Following attacks by Islamist militants on oil installations and ports in Libya, the National Oil Co. has declared a force majeure at 11 oil fields, a clause in contracts that frees parties from liability in extraordinary situations.

The announcement follows attacks on Al-Bahi and Al-Mabrouk fields by alleged Islamic State affiliates earlier this week, and a brief capture of a third one at Al-Dahra, a spokesman for the Libyan oil industry's security service told AFP.

In Dahra the attackers engaged with the guards and managed to blow up residential and administrative buildings before retreating from the oil facility. "They surrounded the site from three different directions, and when guards ran out of ammunition, they stormed the place, looted everything and then bombed the buildings, leaving them in ruins," Mashallah al-Zewi, the oil minister in the Tripoli-based government told AP.

Belhadj, a Libyan national and former head of the al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was considered by President Barack Obama's administration and some members of Congress as a "willing partner" in the overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011.

"Now, it's alleged he is firmly aligned with ISIS and supports the training camps in eastern Libya," Catherine Herridge, chief intelligence correspondent for Fox News, said Tuesday on "America's Newsroom."

Also on Tuesday, Sara Carter of The Blaze tweeted: "Abdelhakim Belhadj is now the leader of #IslamicState in #Libya. At CIA rendition camp — let go, later participated overthrow #Qaddafi."

The American Ambassador to Cyprus, John Koenig, has been promptly 'relieved of duty' after he posted on his Twitter account what was essentially a clever ploy to link Cyprus President Anastasiades (who recently visited Moscow) to the assassination of Boris Nemtsov.

Bonehead move...oh yeah!

But considering that John Kerry, America's top diplomat, almost bombed Syria over a fake Youtube video, and sanctions have been placed on Russia over tweets that say Putin has invaded Ukraine...I guess Ambassador Koenig's social media mishap is tiny in the grand scheme of American propaganda goofs.

Nonetheless it was still a bonehead thing to tweet about.

A stop to gas supply to Donbas by Ukraine may be interpreted by all impartial onlookers as a sure sign Kiev no longer regards the area as its territory, Russia's EU envoy said on the eve of trilateral gas talks in Brussels on March 2.

The problem of gas supplies to Donbas is confined to the need for Kiev to make a choice: how it sees this region, and if it still considers the people living there as Ukrainian citizens. If this is so, from the standpoint of logic the Ukrainian government and Naftogaz are obliged to supply gas there. If they suspend gas supplies to Donbas, every observer will clearly see that Kiev no longer regards this territory as its own," he said.

And from RIN:

Kiev never resumed gas supplies in the Donbass. Donetsk national Republic considers these actions as an economic blockade, said the Commissioner DND on Minsk talks Denis Putilin.


"At this point in time, delivery [from] Ukraine has not resumed. The situation is that they are looking for ways to justify destroyed pipelines gas transmission and more. In reality, it's just one of the elements of the blockade, "said Putilin. Remember, on February 19, Naftogaz said that they had stopped the flow of gas in the Donbass due to critical damage inflicted on transmission infrastructure during combat operations, but then said that delivery began after the break [ceasefire]. Because of this, the Prime Minister of Russia Medvedev D. A. ordered a study of the issue of gas supplies from Russia to the Donbass in the form of humanitarian aid. According to him, citizens in these regions should not be allowed to freeze. Then the head of the Board of Gazprom, Alexey Miller said that the Russian gas company increased supplies of natural gas to the area of Ukraine on Friday. The head of Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Korolev said that the Ukrainian Company will not pay for the gas that Gazprom supplies in the Donbass, because, in the opinion of the Ukrainian side, it is contrary to the contract.

This was never said officially before! "They gave money to save German and French banks, not Greece," Paolo Batista, one of the Executive Directors of International Monetary Fund told Greek private Alpha TV on Tuesday. Batista strongly criticized not only the euro zone and the European Central Bank but also the IMF and the Fund's managing Director Christine Lagarde for defending Europe much too much..

He urged Greece to directly negotiate with the IMF and favored the restructuring of the Greek debt that is being held by the European partners.

Video: English with Greek subtitles:

When I arrived to Bangkok the other day, coming down the motorway from the airport I saw a huge billboard - and it floored me.

The billboard was from the Bank of China. It said: "RMB: New Choice; The World Currency"

Given that the Bank of China is more than 70% owned by the government of the People's Republic of China, I find this very significant.

It means that China is literally advertising its currency overseas, and it's making sure that everyone landing at one of the world's busiest airports sees it. They know that the future belongs to them and they're flaunting it.

The commander of the US army in Europe has spoken out in support of the military relationship with Britain, amid concerns it could be damaged by defence cuts.

"The US-UK relationship is as important as ever," Lt-Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges said. "The UK is our oldest ally and still a leader in NATO. I think the UK will live up to its leadership position."

He accused Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, of seeking to destroy NATO, and warned that Russia could seek to use the sort of "hybrid warfare" seen in eastern Ukraine against a NATO member to test the alliance.

"I am sure Putin wants to destroy our alliance, not by attacking it but by splintering it," he said in a speech to military and political leaders in Berlin.

The United States should aim to establish peace in Ukraine and not repeatedly to humiliate Russia, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said on Wednesday.

"Our goal should be to try to have peace in that part of the world [Ukraine], not to try to humiliate Russia again and again and again," Rohrabacher said during US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland's hearing in the US Congress on the United States' Ukraine policy.

The Chairman of the US House's Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats Subcommittee noted that if the United States' real goal is to defeat and humiliate Russia, the people of Ukraine will continue to "suffer and suffer and suffer."

During the hearing, the US lawmakers also raised the question of the United States providing Ukraine with defensive weapons.

Nuland announced on Wednesday that the United States sanctions team is currently in Europe to discuss with European allies imposing additional sanctions on Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

The United States has been assisting Ukraine with economic and non-lethal military support since the Kiev government began a military operation against independence fighters in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk last April.

Israeli opinion polls on Wednesday showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got a slight boost in popularity after his U.S. speech slamming an emerging nuclear deal with Iran, but he is still running neck and neck with his leading rival in a March 17 election.

A survey published by Channel 10 television indicated Netanyahu's Likud party would gaining two seats to 23 compared with what he had a week ago. That would still leave him in a tie with Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union.

The country's Channel 2 television had Netanyahu's right-wing party up by one seat to 23, just behind Herzog's left-of-center list.

Some worrying events happened in the Aegean the past couple of days. Turkey has issued a unilateral NOTAM reserving large swathe of the Aegean, including large part of the Hellenic FIR for military exercises with live fire from 01/03/2015 to 31/12/2015. This effectively cut the Aegean in half, but most importantly it included part of Limnos, a Greek island in north Aegean. So in effect, Turkey has stated that it could use parts of an island belonging to Greece as a firing range.

A close observation of the timeline of events after the cancellation of the South Stream, Greek elections and the recent Eurogroup meeting shows that a few rats are in place: