Tuesday, June 16, 2009

SPB News for Tuesday



Iraq unveils foreign oil contract shortlist --Exxonmobil, Total, BP, BG International and Premier Oil have been shortlisted to bid for contracts to work on Iraq's oil and gasfields. Three British companies have been shortlisted to bid for contracts to work on Iraq's oil and gas fields, pitting themselves against 32 other non-Iraqi companies in a televised, two-day bidding procedure revealed at Baghdad's Oil Ministry. BP, BG International and Premier Oil were among the 120 companies who put themselves forward in June last year, and which now appear on the shortlist of 35 companies who are invited to submit proposals for consideration by a panel of experts at the Ministry. Along with other oil majors including Exxonmobil and Total, they are due to present proposals on June 29 and 30 to work on one of six oil fields and two gas fields.

Life in paradise as Guantanamo Four take a dip, eat ice cream, and plan first Uighur restaurant in British territory of Bermuda They look like ordinary tourists as they stroll along the seafront on the British territory of Bermuda, but these four men are far from regular sunseekers for they have spent the last seven years locked up in Guantanamo Bay. The former terror suspects are Uighurs - members of China's Muslim Turkic-speaking minority... They were detained by the Americans, who eventually determined they were not a threat to the United States. But because no country volunteered to take them and it was feared they would be detained and tortured if they were returned to China, the men were left in limbo.
Administration Plans to Rebrand Real ID Law --The new plan, called Pass ID, keeps elements of Real ID, such as requiring a digital photograph, signature and machine-readable features such as a bar code. Yielding to a rebellion by states that refused to pay for it, the Obama administration is moving to rebrand a federal law passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that was designed to tighten security requirements for driver's licenses, Homeland Security Department and congressional officials said... Privacy groups also objected, saying Real ID should just be killed.

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