In one of his typical flamboyant gestures, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday promised to provide oil to the former Soviet republic of Belarus for the next 200 years.
Chavez, who was visiting Belarus on Saturday, promised that Belarusian refineries — the backbone of the country’s economy — “would feel no shortages of oil in the next 200 years.”
Venezuela in March agreed to ship 80,000 barrels of heavy crude a day to Belarus as well as create a joint venture to develop oil and natural gas projects in this South American country.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is anxious to diversify away from Russian oil supplies as his relations with Moscow grow increasingly sour. Chavez was in Moscow earlier last week, where he reached a deal with Russia to build Venezuela’s first nuclear plant.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Fridaylast week that Russia would soon deliver 35 sophisticated tanks to Venezuela, but did not elaborate.
Venezuela has since 2005 spent US$4 billion on Russian arms, including helicopters, warplanes and Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Chavez also used his visit to Minsk as yet another occasion to lambast global capitalism.
“There are no debtors in our relationship,” he said. “We are comrades and we are building an alternative to imperialism — a multi-polar world.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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