"The big news is the transfer of power," said Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover Inc., an energy consultant in New Canaan, Conn.
"We've taken away a couple key days where these terrorists could really have halted the transfer," Mr. Beutel said. "This at least is a psychological victory for the forces of stability in Iraq."
Naturally, the market only predicts Iraq's ability to produce oil in the future. This includes a minimum of stability, true, but doesn't necessarily mean a successful democracy.
Dispite troubling reports that Moammar Gadhafi was behind an assassination plot against Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler crown prince Abdullah, the US is moving towards full normalisation with Libya. The US has sent a high-ranking diplomatic mission to the country, opened a liasons office, just short of an embassy, in Tripoli, and is rumoured to be about to remove Libya from country's promoting terrorism and open up the country for business.
This indicates that either the US doesn't really believe the allegations (contrary to earlier reports) or that realpolitik is the name of the game and it doesn't really matter if one Middle East dictator tries to kill another.
The holy grail of medicine (well, almost) — a cure for hangover — may be found in the prickly pear cactus, Opuntia ficus indica. An extract from the cactus showed promising signs in a blind test at Tulane University in New Orleans.
