Word: cartel
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...consumers, the only silver lining on the global financial crisis has been the falling oil price it has precipitated. But OPEC is determined to put an end to the relief at the gas pump. Concerned to protect their countries' financial health, oil ministers from the 13 members of the cartel of oil-producing countries meet in Vienna on Friday with only one item on their agenda - cutting their oil output in order to drive up world prices. Oil prices have been slashed by more than half in just three months, from $147 a barrel in July...
...producers have good reason to be nervous. Many are still haunted by a disastrous error made at an Opec meeting in Jakarta in 1999, when the cartel - which produces more than a third of the world's oil - opted to raise its production levels. Within weeks Asian stock markets tumbled, driving world oil prices down to $11 a barrel. Oil officials in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have cited that price crash as the reason they've rebuffed pleas from President Bush to pump more oil. Says Benali: "Countries have learned the lessons of the past...
...again. Their growing anxiety erupted early this week, when Iranian and Venezuelan officials warned that if Opec waited much longer before cutting its output, it could face another massive price collapse. On Thursday, Opec officials scheduled an emergency meeting in Vienna for Nov. 18 rather than wait until the cartel's scheduled summit in Algiers in early December. In the meantime, the world's biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia - which increased production in the summer - has already begun loading less oil on its tankers, according to global oil figures...
...addition to reversing 34 years of U.S. policy opposing nuclear cooperation with India - a nuclear weapons state that continues to refuse to sign the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - the deal wins acceptance for India's de facto nuclear weapons state status at the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the international cartel that controls trade in nuclear weapons, fuel and technology. That recognition will finally allow India to take part in international nuclear commerce and its scientists to participate in international nuclear research activities. For India, the approval is a ringing endorsement of its increasing weight in international affairs, and an acknowledgement...
...terror against civilians echoes a tactic used by Colombian drug gangs, who have long sold their cocaine to the Mexican crime families. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Medellin cartel responded to a government crackdown by killing hundreds of civilians with bombs placed on street corners, cars and even one passenger jet. Mexican gangs first started using bombs last February, when an alleged hitman blew himself up in a botched attempt on a police official. In July, two botched car bombs caught fire in the northern state of Sinaloa. The drug gangs have long used grenades in fighting with police...