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What if the biggest mystery surrounding Col. Moammar Gadhafi had nothing to do with his long, brutal reign as the world's most eccentric and violent leader turned pariah? And what if a long-lost letter from a Catholic cardinal who knew Gadhafi's true identity was evidence that could have solved the mystery? To many Libyan people, the biggest question mark about Gadhafi does not involve his repressive and dictatorial rule, delusional statements or brazen lies. Behind closed doors, for years, they've wondered if he is Jewish. Last week the issue came out in the open, as NBC's Richard Engel reported from...

Oil's surge to more than $105 per barrel -- which has caused the average price of unleaded regular to jump more than 40 cents in less than a month to about $3.50 per gallon -- is rooted more in psychology than in fundamentals. Globally, there's no shortage of oil, nor any lack of gasoline in the U.S., but traders' fears that the civil unrest in minor oil exporter Libya may spread to major oil exporters Saudi Arabia or Iran has led an oil price spike, led by market speculators and large end users of oil. However, the U.S. government is...

Libyan television showed two reporters meeting residents on Tuesday in what it said was "liberated Zawiyah". But a Ghanaian worker who fled the city said rebels still controlled the central square, urging residents to defend their positions. A government spokesman said troops were mostly in control but there was still a small group of fighters. "Maybe 30-40 people, hiding in the streets and in the cemetery. They are desperate," he said in Tripoli. Foreign reporters have been prevented from entering Zawiyah and other cities near the capital without an official escort. In the east, much of which is under rebel...

DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria has forbidden the country's students and teachers from wearing the niqab — the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes — taking aim at a garment many see as political. The ban shows a rare point of agreement between Syria's secular, authoritarian government and the democracies of Europe: Both view the niqab as a potentially destabilizing threat. "We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering," a government official in Damascus told The Associated Press on Monday. The order affects both public and private universities and aims to protect Syria's...

Natural disasters kill 60 in Brazil The death toll from the hotel tragedy on Ilha Grande, a resort island southwest of Rio, has risen to... Views today: 111Sorry, this video is no longer available.REPLAY VIDEORESCUERS have pulled more bodies from an avalanche of thick mud and rock that buried a luxury hotel filled with New Year revellers, one of several landslides in southern Brazil that have claimed about 60 lives. The death toll from the hotel tragedy on Ilha Grande, a resort island southwest of Rio, rose to 26 on Saturday. State officials said another landslide in the nearby city...

He knew that powerful and ruthless people wanted him dead and that he was risking everything by standing for election — but to one practical challenge at least, Ismael Mangudadatu thought he had a solution. If he went in person to register as a candidate he would be inviting an attack by his enemies — the Ampatuan clan who have a near-monopoly on elected posts in the region. Instead, after consultation with his family and advisers, Mr Mangudadatu decided to send his wife and two sisters. The local police refused to provide an escort and the Philippines Army declined a...

MOGADISHU (Jan. 9) - Somali pirates released an oil-laden Saudi supertanker after receiving a $3 million ransom, a negotiator for the bandits said Friday. The ship owner did not confirm it. The MV Sirius Star, a brand new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized in the Indian Ocean Nov. 15 in a dramatic escalation of high seas crime. Dangerous WatersHandout / AP15 photos Somali pirates released a Saudi supertanker for a $3 million ransom on Friday, according to an associate of the pirates. The Sirius Star, possibly the largest ship hijacked, was seized along the Kenyan coast Nov. 15....

WASHINGTON -- Speculative traders' interest in crude oil has grown to the point that they now account for roughly 70% of all trading in West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange, compared with 37% in 2000, according to an investigation by a congressional subcommittee that forms part of an escalating political assault on Wall Street's role in the run-up in oil prices. The subcommittee's findings, based on data obtained from federal commodity-futures regulators, are the latest sign that Washington is gearing up to try to limit the role of hedge funds, investment banks and other speculative traders...

The global financial system these days is beginning to look like a giant Whac-a-Mole game--when we think we've knocked down one speculative bubble, another one just like it pops up. The latest is the commodities bubble--everything from oil and natural gas to gold, copper, wheat and rice....Like the credit bubble, this speculative bubble in commodities has badly distorted the workings of key markets and sectors of the global economy....this bubble is creating vast new wealth for some, including brokers, traders and investment houses who have gorged on fees and trading profits. The difference this time, however, is that even before...

The global financial system these days is beginning to look like a giant Whac-a-Mole game--when we think we've knocked down one speculative bubble, another one just like it pops up. The latest is the commodities bubble--everything from oil and natural gas to gold, copper, wheat and rice....Like the credit bubble, this speculative bubble in commodities has badly distorted the workings of key markets and sectors of the global economy....this bubble is creating vast new wealth for some, including brokers, traders and investment houses who have gorged on fees and trading profits. The difference this time, however, is that even before...

Starting in the 1960s, the growth of the petroleum industry and the cheaper cost of producing butanol from petroleum products rather than renewable feedstocks made the biobased butanol plant obsolete. The last significant vestige of the industry—a facility in South Africa—ceased its operations in the early 1980s. But rising oil prices and concerns surrounding climate change and national security have rejuvenated interest, research and development into biobutanol. Although the primary use for the alcohol is as an industrial solvent, it offers several advantages over ethanol as a transportation fuel. Since the molecule contains four carbons compared with the two of...

Researchers have found alarming evidence that the frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release long-stored methane gas. The results could be a catastrophic warming of the earth, since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But can the methane also be used as fuel? AP It's always been a disturbing what-if scenario for climate researchers: Gas hydrates -- hard clumps of ice and methane, conserved by freezing temperatures and high pressure -- could grow unstable and release massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Since methane is a potent greenhouse gas, the result would...

<p>Mexico City - The deadly hemorrhagic form of dengue fiver is increasing dramatically in Mexico, and experts predict a surge throughout Latin America fueled by climate change, migration and faltering mosquito eradication efforts.</p> <p>Overall dengue cases have increased by more than 600 percent in Mexico since 2001, and worried officials are sending special teams to tourist resorts to spray pesticides and remove garbage and standing water where mosquitoes breed ahead of the peak Easter Week vacation season.</p>

The palace of Saparmurat Niyazov, the "president for life" of Turkmenistan, gave the impression of a cross between the court of a medieval potentate, the office of a senior Brezhnev-era Soviet functionary and the home of a wealthy "new Russian". Green and gold trimmings were everywhere in the multiple rooms and corridors, large leather-clad chairs and the most modern microphone system in the auditorium. It created just the right air of anticipation, wealth and intimidation for when the leader himself appeared belatedly for an extremely rare audience in front of an invited group of journalists at the height of his...

<p>1940 -2006 Turkmenistan dictator: Saparmurat Niyazov, the president of Turkmenistan who died on Thursday at the age of 66, was an idiosyncratic dictator who ruled the central Asian republic as a cruel and often capricious medieval khan for 20 years. Known as Turkmenbashi, the Father of the Turkmens, Mr. Niyazov fashioned an image as a munificent leader guiding the country to a golden age. But the Turkmenistan he leaves behind is even more culturally and economically impoverished than during the Soviet era in which he honed his ruthless authoritarian skills.</p>

For anyone attempting to secure supplies from Turkmenistan's abundant energy reserves there was one man to deal with: Saparmurat Niyazov. The Turkmen leader last year took personal control of the state oil and gas industry after sacking top managers for alleged embezzlement. He took on management functions himself, and signed contracts personally, often for more than the republic could actually supply. "Virtually nothing in oil and gas trading could be done without Mr. Niyazov's authority," says Michael Dennison, lecturer in former Soviet Union politics at the University of Leeds. His death at best leaves a vacuum at the top of...

The death yesterday of Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan's autocratic and eccentric president, raised the threat of instability in a Central Asian republic that is an important energy supplier to Europe. Niyazov, known as Turkmenbashi or Ruler of the Turkmens, left the former Soviet republic he rulled for more than 20 years impoverished, internationally isolated and with no obvious successor. Niyazov died from cardiac arrest, Turkmen state television reported. He was 66. The president's death is expected to spark both an internal power struggle and a tussle for influence between Russia, China and the US over a country with the world's fifth-biggest...

Iran's oil minister admitted yesterday that Tehran was having trouble financing oil projects, in a rare acknowledgment of the cost of its nuclear dispute. "Currently, overseas banks and financiers have decreased their co-operation," Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh told Shana, the oil ministry news agency. The statement underlined the impact of de facto financial sanctions on the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' second biggest oil producer. As the controversy over Iran's nuclear programme has escalated, the US has applied pressure on European banks and financial institutions to curb dealings with Tehran. The fact that the UN Security Council could soon impose the...

9/11/73 was one of the happiest and most frightening days of my life. My second son was born that day, but soon developed a life-threatening condition with a 25% chance of being fatal. Now, each 9/11 I have to remind him he made that day one of the two happiest of my life. Subsequently, he married a fine young woman from Puerto Rico. Thinking about all the lives that were snuffed out on that horrific day, and noting the deep concerns of many here at Free Republic about both legal and illegal immigration, I decided to research how many Latino/Hispanics...

It was a warm day, August 2nd in 1990 when I turned on the news and heard the stomach clutching news that Iraq was invading Kuwait. My heart beat accelerated as I realized that my son's Bravo Co. of the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg was "on mission" for the month of August. This meant that his company would be the first to go if the US offered military assistance for the crisis. All day and evening my husband, a Korean combat veteran, and I seesawed between listening to the news and trying to reach our son's barracks phone. (Remember,...