Geopolitical Monitor - News

December 17, 2008 (AP) - Oil prices tumbled below $40 for the first time since the summer of 2004 Wednesday despite an announcement from OPEC of a record production cut of 2.2 million barrels a day.

BAGHDAD December 17, 2008 (New York Times) — Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.

PARIS December 17, 2008 (Reuters) - France will deploy hundreds of extra police at busy public places in its main cities after dynamite was planted in a Paris department store, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Wednesday.

December 17, 2008 (Telegraph.co.uk) - Former intelligence chief Baroness Neville-Jones has urged Scotland Yard to sack one of its anti-terrorism advisers who is wanted by Interpol for terrorist offences.

December 17, 2008 (Press TV) - After interrogating the sole surviving gunman, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concluded that the ISI was cleared of any involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26, Pakistani daily The Dawn quoted diplomatic sources as saying on Thursday.

December 16, 2008 (Al Jazeera) - The United State's financial regulator has said it will launch an in-house investigation into why it failed to detect an alleged $50bn fraud scheme despite a decade of warning signs.

December 16, 2008 (Press TV) - The Israeli government will send the head of political military policy in the Israeli Defense Ministry, Major General Amos Gilad, to try to press the Kremlin not to supply Iran with S-300 missile defense systems, according to Haaretz.

UNITED NATIONS December 16, 2008 (Reuters) - The Rwandan government has rejected a report by a U.N. panel of experts that accuses Kigali of supporting Tutsi rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, describing it as inaccurate and biased.

MOSCOW December 16, 2008 (RIA Novosti) - A senior Russian military official expressed concern on Tuesday about what he said were U.S. plans to set up military bases in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

ATHENS, Greece December 16, 2008 (AP) – Greek protesters pushed their way into television and radio studios Tuesday, forcing broadcasters to put out anti-government messages in a change of tactics after days of violent street protests.