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OB OY Le VEN? RUSSIA THE BIGGEST OIL PRODUCER he International Energy Agency (IEA) says that Russia has turned into the biggest crude oil producer, a title that traditionally has belonged to Saudi Arabia. The IEA declared on Tuesday [12 June] that Russia was the biggest crude oil producer in the first quarter of 2008, extracting 9.5 million barrels per day, ahead of Saudi Arabia at 9.2 million barrels, AFP reported. The IEA ranks the USA as the third-biggest producer with 5.1 million barrels per day, followed by Iran, pumping 4.0 million barrels per day. China is in fifth place with 3.8 million barrels per day. In principle, Russia's oil bonanza could continue for years. Russia has the world's seventh-biggest oil reserves, at 80 billion barrels, according to British oil company BP. And oilmen reckon there are 100 billion more barrels to find—"the biggest exploration prize in the world", in the words of Robert Dudley, the boss of TNK-BP, BP's Russian joint venture. (Source: Press TV, Iran, 12 June 2008, http://tinyurl.com/Shubsn) "gag agreement", i.e., agree not to talk about the damage ya case. This would have deprived Schmeiser and/or his wife of the right, for the remainder of their lives, to speak about the case publicly or to sue Monsanto ever again before any court for contaminating their harvest. Schmeiser rejected the offer. One hour before the scheduled court hearing on 19 March 2008, Monsanto accepted all of Percy Schmeiser's demands as well as responsibility for the contamination of Schmeiser's canola fields. The acceptance of responsibility by Monsanto, as the owner of the patented Transgene, for the contamination of neighbouring fields opens the path for all affected farmers in the world to demand compensation from Monsanto. (Sources: Global Research, 3 July 2008, http://tinyurl.com/6e8neh; http://www.percyschmeiser.com) AN; MONSANTO OWNS UP TO GE CONTAMINATION O: 19 March, Monsanto accepted responsibility for the genetic contamination of farmer Percy Schmeiser's canola fields in an out-of- court settlement. In earlier attempts to reach settlement, Monsanto did not consent to paying the contamination removal cost of C$660, so Schmeiser subsequently sued the company. Monsanto would have paid for the contamination damage, but only on the condition that Schmeiser sign a ARCTIC SEABED AFIRE WITH LAVA-SPEWING VOLCANOES lhe Arctic seabed is as explosive geologically as it is politically, judging by the "fountains" of gas and molten lava that have been blasting out of underwater volcanoes near the North Pole. "Explosive volatile discharge has clearly been a widespread, and ongoing, process," according to an international team that sent unmanned probes to the strange, fiery world beneath the Arctic ice. The team returned with images and data showing that red-hot magma has been rising from deep inside the Earth and has blown the tops off dozens of submarine volcanoes, four kilometres below the ice. "Jets or fountains of material were probably blasted one, maybe even two, kilometres up into the water," says geophysicist Robert Sohn, of the i al Ss omerv He Ss omerv LHe 6 ¢ NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2008