Camac Energy to explore 900 million barrels of oil deposits in Garissa County

Camac Energy, a US oil and gas exploration, development and production firm will commence an extensive process to acquire seismic survey data on Block L1B in the next few days.
Studies finished by the firm show that the onshore block which is part of the larger Lamu basin and spans Garissa and Tana River Counties may hold as much as 900 million barrels of oil.
Camac plans to shoot 2D seismic survey in the region for the next five months and has already begun shoring in crew and equipment with the final consignment due in a fortnight.
The company has completed gravity and aero-magnetic surveys as well as the environmental and social impact assessment on the block.
According to Camac, the firm’s activities on the block are targeting net unrisked prospective resources of 900 MBO (million barrels of oil). An earlier well sunk in the block in 1975 showed presence of natural gas and oil.
Speaking in Garissa during a sensitization workshop ahead of the survey, Garissa Governor Nathif Jama called on Camac to uphold its environmental obligations and protect the flora and fauna which abound in the area where the survey is set to take place.
The governor called on the company to ensure the rare Hirola antelope which is only found in the county is not endangered by its activities.
He called on the company to involve the local community in its operations so as to create goodwill amongst the people and ensure the survey is carried out without a hitch.
Camac Energy’s four oil blocks cover a total surface area of about 37,000 square kilometers. Two of the four blocks – L27 and L28 — are located in more than 3,000 meters of ultra-deep waters of the Indian Ocean in Lamu Basin. Its other onshore block is located in the Mandera Basin.
Kenya has become a frontier for oil and gas exploration after British firm Tullow and its strategic partner Africa Oil made successive commercially viable oil finds along the Turkana area.
With more drilling being undertaken, Kenya is poised to be a major oil exporting country. Estimates indicate that Kenya may have over 3.5 billion barrels of yet-to-find (YTF) volumes.
Kenya has 46 oil exploration blocks divided into four exploration basins. These are Lamu Basin, Anza Basin, Tertiary Rift Basin and Mandera Basin.

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Terror Leader Ahmed Abdi Godane Killed in U.S. Strike: Somali PM

Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of the Islamic militant organization behind the siege on a mall in Kenya last year, was killed in a U.S. military strike earlier this week, the prime minister of Somalia said Friday on Facebook. A source also confirmed the death to NBC News.

The U.S. strike on Monday targeted Godane, the leader of al Shabab, but U.S. officials said later they did not know whether he had been killed. The siege last September at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi left 67 people dead and about 200 injured.

“We tell the Somalis that Godane is dead,” Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheik Ahmed said on Facebook, Reuters reported.

A U.S. source earlier this week described Godane as “operationally savvy and ideologically driven, with aspirations off the charts.” The United States in 2012 offered a $7 million reward for his arrest. Godane took leadership of al Shabab after his predecessor was killed in an American airstrike in 2008.

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Alleged mastermind of 3 teens’ killing indicted

The Shin Bet released on Thursday further information about the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in June, including the transfer of money from Gaza to Hebron to fund the triple killing and the failed escape to Jordan of Hussam Kawasme, who allegedly helped bury the three teens on his land and was indicted Thursday in a military court.

Kawasme, 40, was arrested on July 11. He later admitted to his role in the attack and fingered other family members and acquaintances, detailing their role in the June 12 killing of Gil-ad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel, and Eyal Yifrach, after the three Israeli teens were abducted from a hitchhiking post in Gush Etzion in the central West Bank.

The disappearance of the three triggered a massive search operation and crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, with hundreds of members being arrested. Tensions were further ratcheted up after the teens’ bodies were found outside Hebron in late June, and an East Jerusalem teen was allegedly killed by a Jewish Israeli, sparking a 50-day battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The two men suspected of carrying out the murders, Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu-Ayshe, are still at large.

“They’ll make their mistake and we’ll get to them, too,” a senior Shin Bet officer said in a briefing.

Marwan Kawasme (left) and Amer Abu Aysha (right), suspected by Israel of kidnapping and killing three Israeli teens

The officer revealed that the terror attack is believed to have been a local initiative rather than a directive from above, and that, according to Hussam Kawasme’s confession, Marwan Kawasme arrived at his house at one in the morning on the night of the attack and said: “We wanted to kidnap one, we kidnapped three. We got tangled up. We killed them.”

The two men at the heart of the attack were the brothers Hussam and Mahmoud Kawasme. The latter, who lives in Gaza, was released from a 20-year sentence in an Israeli prison for his role in a 2004 suicide attack in Beersheba and exiled, as part of the Gilad Shalit deal, to the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave.

Hussam, whom the Shin Bet said played a “staff officer role” in the attack, asked his brother for, and received, NIS 220,000 ($61,000) in cash in order to fund an attack, the Shin Bet said.

With the money, which was allegedly hand-delivered to Hussam’s mother in envelopes, he bought two rifles and two handguns from Adnan Zaro, 34, of Hebron, and two cars – one for the abduction and one for the escape.

After disposing of the bodies and torching the newly stolen Hyundai i-35 used for the kidnapping, the Shin Bet said, Marwan Kawasme arrived at Hussam’s house and explained the complications in the plan. The two then allegedly decided to retrieve the bodies and to bury them on a plot of land that Hussam had recently purchased.

The Shin Bet said that the land had not been bought for this purpose, 

Hussam helped Marwan and Amar Abu-Aysha, who was not involved in the burial of the bodies, escape and hide on land belonging to Arafat Kawasme, 50, of Hebron, who was initially told that the men were wanted by the Palestinian Authority.

The two reportedly hid in a sewage pit in a field in Hebron for several days and then, after spending a night in the open air under an oak tree, disappeared.

On June 30, once the bodies were found by an Israeli search team, Hussam, the owner of the land, was forced to go on the lam. “He planned to flee to Jordan on a forged document, along with two other family members,” the Shin Bet said. But in an intelligence operation “he was found and arrested in his [East Jerusalem] hiding spot in the refugee camp of Shuafat.”

All told, eight operatives and accomplices allegedly directly related to the crime were arrested. The information they revealed was passed on to the military court system.

Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16, the three Israeli teenagers who were seized on June 12 and whose bodies were found on June 30

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Arsene Wenger's deadline day text messages

With important transfer business still needing to be done, Arsene Wenger spent deadline day in Rome for the Pope's Match for Peace. The following is a transcript of the text messages exchanged by Wenger and Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis throughout the day. 

Wenger: Please keep me informed today, Ivan. Maybe a good deed on this day will bring us good karma. Does the Pope believe in karma? :-/

Gazidis: I don't think so. Not sure.

Wenger: Grrrrr.

Gazidis: Don't worry Arsene, I'm confident things will go our way today. I'll keep you posted.

Wenger: Thx.

****

Gazidis:  Danny Welbeck’s here with the England squad. His agent offered him to us. Interested?

Wenger: Lololololololololol.

Gazidis: Ok.

Wenger: What's the dealio with Falcao?

Gazidis: Monaco want a £10m loan fee, player wants £346,000 a week. Man Utd, maybe City also interested.

Wenger: For a 28-year-old with one knee? Let United have him. They can tie him and Van Persie together and create one player with two good knees on four times the wages.

Gazidis: Haha ok.

Wenger: :-))

****

Wenger: Any other forwards? I'm starting to get the Sanogo sweats...

Gazidis: Welbeck could be best option. Wants a permanent deal, no loan. United closing in on Falcao.

Wenger: Uggggghhhhhh. Roberto Baggio is here. Maybe I should ask him to come out of retirement.

Gazidis: Haha.

Wenger: Baggio said no. Damn.

Wenger: Shevchenko overheard my offer, but I avoided his attempts to make eye contact.

****

Gazidis: So...Welbeck?

Wenger: Uggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. There's a little kid sitting behind me. I'll ask him if he wants to play for us.

Gazidis: I'll have Welbeck do a medical just in case.

Wenger: Kid doesn't speak English. Had no idea what I was saying.

Wenger: Ok on Welbeck medical. Just deny it if anyone asks. ;-)

Gazidis: Will do.

Wenger: ;-)

****

Gazidis: Running out of time...

Wenger: Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Gazidis: Go on Welbeck? Also, I just remembered that you said you wanted a center back a couple weeks ago.

Wenger: Fine. Yes. Welbeck could work maybe. He's young. He's been playing out of position. Maybe United didn't F him up too much. Ok, let's do this. This could work. Whatever.

Wenger: Just don't pay more than what Liverpool paid for Balotelli. That comparison could make this deal look better for us when Mario decides he wants to be a chef in Tibet next year.

Wenger: As for CB...William Gallas still unattached?

Gazidis: Are you being serious? Sarcasm sometimes gets lost in text messages. 

Wenger: Yes. Serious. :-/

****

Gazidis: Welbeck done. Have a statement for the press release?

Wenger: No thanks.

Gazidis: Ok. Here's the release. 

Wenger: Lost the charity match...thanks for asking.

Gazidis: Sorry.

Wenger: Never relying on Pope karma again.

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Shock as beautiful Indian girl is forced to marry a stray dog to ward off an evil spell

India: A teenager married a dog during a lavish Indian wedding in front of at least 70 guests.

Mangli Munda, 18, from a remote part of eastern India, was told by village elders that marrying the confused canine would ward off an evil spell.

A local guru told her parents the teenager possessed ill-luck and that marrying a man would bring destruction to the family and her community. 

The baffled dog, Sheru, was brought to the wedding in a chauffeur driven car and welcomed by revellers.

Mangli, who has not been to school, said she was not happy to wed a dog, but insisted that she it will help change her fortunes.

The hesitant bride said: "I am marrying a dog because the village elders believe that my evil spell will be passed on to the dog.

"After that is done, the man I will marry will have a long life."

Mangli's father Sri Amnmunda agreed and even found a stray dog named Sheru as a match for his daughter.

He said: "The village elders told us that we should organise the wedding as soon as we can. We had to make sure that the evil spell is destroyed.

"And marrying a dog is the only way to get rid of the bad luck."

And amazingly, this not the first time that a local girl has wed a dog in the village.

Sri added: "Many weddings like this have taken place in our village and also the other neighbouring villages. This is a custom that we thoroughly believe in."

According to the village's customs, the marriage will not affect Mangli’s life, and she will be free to marry again later without divorcing the dog.

"My villagers say that many girls like me have followed this ritual and they have gotten rid of their evil spells and are living happy lives now," said Mangli.

"I will also be free to marry a man of my dreams after after the evil spell is over."

At the wedding ceremony, people danced to traditional drumming, while around 70 relatives and local villagers attended the wedding.

"Apart from the fact that the groom is a dog, we followed all customs. We respect the dog as much as we would respect a normal groom," said Mangli's mother Seems Devi.

"We had to spend money on this wedding in the same way as we would in a normal wedding. But that is the only way we can get rid of her bad luck and ensure the benevolence of the village."

Now with the marriage ceremony over, Mangli has to take care of the dog and raise him as a pet for the next few months.

mangli added: "I will marry a man one day. It is the dream of every girl to marry a prince charming. So I am also waiting for my prince."

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More Palestinian land is "appropriated" by Israel, and the world makes the usual excuses

Israel’s ‘land for lives’ is theft. Pure and simple

World View: Israel takes land, Palestine loses land; that’s the way it works

So a bit more of Palestine has slidden down the plughole. A thousand more acres of Palestinian land stolen by the Israeli government –for “appropriation” is theft, is it not? – and the world has made the usual excuses. The Americans found it “counter-productive” to peace, which is probably a bit less forceful than its reaction would be if Mexico were to bite off a 1,000-acre chunk of Texas and decided to build homes there for its illegal immigrants in the US. But this is “Palestine” (inverted commas more necessary than ever) and Israel has been getting away with theft, albeit not on quite this scale – it is the biggest land heist in 30 years – ever since it signed up to the Oslo agreement in 1993.

The Rabin-Arafat handshake, the promises and handovers of territory and military withdrawals, and the determination to leave everything important (Jerusalem, refugees, the right of return) to the end, until everyone trusted each other so much that the whole thing would be a doddle – no wonder the world bestowed its financial generosity upon the pair. But this latest land-grab not only reduces “Palestine” but continues the circle of concrete around Jerusalem to cut Palestinians off from both the capital they are supposed to share with Israelis and from Bethlehem.

It was instructive to learn the Israeli-Jewish Etzion council regarded this larceny as punishment for the murder of three Israeli teenagers in June. “The goal of the murders of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right [sic] to the land,” the Etzion council announced. “Our response is to strengthen settlement.” This must be the first time that land in “Palestine” has been acquired not through excuses about security or land deeds – or on God’s personal authority – but out of revenge.

And it raises an interesting precedent. If an innocent Israeli life – cruelly taken – is worth around 330 acres of land, then an innocent Palestinian life – equally cruelly taken – must surely equal the same. And if even half the 2,200 Palestinian dead of Gaza last month – and this is a conservative figure – were innocent, then the Palestinians presumably now have the right to take over 330,000 acres of Israeli land, in reality much more. But however “counter-productive” this might be, I’m sure America would not stand for it. Israel takes land, Palestinians lose land; that’s the way it works. And thus it has been since 1948, and that is how it will continue.

There will never be a “Palestine” and the latest territorial robbery is merely another small punctuation mark in the book of sorrow which the Palestinians must read as their dreams of statehood wither. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for the Palestinian “President”, Mahmoud Abbas, said his boss and the “moderate forces” in Palestine had been “stabbed in the back” by the Israeli decision, which is putting it mildly. Abbas has a back covered in knife wounds. What else did he expect when he wrote a book about Palestinian-Israeli relations without once using the word “occupation”?

So we’re back to the same old game. Abbas cannot negotiate with anyone unless he speaks for Hamas as well as the Palestinian Authority. As Israel knows. As America knows. As the EU knows. But each time Abbas tries to put together a unity government, we all screech that Hamas is a “terrorist” organisation. And Israel says it cannot talk to a “terrorist” organisation which demands the destruction of Israel – even though Israel used to say the same of Arafat and, in those days, helped Hamas to build more mosques in Gaza and the West Bank as a counterweight to Fatah and all the other “terrorists” up in Beirut.

Of course, if Abbas speaks only for himself, Israel will tell him what it has told him before: that without his control of Gaza, Israel has no one to negotiate with. But does it matter any more? There should be a special strap headline above all reports of this kind: “Goodbye, 

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US reportedly targets leader of al-Shabaab with Somalia drone strike

Members of al Shabaab, al Qaeda-linked insurgents, ride in their pick-up trucks after distributing relief to famine-stricken people outside Mogadishu, Somalia

A U.S. drone reportedly targeted the leader of the Al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group in a strike in southern Somalia Monday.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby provided few details about the nature of the operation, the results of which he said were being assessed.

"We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," he said in a statement.

A senior Somali official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that a U.S. drone targeted al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane as he left a meeting of the group's top leaders. The official told AP that intelligence indicated Godane "might have been killed along with other militants."

The official said that the strike took place in a forest near Sablale district, 105 miles south of Mogadishu, where the group trains its fighters. The governor of Somalia's Lower Shabelle region, Abdiqadir Mohamed Nor, told The Associated Press that as government and African Union forces were heading to a town in Sablale district, they heard something that sounded like an "earthquake" as drones struck al-Shabaab bases.

"There was an airstrike near Sablale, we saw something," Nor said.

The U.S. action comes after Somalia's government forces regained control of a high security prison in the capital that was attacked Sunday by seven heavily armed suspected Islamic militants who attempted to free other extremists held there. The Pentagon statement did not indicate whether the U.S. action was related to the prison attack.

Somali officials said all attackers, three government soldiers and two civilians were killed. Mogadishu's Godka Jilacow prison is an interrogation center for Somalia's intelligence agency, and many suspected militants are believed to be held in underground cells there.

The Somali rebel group al-Shabaab, which is linked to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack that shattered a period of calm in Mogadishu after two decades of chaotic violence. The attack started when a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of the prison, followed by gunmen who fought their way into the prison.

It was al-Shabaab gunmen who attacked the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, with guns and grenades last September, killing at least 67 people. Al-Shabaab had threatened retaliation against Kenya for sending troops into Somalia against the extremists. Godane said the attack was carried out in retaliation for the West's support for Kenya's Somalia invasion and the "interest of their oil companies."

 

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SOMALI WARLORD AGREES TO TALKS, BOOSTS GOVERNMENT PEACE EFFORTS

MOGADISHU - A Somali clan leader who fought for years to retake a strategic southern port city he once controlled has laid down arms and joined talks, bolstering government efforts to show it can restore order to a chaotic nation.

The fate of the city of Kismayu and the surrounding region of Jubbaland is seen as a test of Mogadishu's skill in building a federal system of government and pacifying a nation fought over for more than two decades by warlords and Islamist rebels.

Dozens of people were killed in clashes last year when Barre Hirale's forces battled to regain control of Kismayu from the Ras Kamboni militia loyal to Ahmed Madobe, who had been chosen in May by a regional assembly to preside over Jubbaland.

Hirale and Madobe have for years fought to control the port, which generates valuable revenues from taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other illegal imports.

The African Union force AMISOM, which has been involved in reconciliation efforts, said Hirale and nearly 100 members of his militia gave up their weapons on Saturday after discussions with clan elders and Somali federal government delegations.

AMISOM said Hirale also shook hands with Madobe.

The United Nations, the regional African group IGAD and European Union envoys which have supported Mogadishu in brokering a deal welcomed Hirale's agreement to join a reconciliation conference due to take place in coming weeks.

"It is an important step forward in the path towards peace- and state-building for all Somalis," they said in a joint statement on Sunday, when the news about Hirale was announced.

"DEVIL IN THE DETAIL"

Fighting in Kismayu last year raised worries it could re-ignite broader clan warfare across Somalia, where several regions such as Somaliland and Puntland have split away from central government control.

Analysts say breakaway regions may be reassured if the government can show skill in ending the battle for Kismayu and reaching a power-sharing deal to integrate the Jubbaland region into a federal structure.

"While this is significant and important, and certainly a step in the right direction, the devil is in the detail," said Abdi Aynte, director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies. "There are many potential roadblocks that could eventually see this progress stall."

Some of Kismayu's residents, worn down by years of fighting, were also cautious. Several said many more of Hirale's militia were still hiding in the countryside and could regroup.

"Why did he leave hundreds of his forces and weapons in the forests?" said local elder, Aden Ahmed. "Now it is too early to say if the so-called surrender will improve or worsen the political situation," he told Reuters by telephone from Kismayu.

Hirale ruled Kismayu in the 1990s and into the 2000s until he was unseated by Madobe, who was at the time aligned to the Islamic Courts Union, which ruled Somalia until 2006.

The Islamist militant group al Shabaab then ruled the southern region of Somalia until 2011, when the movement was thrown out of Mogadishu by African troops. It has continued to launch attacks on the capital and elsewhere since then.

Al Shabaab militants attacked a national-intelligence site in Mogadishu on Sunday, an assault that left 12 people dead, including seven of the attackers

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