku died on Thursday, March 5, after a protracted illness. He was 85-years-old. Before his death he held the title of Ogbeni Oja of Ijebuland in Ogun State. He was also the Bobajiro of Ijebuland and the Chairman of the Ijebu Council of Chiefs. He was a lawyer by profession and also the Vice Chairman of Mobil Oil Nigeria Limited. He is survived by his children, one of whom is popular Lagos businessman, Abiodun Kuku, husband to...

Hundreds of South African mercenaries and hired fighters of other nationalities are playing a decisive role in Nigeria’s military campaign against Boko Haram, operating attack helicopters, armored personnel carriers and fighting to retake towns and villages captured by the Islamist militant group, according to senior officials in the region.The Nigerian government has not acknowledged the presence of the mercenaries, but a senior government official in northern Nigeria said the South Africans — camped out in a remote portion of the airport in Maiduguri, the city at the heart of Boko Haram’s uprising — conduct most of their operations at night...