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Iraqi oil officials are scheduled to meet with a consortium of Japanese companies on Sunday to finalize a development deal on the Nassiriyah oil field. The negotiations follow a first round of bidding for lucrative contracts earlier this summer by several multinational oil corporations. Only the consortium comprised of British Petroleum and the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation emerged …

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Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information. …

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The Occupation of Alcatraz

Back in the day on November 20th, 1969, a group of nearly eighty Native peoples sailed to the abandoned island of Alcatraz and occupied it. Once upon the grounds of the former federal penitentiary, the activists issued a proclamation to the ‘Great White Father and his People.’ The words of the document read, “We …

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Breaking ranks with the President and Stanley McChrystal, General Wesley Clark told Congress this Tuesday that the US should begin planning an exit from Afghanistan. Clark’s voice is part of a growing chorus within the ranks of the military and government calling for a reality check on the war. Last week leaked memos revealed that Karl Eikenberry, …

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Americans get half their electricity from coal-fired power plants, and globally about 40% of carbon emissions worldwide are attributable to coal. As the planet continues to precipitously warm, coal’s effects on global warming are becoming more apparent. The coal industry is worried about federal legislation aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as about …

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The UN World Summit on Food Security in Rome wrapped up yesterday with little progress on how to tackle the problem of global hunger. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the only major Western leader to make an appearance at the event his nation hosted. Even though food prices have temporarily fallen after a sharp increase last year, …

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Buenaventura Durruti Falls in Battle

Back in the day on November 19th, 1936, a bullet struck Spanish revolutionary Buenaventura Durruti. As civil war engulfed his country, the dedicated anarchist arrived with a column to reinforce the defense of Madrid against the fascists. The wound Durrutti sustained during the ensuing street battles proved to be fatal as he died …

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Today, staff union members and students from the University of California system will descend upon UCLA in protest of proposed fee hikes. The UC governing Board of Regents is meeting this week on campus and is expected to issue a panel vote today on a proposal to raise student fees thirty-two percent over the next year. The student-led strike …

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Going Rogue: An American Life, Sarah Palin’s first book, became a best-seller before it even hit bookstores yesterday. But news reports about it’s inaccuracies are coming thick, including her creative interpretations of various pieces of legislation. Some members of the media are questioning if the book really belongs in the fiction section. Others point out that it …

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In it’s annual corruption report, Transparency International revealed that Afghanistan and Iraq, the two countries most recently occupied by the US, also suffer from among the worst levels of corruption. Iraq and Afghanistan are also recipients of billions of dollars in aid, while ordinary Afghans and Iraqis suffer from rampant poverty. Meanwhile, on a global …

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