Middle East Times, July 29 – Jointly chaired by the Iraqi government and the United Nations and backed by the World Bank, the International Compact with Iraq will over five years "bring together the international community and multilateral organizations to help Iraq achieve its National Vision," the UN and Iraq said in a joint statement.
Iraq oil Minister promise’s recovery
AME Info, July 29 – A resurgence of Iraq’s oil industry would do more than anything else to persuade the outside world than some degree of normalcy was returning to the embattled country. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani is keen to talk up the prospects for this. Reality checks are in order.
Iraq Energy Minister meets with oil executives, discuss contracts
Kuna, July 28 – Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Al-Shahristani met with oil executives to discuss possible joint ventures and a new hydrocarbon law that would regulate the critical energy sector throughout the country.
Some Ideas Are Discussed Over the Value of the Dinar
Iraqi Media Net, July 28 – Today Iraq is facing the most difficult problems its economy has ever had to confront. Apart from the violence and terror, which seem endless, and the deterioration of the electric sector and fuel products market (the two main pillars of Iraq¹s economy) extra hardships are being added to an already embattled economy.
Fuel smuggling curbed by prices, says Iraq
Financial Times, July 27 – Raising the price of petrol has made a serious dent in the fuel smuggling that Iraqi auditors say helps fund the insurgency, according to Hussein al-Shahristani, Iraqi oil minister.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Shahristani also said that production from the country’s larger southern oil field is steadily rising and he predicted that oil production would come close to 3m barrels a day by the end of the year.
Iraq says may sign oil deals before oil law enacted
Reuters, July 27 – Iraq could sign joint ventures with international oil companies even before the nation’s parliament enacts a long-awaited hydrocarbon law, Iraq’s oil minister said on Wednesday.
U.S., Turkish contacts unnerve Kurds
Azzaman, July 27 – Iraqi Kurds, who have set up a semi-independent state in the north, are wary that instability in the Middle East will encourage Ankara to mount cross border operations in pursuit of its own Kurdish guerrillas.
Shell reports profits of over $6 billion
July 27 – Royal Dutch Shell company has reported net profits of $6.3 billion for the three months to the end of June, an increase of 36% on the same period a year earlier. The company said the rise was due to ‘a good operational performance’ and not just soaring oil prices.
The energy giant’s profits were hit by the aftermath of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico last year and also attacks by militants in Nigeria. Daily production averaged 3.3 million barrels of oil a day compared with 3.7 million in the first quarter.
Da Vinci Code banned in Iran
Stop Fundamentalism, July 27 – Iran has reportedly banned the sale of The Da Vinci Code after protests country’s Muslim and Christian clergy, the culture ministry said yesterday. The book’s translation in Farsi is already in its eighth edition.
Many Christians have condemned Dan Brown’s page-turner, saying the plot is offensive.
IRAN woman death sentenced by stoning
Stop Fundamentalism, July 26 – An Iranian woman has been sentenced to death by stoning. The sentence of Ashraf Kalhori could be carried out in the coming weeks, her lawyer said. With various fatwas, or religious edicts, issued in 2003, some ayatollahs had asked judges to stop giving death sentences by stoning, in favour of alternative punishment. Reports from Iran over recent months however indicate that sentences ordering death by stoning are again being issued: at least five in the past 12 months.
"Fatwas are not enough to stop this barbaric and medieval practice," said Shadi Sadr, a women’s rights lawyer. "Single judges are not obliged to respect the fatwas. To stop stonings, we need a change to the law," said Sadr in a telephone interview.
"My client, who has been held for five years in Tehran’s Evin jail, three days ago received a judicial ordinance which announced her imminent execution by stoning," she added.
