09/25/2008

Complexity of Wall Street woes confounds public
Half of all American households own stocks, bonds and mutual funds, usually in retirement savings plans. But the economic literacy needed to follow these assets doesn't begin to cover the stuff traded among hedge funds, insurance companies and others in the financial sector.

08/19/2008

'China's dream is the world's dream,' professor says
One World, One Dream. That's the slogan chosen by the Chinese for these Olympics. Do they mean it? Or are they saying, We're No. 1?

China's economic freedoms come with a price
Are these modern China's best days? The country's been at peace for 30 years. Throughout that period, economic growth has lifted 681 million Chinese out of absolute poverty. The average income is almost $2,000 a year. And when measured against other nations, the purchasing power of the average income is more like $4,500, by World Bank estimates.

China is no leading light in energy efficiency
BEIJING – China's ballooning appetite for energy has helped push global prices higher for oil and coal, much of which is wasted.

China's low costs are on the rise
We've come to know "the China Price" as the mark of the cheapest goods in the world, dreaded by competing manufacturers, irresistible to buyers.

Worsening security makes restarting Nigerian oil wells risky
WASHINGTON – While President Bush has concentrated on getting the Saudis to produce more oil, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is trying to cool the oil-price fever by getting Nigeria to restart wells caught in a tangle of corruption and insurrection.

08/11/2008

Christianity taking root in the new China
Although the communist government still tries to choose church leaders and keep believers in line, Christianity is growing in China because freedom is growing in China.

07/02/2008

U.S. didn't balk at Hunt Oil's Iraq plans until after deal, documents show
A congressional committee exploring whether the Bush administration has pushed Iraq oil contracts to U.S. companies released documents showing that Hunt Oil Co. officials and U.S. diplomats talked several times before the company signed an exploration deal in Iraq last September.

06/24/2008

Saudis show off $10 billion Khurais mega-project to ease doubts

JIM LANDERS/DMN

By June 2009, Saudi Aramco expects to finish the $10 billion Khurais mega-project and add 1.2 million barrels a day to Saudi Arabia’s production capacity.

By June 2009, Saudi Arabia's national oil company expects to finish the $10 billion Khurais oil field mega-project and add 1.2 million barrels a day to the kingdom’s production capacity. The Saudis invited more than 100 journalists to have a look at the Khurais project Monday as part of an effort to stem market perceptions that they’re running into problems with their oil.

Skeptics doubt Saudi Arabia can boost oil supply
The Saudis have had their big show on the Red Sea. Now the oil markets will test the peak oil theory.

Saudi Arabia says it will meet oil demand
Saudi Arabia Sunday said it would supply enough oil to meet global demand for the rest of the year, but differed sharply with the Bush administration by blaming speculators for the sharp increase in oil prices.
Survival guide: Cheaper gas, smarter driving
Gas prices: Find the best Dallas-Fort Worth deals

Saudi oil summit to seek answers
Despite participants' promises of measures to bring prices down, industry analysts predict the meeting will change little as traders peg oil prices to expectations of future shortages.
Survival guide: Cheaper gas, smarter driving
Gas prices: Find the best Dallas-Fort Worth deals

05/06/2008

U.S. kids losing education race to peers in China, India
Math, science and engineering educators have been warning for years that American failings are pushing jobs and investment to better-trained foreign workers. The issue hasn't caught fire in the presidential campaign. And the public doesn't seem to share the urgency, either.

Brazil seeing sweet profit from sugar cane-based ethanol

JIM LANDERS/DMN

Field workers toss sugar cane stalks into a plowed field to be chopped into seedlings at a farm in Costa Rica, Brazil, owned by Brenco.

The other side of ethanol, vilified as a cause of soaring food prices and hunger, can be seen in Brazil, where farmers are pushing down energy costs – both at the pump and the electricity meter. A $2.7 billion ethanol project is getting started.
Video: Brazil expands ethanol imports

05/02/2008

Energy firm cultivates sugar-cane ethanol operation in Peru

JIM LANDERS/DMN

Maple Energy’s seed crop flourishes in Peru.

Maple Energy -- an oil, gas and electricity company with roots in Dallas -- plans to lauch its sugar-cane ethanol exports from Peru into the international marketplace next year.
Video: Maple Energy's plans in Peru

04/22/2008

Clinton, Obama merely echo NAFTA anxiety
In Pennsylvania, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are campaigning for president by yet again threatening to lead the United States out of NAFTA.

Brazilians' income is up, but U.S. firms' investments in Brazil aren't
SÃO PAULO, Brazil – The U.S. may be in a recession, but these are the best economic times in Brazil's history. By government estimates, 20 million Brazilians raised their incomes enough to join the middle class in the last two years.

04/08/2008

Cheaper ethanol outselling gasoline in Brazil
Car owners in this giant city of 11 million people are giving the oil companies fits. Ethanol outsells gasoline here by a large margin. This year, it became the most popular fuel throughout Brazil.

03/10/2008

With coaxing, Pakistan's Islamic schools shed militancy

ERIC SCHLEGEL/DMN

In the past year, nearly 15,000 madrassas have pledged not to teach or promote militancy or religious hatred. The mainstream madrassas are starting to teach math, science, social studies and even English.

02/16/2008

U.S. troops struggle to train Afghan police

ERICH SCHLEGEL / DMN

More than six years after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the 27,000 U.S. troops here are fighting a resurgent Taliban and trying to work through a maze of problems related to building a nation.
Photos | Video

02/01/2008

U.S. may not be ready for Panama Canal's expansion

FILE 2006/Agence France-Presse

The Panama Canal’s expansion could mean big business for North Texas distribution centers. But many experts say the U.S. is not prepared for changes in trade patterns.

Port directors say the United States is not ready for the shake-up in trade patterns across the Western Hemisphere that is likely to follow the expansion of the Panama Canal, which is now under way.

12/05/2007

Saudi Arabia works to protect oil fields from terrorism

FILE 2006/Getty Images

An attack at the oil-processing plant of Saudi Aramco in Abqaiq last year pointed up the need to better protect vital installations.

The OPEC superpower – producer of more than 10 percent of the world's daily oil supply – is spending billions of dollars in manpower, technology and weapons to improve its oilfield defenses against terrorism.
OPEC won't raise targets

11/23/2007

Sentence for rape victim a step back for Saudi women?
Young and not so young, Saudi women say their lot is improving. Many now work in the same offices and at the same jobs as men. Most of the students studying at Saudi universities are women, and women are now eligible to compete with men for scholarships to study abroad.

11/18/2007

$100 oil has OPEC gushing
OPEC's 13 member nations opened a summit Saturday night with a sumptuous celebration of $100-a-barrel oil and a warning from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez that the price could double if the United States attacks Iran.

11/12/2007

Iraq's troubles push oil costs up
The spike in oil prices shaking the U.S. economy right now is something of a self-inflicted wound stemming from a war gone awry.

10/30/2007

Conditions empty OPEC of its doves
There are no more pricing doves in OPEC. That may seem obvious when the price of oil has shot past $90 a barrel. Saudi Arabia could throw more spare capacity on the market to cool things off. But the Saudis are not hectoring other oil producers about price restraint.

10/25/2007

Kurdish refugees stuck in squalor at stadium in Iraq

CHERYL DIAZ MEYER/DMN

Abdullah Sabah, 8, Zaitun Mohammad, 5, and Ahmed Serwer, 4, (left to right) play in the soccer stadium where over 2,000 people live in squalor after returning to Kirkuk in 2003.

Four years ago, more than 2,000 Kurds came to a Kirkuk soccer stadium to reclaim homes taken by Saddam Hussein and given to Arabs. Still they wait, living a wretched and increasingly angry existence, while Iraqi politicians seek a solution that avoids civil war.
Video: Hunt Oil's drilling controversy
Video: Stadium filled with dashed hope
Photos: In Kirkuk

10/22/2007

Hunt Oil deal could help shape Kurds' future
ASSYAN, Iraq – Jebel Semroot is a dusty heap of rocks plowed and grazed by tough farmers and tougher goats. But this hill surrounding the village of Assyan, where Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co. hopes to drill next year, could have hundreds of millions of barrels of oil trapped beneath it.