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The plunging price of crude oil on international markets has been hailed by consumer analysts who say Americans who are spending less on gasoline and other petroleum products have moreto devote to Christmas shopping.

And if the burgeoning US energy sector is groaning that falling oil prices are a disincentive to invest in new infrastructure, the US economy as a whole stands to benefit from a consumer-based stimulus.

But around the world the dramatically lower prices are having an adverse affect on the economies of oil producing countries from Russia to Iraq, with some analysts saying even that the decline in the purchasing power of the ruble and living standards in Russia could pose a political peril for President Vladimir Putin.

On Friday, the global decline seemed destined to continue, with the price of Brent crude oil falling to its lowest price since July 2009 and the International Energy Agency, which coordinates the energy policies of industrialized countries, predicting that the demand for oil would grow at a slower rate in 2015 than anticipated. The IEA also said increased production from non-OPEC countries would aggravate the oil glut, Reuters news agency reported.

In the Middle East, the falling oil prices and the cost of fighting the Islamic State have created a cash crisis in Iraq that could affect its ability to make its last war reparations payment of $4.6 billion to Kuwait, Reuters quoted Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshivar Zebari as saying.

Since Iraq was first allowed to resume oilsales nearly two decades ago it has paid funds into a United Nations body overseeing compensation for looting and damage inflicted during Saddam Husseins seven-month occupation of Kuwait.

More than a million claimants have been paid and nearly all the $52.4 billion reparations bill has been met throughIraq's annual allocation of 5 percent of crude oil exports to the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC).

But with its economy now set to shrink for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam and ended more than a decade of sanctions,Iraqcan ill afford to divert a large chunk of the 2015 budget to make that last payment due next year.

"We have been really committed to paying this on time up until now," Zebari said in a telephone interview conducted on Thursday. "We are in discussions with the Kuwaitis, trying to defer the payment for two years or at least a year, to allow some space... to present a realistic budget."

One country where the impact of falling oil prices is being felt especially strongly is Russia, an energy producing giant whose economy has been stung by Western sanctions over Mr. Putins policies in Ukraine. On Friday, Reuters reported, currency traders said the central bank was intervening to prop up the value of the ruble, down more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year, after an earlier hike in interest rates had failed to halt its decline.

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Falling oil prices shake economies of Iraq, Russia (+video)

The plunging price of crude oil on international markets has been hailed by consumer analysts who say Americans who are spending less on gasoline and other petroleum products have moreto devote to Christmas shopping.

And if the burgeoning US energy sector is groaning that falling oil prices are a disincentive to invest in new infrastructure, the US economy as a whole stands to benefit from a consumer-based stimulus.

But around the world the dramatically lower prices are having an adverse affect on the economies of oil producing countries from Russia to Iraq, with some analysts saying even that the decline in the purchasing power of the ruble and living standards in Russia could pose a political peril for President Vladimir Putin.

On Friday, the global decline seemed destined to continue, with the price of Brent crude oil falling to its lowest price since July 2009 and the International Energy Agency, which coordinates the energy policies of industrialized countries, predicting that the demand for oil would grow at a slower rate in 2015 than anticipated. The IEA also said increased production from non-OPEC countries would aggravate the oil glut, Reuters news agency reported.

In the Middle East, the falling oil prices and the cost of fighting the Islamic State have created a cash crisis in Iraq that could affect its ability to make its last war reparations payment of $4.6 billion to Kuwait, Reuters quoted Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshivar Zebari as saying.

Since Iraq was first allowed to resume oilsales nearly two decades ago it has paid funds into a United Nations body overseeing compensation for looting and damage inflicted during Saddam Husseins seven-month occupation of Kuwait.

More than a million claimants have been paid and nearly all the $52.4 billion reparations bill has been met throughIraq's annual allocation of 5 percent of crude oil exports to the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC).

But with its economy now set to shrink for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam and ended more than a decade of sanctions,Iraqcan ill afford to divert a large chunk of the 2015 budget to make that last payment due next year.

"We have been really committed to paying this on time up until now," Zebari said in a telephone interview conducted on Thursday. "We are in discussions with the Kuwaitis, trying to defer the payment for two years or at least a year, to allow some space... to present a realistic budget."

One country where the impact of falling oil prices is being felt especially strongly is Russia, an energy producing giant whose economy has been stung by Western sanctions over Mr. Putins policies in Ukraine. On Friday, Reuters reported, currency traders said the central bank was intervening to prop up the value of the ruble, down more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year, after an earlier hike in interest rates had failed to halt its decline.

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Falling oil prices shake economies of Iraq, Russia

Libya #39;s recognized PM vows military campaign to seize Tripoli
Libya #39;s recognized PM vows military campaign to seize Tripoli Subscribe My Channel! .By Ahmed Tolba CAIRO, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Libya #39;s recognized government will continue a military campaign...

By: Ca News

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Libya's recognized PM vows military campaign to seize Tripoli - Video

Fighters for the Islamic State militant group have been training in remote areas of Libya, heightening the Obama administrations concern about a country that U.S. officials have largely ignored since its 2011 revolution.

Training camps with several hundred Islamic State fighters have been spotted in parts of eastern Libya, and some U.S. intelligence reports suggest a new presence for the militant group near Tripoli, in the countrys west, U.S. officials disclosed in recent days.

Although the officials say no immediate military response is planned, the appearance of the camps is giving new impetus to a debate about whether the United States eventually will need to expand its campaign against the militants beyond Iraq and Syria.

Islamic State is exploiting vast, ungoverned spaces in Libya, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said this week during a Senate hearing aimed at coming up with a new legal authorization for U.S. military involvement in the Middle East.

In 2011, the Obama administration organized the NATO air campaign that led to the downfall of former Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and the countrys dissolution into a many-sided civil war. President Obama, in an interview in August, said the failure of the U.S. and its allies to do more for Libya after Kadafis fall was his biggest foreign policy regret. Even so, U.S. officials have largely left efforts to broker peace in the country to European officials and have been deeply resistant to the idea of a renewed U.S. military role.

But the growth of a terrorist threat in a chaotic country about the size of Texas stirs alarm in Washington. Such a threat was a chief danger cited by critics of the 2011 intervention, including former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

The militants appear to have multiple training camps in eastern Libya, officials said. The groups in Libya apparently dont include higher-ranking Islamic State fighters preparing terrorist operations, officials said.

U.S. Army Gen. David Rodriguez, chief of Africa Command, said at a Dec. 3 Pentagon briefing that the operations seemed very small and nascent. Were watching it very carefully to see how it develops.

Retired U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, special envoy for the U.S. effort against Islamic State, said Thursday in an appearance at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington that U.S. officials were still trying to determine whether the fighters they have detected are Libyan Islamists who are seeking to affiliate themselves with Islamic State or people who have arrived from the organizations center in Iraq and Syria.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), outgoing chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters Friday that of 21 Al Qaeda affiliates around the world, half have offered support to Islamic State.

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U.S. concern grows over Islamic State fighters training in Libya

John Prescod - Eric Holder #39;s Operational System

By: John Prescod

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John Prescod - Eric Holder's Operational System - Video