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Sugarland to release third studio album
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:48 PM
NASHVILLE, May 16 (UPI) -- The country music duo Sugarland is set to release its third studio album "Love on the Inside" this summer, Mercury Nashville announced Friday. -
Bus group wants 'gentler' female drivers
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:44 PM
SYDNEY, May 16 (UPI) -- Female drivers are being sought by a bus operator in the Australian city of Sydney for their "gentler" driving abilities, transport officials say. -
Man claimed real benefits for fake kids
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:37 PM
ABERDEEN, Scotland, May 16 (UPI) -- A Scottish man with an expensive heroin habit has been sentenced to 13 months in prison or claiming child care benefits for 36 children.
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Sugarland to release third studio album
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:48 PM
NASHVILLE, May 16 (UPI) -- The country music duo Sugarland is set to release its third studio album "Love on the Inside" this summer, Mercury Nashville announced Friday. -
Bus group wants 'gentler' female drivers
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:44 PM
SYDNEY, May 16 (UPI) -- Female drivers are being sought by a bus operator in the Australian city of Sydney for their "gentler" driving abilities, transport officials say. -
Man claimed real benefits for fake kids
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:37 PM
ABERDEEN, Scotland, May 16 (UPI) -- A Scottish man with an expensive heroin habit has been sentenced to 13 months in prison or claiming child care benefits for 36 children. -
Obama hits back at Bush, McCain
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:36 PM
WATERTOWN, S.D., May 16 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, campaigning in South Dakota, fired back at comments made by U.S. President George Bush and Sen. John McCain. -
London to get Ripley's museum
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:34 PM
LONDON, May 16 (UPI) -- Florida's Ripley Entertainment Inc. said it is planning to open a Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in London this summer. -
Feature: U.S. cites attacks despite truce
Published: May 16, 2008 at 2:34 PM
By RICHARD TOMKINS
BAGHDAD, May 13 (UPI) -- A new cease-fire has been declared between the Iraqi government and Shiite gunmen of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, but U.S. and Iraqi forces say their troops are still coming under attack in Sadr City.
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Iraqis make progress on sharing oil sales
Published: June 21, 2007 at 11:48 AM
WASHINGTON, June 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi negotiators have come to an agreement on divvying up revenues from oil sales, a major, though not final breakthrough on a package of oil laws.
"The revenue sharing law has been agreed, last night," Ashti Hawrami, energy minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, told United Press International Thursday morning from a mobile phone in Baghdad.
Hawrami has for the past 10 months led a delegation from the oil-rich and relatively violence-free northern Iraq region in negotiations with the federal Iraq government over a regime of four oil-related laws. They will determine the roles of the Ministry of Oil and Iraqi National Oil Co., what part of the 115 billion barrels of proven reserves the federal or local governments will control and how the proceeds from oil exports will be shared.
Iraq currently exports about 1.6 million barrels per day; last year the sales brought in more than 93 percent of the federal governments budget funds.
The revenue sharing law had taken a back seat to a law referred to as the hydrocarbons framework law, which would lay the ground work for oil control and, controversially, foreign investment.
But for the last month, Hawrami said, the revenue sharing has been on the front burner. Disagreements had been over how to split percentages and exactly the mechanism for collecting and redistributing the funds.
The new law would split revenue into external and internal accounts, to be divided between the regions -- Kurdistan is the only formal region currently -- and provinces, "after the deduction for the federal government's needs to do its federal duties," he said, "like defense and foreign office, the rest of it, which is according to the constitution."
"The external will capture all the oil revenue and any other revenue -- for example donations, loans and so on," Hawrami said. "All the internal taxes and customs collected on behalf or by the federal government will go to an internal account."
He said Kurdistan will be given 17 percent of those accounts, after the federal take, each month.
The KRG will publish the law Thursday on its Web site, Hawrami said. It is unclear when Parliament will take it up.
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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Correspondent
"The revenue sharing law has been agreed, last night," Ashti Hawrami, energy minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, told United Press International Thursday morning from a mobile phone in Baghdad.
Hawrami has for the past 10 months led a delegation from the oil-rich and relatively violence-free northern Iraq region in negotiations with the federal Iraq government over a regime of four oil-related laws. They will determine the roles of the Ministry of Oil and Iraqi National Oil Co., what part of the 115 billion barrels of proven reserves the federal or local governments will control and how the proceeds from oil exports will be shared.
Iraq currently exports about 1.6 million barrels per day; last year the sales brought in more than 93 percent of the federal governments budget funds.
The revenue sharing law had taken a back seat to a law referred to as the hydrocarbons framework law, which would lay the ground work for oil control and, controversially, foreign investment.
But for the last month, Hawrami said, the revenue sharing has been on the front burner. Disagreements had been over how to split percentages and exactly the mechanism for collecting and redistributing the funds.
The new law would split revenue into external and internal accounts, to be divided between the regions -- Kurdistan is the only formal region currently -- and provinces, "after the deduction for the federal government's needs to do its federal duties," he said, "like defense and foreign office, the rest of it, which is according to the constitution."
"The external will capture all the oil revenue and any other revenue -- for example donations, loans and so on," Hawrami said. "All the internal taxes and customs collected on behalf or by the federal government will go to an internal account."
He said Kurdistan will be given 17 percent of those accounts, after the federal take, each month.
The KRG will publish the law Thursday on its Web site, Hawrami said. It is unclear when Parliament will take it up.
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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Correspondent
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
