Free Republic

Shell has evacuated nearly 100 essential oil personnel from a major production facility in the Niger Delta, following a series of attacks from a newly formed militant group that has vowed to renew the fight abandoned after a 2009 amnesty deal. Some 98 Shell personnel were airlifted from the Shell-operated Eja Oml 79 oil production facility in the Niger Delta over the weekend, bringing into question the facility’s 90,000 barrel-per-day production capacity. The facility is run by Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Corporation). The evacuations come after militants of the Niger Delta Avengers attacked an offline oil platform...

In April 2005, an ascetic Buddhist monk who lived in the forest in Ka Li village tract, in Kun-Hing township, was tortured and beaten to death by SPDC troops from LIB524, at a cave called Tham Loi Mon about 2 miles east of Ka Li village. The monk, widely known as Zao Sin Man (meaning the one who firmly observes the Buddhist moral precepts), mostly lived in the forests and practised meditation in caves. He was a native of Murng Nawng village in Murng Nawng village tract, Kae-See township, and had assumed the monkhood since his teens many years ago....

Burma’s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is planning to create frictions between the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Burmese students over the use of the fighting peacock, the symbol of Burmese students, in its party’s flag. In a directive sent out by the Internal Affairs Ministry, local authorities and their cronies and thugs known as members of “Swan-Arr-Shwin” (people’s power holders) and Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) are instructed to carefully plan political sabotage works in details, according to those who are close to the people working at the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity....