Oil plummets after Saudis say $20 crude is possible

Brent crude crashed below the $60 per barrel level again on Monday after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said his country would not intervene to revive prices.

Ali al-Naimi – who oversees the world’s largest exporter of crude – said in an interview that even if the price of oil fell to $20 per barrel the kingdom would do nothing to arrest the decline.

"Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant," he said in an interview with Middle East Economic Survey (Mees).

Canada Faces New Cold War In Europe, Hot War In Iraq

OTTAWA - It could very well be that 2014 is remembered as the year when Canada traded one shadow war for possibly two others.

The flag was barely folded and put away in Kabul, marking a formal end to more than 12 years of counter-insurgency war against the ghostly Taliban, before CF-18s were dispatched to begin pounding extremist targets in Iraq.

The summer offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the al-Qaida splinter group that brought its brutal caliphate to the gates of Baghdad, coincided with the under-cutting of Ukraine.

Canadian weapons exports reach new levels — Saudi Arabia largest purchaser

At $1.04 billion, the total value of military goods exported by Canada in 2012 is the largest ever reported since official documentation began in 1991. The value for 2013, at $681 million, is significantly above the median value for annual exports of military goods.

As with all prior reports, the value of exports of military goods to the U.S. is not included in the report for both 2012 and 2013. Past reports have noted that Canadian military sales to the U.S. were likely equal to, or exceeded, sales to all other states combined, although the government was unable to report a U.S total because military exports to the U.S do not require permits. No such comment is included in the 2012-2013 report, likely because of the unprecedented total for 2012. The U.S. may remain the largest market for Canadian military goods, but 2012 may also mark a waning of the Pentagon’s singular importance for the Canadian arms industry.

Stephen Harper's comments on missing, murdered aboriginal women show 'lack of respect'

In a span of a week, the Conservative government confirmed their feelings of indifference, disregard and utter lack of respect for indigenous people.

It seems that their contempt is solely aimed at First Nation men, First Nation women, and First Nation girls.

This is the very attitude that underlies the government legislation and (non) actions that have resulted in tragic consequences suffered by First Nation people for generations.

Fear of falsification prevents release of some electronic data: minister

OTTAWA - The Conservative cabinet minister responsible for freedom of information says some federal data cannot be released to the public in electronic format because people might alter it and spread falsehoods.

There's a fear people could "create havoc" by changing the statistical information, says Treasury Board President Tony Clement.

Federal agencies hold a vast array of data on everything from immigrants held in detention to use of force by RCMP officers.

Clashes Rock Tunisia After Essebi Claims Victory In Presidential Election

TUNIS, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Veteran politician Beji Caid Essebsi has won Tunisia's first free presidential election, official results showed on Monday, the final step in a transition to democracy after an uprising that ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

But rioting broke out in one southern city, with police firing teargas to disperse hundreds of youths who burned tires and blocked streets to demonstrate against the victory of an official from Ben Ali's old guard.

Essebsi beat rival and incumbent Moncef Marzouki with 55.68 percent of the vote against 44.32 percent, the results showed.

$14 Million An Hour: War Costs Top $1.6 Trillion Since 9/11, Say Congressional Researchers

American taxpayers have shelled out roughly $1.6 trillion on war spending since 9/11, according to a new report from Congress’ nonpartisan research arm. That’s roughly $337 million a day -- or nearly a quarter million dollars a minute -- every single day for 13 years.

The $1.6 trillion estimate, which comes to $14 million per hour since 9/11, from the Congressional Research Service is up roughly half a trillion dollars from its 2010 estimate, which found that the post-9/11 military operations are second only to World War II in terms of financial cost.

Melanie Atcovitch and baby expelled from citizenship ceremony

Montreal resident Melanie Atcovitch is fuming after being asked to leave her husband’s citizenship ceremony because her infant child was babbling.

Atcovich attended her husband Peter George’s citizenship ceremony with her six-month-old infant.

When the baby started gurgling and babbling at the beginning of the citizenship ceremony, she was asked to leave by an official at the ceremony.

India may end support to Palestine at U.N.

In what could amount to a tectonic shift in the country’s foreign policy, the Modi government is looking at altering India’s supporting vote for the Palestinian cause at the United Nations to one of abstention.

Two sources within the government confirmed to The Hindu that the change, which will be a fundamental departure from India’s support to the cause of a Palestinian state, was under consideration.

Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses

Since the day President Obama took office, he has failed to bring to justice anyone responsible for the torture of terrorism suspects — an official government program conceived and carried out in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He did allow his Justice Department to investigate the C.I.A.'s destruction of videotapes of torture sessions and those who may have gone beyond the torture techniques authorized by President George W. Bush. But the investigation did not lead to any charges being filed, or even any accounting of why they were not filed.