1 Saudi, UAE back Opec decision to maintain oil
production (Julia Kollewe in The Guardian) The oil ministers of Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates have defended Opec’s decision not to cut
production despite a glut, and blamed speculators and producers outside the
cartel for the slump in prices.
Both stuck to their stance of keeping production at
current levels, expressing hope that the market would stabilise on its own. Oil
prices have nearly halved in the past six months, with the international
benchmark Brent crude falling below $60 a barrel last week, the lowest in more
than five years.
An Opec meeting last month failed to agree on
production cuts, mainly because of Saudi opposition. The cartel kept its target
output of 30m barrels a day unchanged, a shift from its traditional policy
which has seen Saudi Arabia act as a swing supplier. It is the largest producer
in Opec, which controls about 40% of the global oil market.
The world is expected to need less Opec oil in 2015
because of the increasing supply of US shale oil and other sources, with no
significant rise in world demand expected. The slump in oil prices has
triggered various conspiracy theories, including suggestions that Riyadh is
seeking to damage the US fracking industry or looking to undermine Iran and
Russia in response to their support for Syria.
Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter
after Saudi Arabia, also dashed hopes it might cut production after Opec’s
meeting in Vienna last month. Holger Schmieding and Christian Schulz at
Berenberg Bank argued last week that cheap oil was a “game-changer”, with the
benefits far outweighing the disadvantages.
2 Nigerian Islamic terrorists a threat to region
(San Francisco Chronicle) Thousands of members of Nigeria's home-grown Islamic
extremist Boko Haram group strike across the border in Cameroon, with
coordinated attacks on border towns, a troop convoy and a major barracks. In
Niger, the government has declared a "humanitarian crisis" and
appealed for international aid to help tens of thousands of Nigerian refugees
driven from their homes by the insurgency.
These recent events show how neighboring countries
are increasingly being drawn into Nigeria's Islamic uprising. Thousands of
people have been killed in Nigeria's 5-year insurgency and some 1.6 million
people driven from their homes.
Fighters from Chad, Niger and Cameroon long have
been identified among Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria. But residents fleeing
Boko Haram now report that Chadian recruits are enforcing Boko Haram's rule in
northeast Nigerian border towns in Borno state.
Nigerian government officials confirm that Boko
Haram controls 12 of 27 local government areas in Borno state, as well as some
in Adamawa and Yobe states. And they long have had camps in Chad, Cameroon and
Niger, say experts. The area where the four countries' borders meet is
generally poor and long has been ignored by governments. Desertification has intensified
tensions.
High unemployment means there are groups of
disgruntled youths who are an easy target for Boko Haram recruitment. Across
borders, people often belong to the same tribe and speak the same local
languages. Boko Haram offers signing bonuses and monthly pay to those who join,
say residents.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau long has expressed
his international ambitions, saying his group is fighting to make "the
entire world" an Islamic state. Analyst Ely Karmon wrote in a paper for
the Terrorism Research Initiative that Boko Haram is "an immediate and
infectious regional threat."
3 Teenagers lose Facebook fancy (Khaleej Times) Facebook
is less popular among teenagers than last year, says a survey, adding that 88
per cent of teenagers now use the social network against 94 per cent last year.
The website is also losing popularity among all other age groups, CNET
reported.
The survey, conducted by market research firm Frank
N. Magid Associates, revealed that the percentage of youth aged 13 to 17 who
use Facebook in the US has fallen to 88 per cent this year, from 94 percent in
2013 and 95 percent in 2012. Among all the other age groups examined in the
study, in total, 90 percent use Facebook, down from 93 per cent in the past two
years.
Other surveys have also found teens moving to other
socially-networked sites, such as Instagram, now owned by Facebook. Of the
people polled in the Frank N. Magid’s survey, 16 percent said Facebook was
trendy, 18 percent found it fun and 16 percent said it was informative. Only
nine percent, however said, it was safe and another nine per cent said it was
trustworthy.
The other networks people are using are Snapchat (18
percent), Apple’s iMessage (17 percent users) and WhatsApp and Google Hangouts
which are used by nine per cent of those surveyed.
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