Russia has been traditionally positioning itself as the prime source of hydrocarbon raw materials for Western Europe. However, European countries also have crude reserves, although they are not enough to cover the current level of oil consumption on the continent. Europe receives most of its oil from the North Sea, where Norway and Britain set their rules.
The oil extracted in the North Sea - 100 million tons a year - is only enough for Norway (world’s third largest oil exporter) and Britain, which buys that oil. The level of oil extraction in the region has been decreasing recently, but oil companies continue to discover new small deposits of black gold in the North Sea.

Norway’s oil company Det norske has recently found one, The Norway Post wrote. The deposit has from seven to twelve million barrels. Nothing has been reported about the profitability of extraction in the new deposit. The North Sea still remains the territory of good perspectives, not to mention the Arctic region, which has not been explored yet.

Most of us are aware of the very old fairly tale by Hans Christian Andersen in which two weavers promise an emperor the finest suit of clothes imaginable, but from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". Well, in the fairy tale it turns out that nobody wants to admit that they are "unfit" or "stupid", so when the emperor parades before his subjects in his imaginary new suit of clothes, it takes a child to cry out: "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" Well, many of us have been declaring that the world economy "has no clothes" for some time now, but when the anchor of NBC News declares it on national television it gets a bit more attention. During his recent appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, NBC's Brian Williams was asked about the world financial situation. His answer included this shocking statement: "The world has no money, and the Emperor has no clothes."
During the interview, it was readily apparent that Williams was honestly shaken up by what had happened last Thursday in the stock market. But who can blame him? After all, most of us who watch the markets were totally stunned when the stock market dropped almost 1000 points exactly in less than an hour.

Normally a network news anchor is much more guarded and is much more careful about what is revealed to the public. But on Letterman's show, Williams gave us a glimpse of what he really thinks about the world economic situation....

"If I wasn't a tad too close to this, I'd probably not leave the house. But that's how bad it is."

If Greece does not receive financial aid by May 19, the country will become a bankrupt, the government warns. By that date Greece must pay off 9 billion Euros. Last week the country asked the International Monetary Fund for support. The decision regarding funds allocation will be made based on the results of three-way negotiations between the Greek government, European Committee and the IMF.
Greece's Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou gave this warning on Monday, April 26, in his address to the country’s parliament. He added that under current conditions of the financial market his country was not able to obtain the required amount by the deadline.

Russia Today: UK is not in Greece's situation, but not far enought for comfort

At the end of last week the Greek government asked the European Council and IMF to allocate ?45 billion, a part of which would be spent for current loan payments. Supposedly, 30 billion will come from the European Union, with 8.4 billion coming from Germany, and another 15 billion from IMF.

George W. Bush was elected President of the United States of America twice, once through the manipulation of the voting system (countless numbers of voters were blocked from voting in the key State of Florida) and once through the manipulation of fear, (Osama bin Laden turning up on cue weeks before the election). An analysis of the eight years of the Bush regime will determine whether this pariah of the international community was a patriot or a traitor.
The United States of America needed a friend at the turn of the new millennium after the Clinton years had started to divorce Washington from the hearts and minds of the international community, turning against Serbia, which had been fighting bin Laden and the Albanian terrorists in Bosnia and in Kosovo. Bin Laden, it now transpired, even had a Bosnian passport and the KLA has been proven to have been a terrorist organization attacking civilian targets, despite being wined and dined on Capital Hill.

However, the Bush regime turned out to be worse still. Washington found out for itself what international terrorism meant soon after Bush and his National Security Adviser, Condoleeza Rice, failed to provide national security, preferring instead to pick up the debris from 9/11 and turn it to their own advantage, using the misfortune of 3,000 people to foster their own energy agenda in Iraq.

In just one day, volcanic ash spewing forth from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull has brought airports to a halt in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland and is expected to spread over other areas of Europe by Thursday evening. The last time this volcano blew, it was deadly, emitting large quantities of toxic fluoride gas.

Horrific history
he last time Eyjafjallajokull had an episode was in 1821, pouring tonnes of ash containing toxic fluoride gas into the atmosphere. It lasted not 24 hours, but until 1823, causing the deaths of many cattle and sheep through fluor poisoning. Eyjafjallajokull has had four eruptions in the last thousand years: in 920, 1612, 1821-1823 and now in 2010. All of the previous eruptions were precursors to more massive activity from the neighbouring Katla volcano but as yet geologists have not registered any seismic activity.