Libya has paid $1.5bn into a US compensation fund for relatives of victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli, the US state department says. The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US. The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200. Under the deal, Libya did not accept responsibility for the attacks, but agreed to compensate victims.
In exchange, President Bush has signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases in the US, the White House said. Relations between Libya and the US improved in 2003 when Tripoli stopped working on weapons of mass destruction. The decision led to the restoration of US diplomatic ties with Libya in 2006.

This coming back into the international community has helped Libya immensely. It has managed to get investors coming back into the country, and it needs these investors for improving the lot of its citizens. These investors include global oil companies that are helping Libya develop its oil fields, and raising the promise of generating huge amounts of revenue from oil and gas, like other oil exporters.

This much movement must have been expected by the West, but this was not it. Russian forced moved out from these territories and moved towards the strategic city of Gori, a city that sits on the central part of Georgia. Georgians considered this move as an attempt to split the country into 2 separate sections and hollered mightily, expecting action from their allies (the West and the United States). The United Nations was out since Russia would have vetoed any such resolution. And the United States depends on Russia to help it on Iran (something that is more important than the action in Georgia), so except for calling for a cease-fire and speaking about how this action of Russia would have far-reaching consequences, it was not able to do anything greater.
It was Russia that is deciding the course of actions, and one is waiting to see how its other interest, of preventing an oil pipeline that would remove Russian influence from oil shipments will play through. In this case, the West can only try and hope that it will be able to influence Russia, and even though a cease-fire is now signed, Russian troops are not currently retreating:

A day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went close to the front lines in Georgia to press for immediate withdrawal of Russian forces there, the Kremlin announced Saturday that it had approved a framework for a cease-fire. On the ground in Georgia on Saturday, the situation remained largely unchanged, with Russian troops occupying large swaths of territory. The Kremlin gave no indication when they would be pulled out.
The six-point arrangement had been negotiated by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, but a dispute soon followed over one of its provisions, which the Russians had interpreted as allowing them to maintain a military presence on Georgian territory outside the two disputed enclaves, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The vagueness of the original provision appeared to have allowed the Russians to occupy Gori even after the two countries had agreed to the cease-fire framework. A senior Western diplomat in Tbilisi, speaking on the condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules, contended that the Russian military maneuvers near the capital on Friday around the time of the Rice visit were deliberate. The diplomat said troops were “moving around to weaken the civilian administration and perhaps create the conditions for political upheaval down the line.”

For all the bluster that Rice and other leaders could raise, it was clear that the initiative lay with Russia. Both Russian Prime Minister (and true force behind the throne) Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev had raised the stakes very beginning with the fast deployment of Russian forces, with some pointed comments and speeches, and with not stopping at the border of South Ossetia, but taking the fight inside Georgia.

So, when Ukraine tried to show itself as more hostile towards Russia, there was a sudden crippling blockade of the oil and gas it gets from Russia; and now Georgia. Ever since President Mikheil Saakashvili came to office and had a campaign of getting back the pro-Russian provinces of South Ossetia and a second separatist area, Abkhazia, Russia has been seething. It already knows that it is much more powerful. The US wants its support in the initiatives against Iran and North Korea, and cannot afford to antagonize Russia. And the Georgian leader gave Vladimir Putin just that chance. He tried to take one of the provinces, South Ossetia back, and met such overwhelming Russian force (without any check by any other party) that Western leaders were worried that Putin may be trying to gain more geographic control inside Georgia. Right now, things are moving towards a cease-fire, but Russia must have intended this as a show of force to Georgia and others, that they are truly helpless when faced with this great bear.

Clinton shot first, using Obama’s opposition to her gas tax holiday plan as a vehicle to smack him for doing nothing to help Americans hammered by soaring prices. “What has happened to Barack Obama?” the Clinton spot asks. “He is attacking Hillary’s plan to give you a break on gas prices because he doesn’t have one.”
“More of the same, old negative politics,” his ad rips. “Her attacks do nothing but harm. … We need honest answers. And a President we can trust.” In Merrillville, Ind., Clinton insisted her summer-long tax gift was a way to help people now, while she pursues a long-range energy plan – a plan she broadened to include an all-out attack on oil-producing countries.

This proposal by Hillary is more of a political stunt. The amount of money that would be available to an average family as saving would be negligible, and the message that all Americans should try to reduce their gas usage will be totally lost. America needs to reduce its gas usage and dependence on foreign oil rather than tell citizens that they can continue with their same massive oil consumption and patronage of gas-guzzler vehicles. Obama has the far more principled policy in this regard.

America’s love affair with sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up trucks is finally over. The gas-guzzlers that ply the country’s freeways and clog its city streets and parking lots are falling victim to ever-rising petrol prices, rather than concern about the country’s oversized carbon footprint. The fall-off in sales is dramatic however.
With petrol now selling for almost $4 (£2) a gallon, consumers are trading in their Humvees and Ford Explorers so fast that for the first time, one in five cars sold in the US is now a compact or subcompact. In another first, sales of six-cylinder vehicles were bypassed by smaller four-cylinder, mostly Japanese, cars in April. According to George Pipas, of Ford, sales of passenger cars have exceeded trucks and SUVs for the first time in at least 20 years and pick-ups are now on the list of the top 10 vehicles being traded in for every small car in the industry. Large cars and SUVs have long been status symbols for Americans, but as economic reality bites, car showrooms are being turned over to fuel-efficient vehicles.

This is overall good news for the United States. A lot of the problems plaguing the US, whether economically or in the geo-political space are due to its dependence on foreign oil. If this trend continues, it will have the additional benefit of making smaller cars more acceptable, and hence maybe make a small dent in the overall gasoline production.