Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP
An Indian villager collects cow dung cakes, after they are sun dried on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India. Cow dung cakes are a major source of domestic fuel for rural households and an environmentally-friendly alternative to firewood.
Ajit Solanki / AP
People pull a car by rope and shout slogans during a protest against the price hike in diesel and capping the number of subsidized cooking gas cylinders in Ahmadabad, India, on Sept. 14, 2012. The slogan on a replica cooking gas cylinder on the right reads "Down with price rise."
The Associated Press reports from New Delhi — India's beleaguered government faced angry protests from its political allies as well as the opposition Friday after it raised the price of diesel fuel in a bid to curb a ballooning national deficit.
The price of diesel — important for farmers' irrigation pumps and tractors, as well as trains and buses — is politically sensitive in India.
Gas prices hit $9.99 in protest by station owners in New Jersey, Pennsylvania
"It will affect the farmer, it will affect the common people," West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told CNN-IBN television channel. She demanded that the government withdraw the hike. Read the full story.
Mohammed Abed / AFP - Getty Images
Palestinian school children do their homework on candle light during a power cut in Gaza City on March 27, 2012. A political fight between Egypt, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is to blame for fuel shortages that have led to a major electricity crisis in Gaza, sources told AFP. The impoverished Palestinian strip's power outages have gotten worse in recent months, leaving hospitals on the verge of a disaster and residents enduring rolling blackouts lasting up to 18 hours a day.
Read more about the Mideast and North Africa.
Amr Nabil / AP
Vehicles, at left, line up in front of a gas station in Cairo, Egypt on Fruiday. An acute fuel shortage in Egypt has disrupted Cairo's already congested traffic, with long lines of vehicles snaking around gas stations, and drivers spending the night in their cars.
Amr Nabil / AP
People stand near their cars as they line up in front of a gas station in Cairo.
The New Straits Times reports that the reason for the fuel shortage isn't clear:
Petroleum Minister Abdullah Ghorab flatly dismissed talk of a shortage, saying fuel supplies exceed demand. He said the crisis stems from “mistrust between the government and the citizens,” according to the state-run MENA news agency.
Another Petroleum ministry official, Hani Dahi, was also quoted by MENA as saying that there is “a rise in the illegal use of fuel” and calling for tighter security measures to prevent black market dealers selling subsidised fuel at higher prices.
However, the manager of one gas station in Fayoum, a city south of Cairo, put the blame squarely on the government’s shoulders and its stewardship of the economy. “I used to get a daily supply of 30,000 liters (7,900 gallons) of diesel, now I get 13,000 every three days,” said the manager, who asked not to be identified. “Any talk about smuggling is a sheer lie because if there is enough fuel in the market, none would buy from the black market.”
Yusuf Ahmad / Reuters
A student protester walks past burning tires during a protest against the government's plans to raise fuel prices near a fuel station in Makassar on March 22. The government has planned to raise fuel prices by at least a third to ease state coffers pressured by high oil costs, even though that may push up inflation.
Binsar Bakkara / AP
An Indonesian police officer inspects a government operational vehicle destroyed by students during a demonstration against the government's plan to raise fuel prices in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on March 22.
Binsar Bakkara / AP
Indonesian students burn tires and destroy a government operational vehicle during a demonstration against the government's plan to raise fuel prices in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on March 22.
Eric J. Chandler / U.S. Coast Guard via AFP - Getty Images
Tanker vessel Renda remains offshore as the transfer of 1.3 million gallons of fuel nears completion on January 18, 2012. The Coast Guard Cutter Healy has been escorting and breaking ice for Renda since Jan. 3, and will soon begin breaking more than 300 miles of ice for the return trip. The Russian tanker completed the delivery on Jan. 19 of 1.3 million gallons of fuel to a remote Alaskan port, after an unprecedented operation helped by a US ice-breaker, officials said. The Vladivostok-based "Renda" began pumping fuel ashore to the town of Nome late Monday, after battling across 300 miles of Arctic ice with the help of the US Coast Guard ship "Healy."
While the goal of transferring 1.3 million gallons to Nome was successful, there is still a long journey ahead for the ships and crew before their mission is really over.
AP reports:
"I don't really feel like it is over yet until everybody is safely through the ice," said Jason Evans, board chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., the corporation that arranged for the tanker delivery.
Evans called the transfer of the fuel "a huge milestone" but said the mission was not over. The tanker and icebreaker still need to get out of the frozen ice and back home, he said.
The plan is for the icebreaker to help get the tanker back through the ice and to open water where the tanker will head for Russia. The icebreaker will go to Dutch Harbor, Alaska to drop off supplies and then to its home port in Seattle.
See more images of the icebreaker's journey to Nome in PhotoBlog.
Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP - Getty Images
Protesters gather against the scrapping of oil subsidies at Gani Fawehinmi Park in Lagos, on Jan. 11. Thousands of protesters gathered at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in the third day of on-going mass strike by labour and civil society to protest the scrapping of oil subsidy by the government.
Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP - Getty Images
A man carries placard reading "Jonathan And His Government Must Go!" at Gani Fawehinmi Park in Lagos protesting against President Jonathan's government for scrapping oil subsidy on Jan. 11 in the third day of on-going mass strike by labor and civil society to protest the scrapping of oil subsidy by the government. A Nigerian oil workers union on Wednesday threatened to shut down crude production in Africa's largest oil producer as a nationwide strike over soaring fuel prices pushed on for a third day.
AP reports:
Nigeria's government is warning that a paralyzing national strike risks "anarchy" in the oil-rich nation, as demonstrations over spiraling fuel prices and government corruption entered their third day Wednesday.
Attorney General Mohammed Bello Adoke's comments come as at least nine people have been killed in violence during the strikes over the government removing subsidies that had kept gasoline prices low in Africa's most populous nation.
In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital of 15 million, several hundred protesters took over a major highway leading to the islands where the wealthy live. One protester carried a signed that read: "We are ready for the civil war."
Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters
Demonstrators gather during a protest against the elimination of a popular fuel subsidy that has doubled the price of petrol, in Nigeria's capital Abuja, on Jan. 11. Nigerian oil workers threatened on Wednesday to shut down output in Africa's top crude producer, deepening a national strike over a more than doubling of petrol prices.
Aminu Abubakar / AFP - Getty Images
A protester carries a placard deploring poor social services in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, on Jan. 11. Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets for the second time in three days to protest ending of fuel subsidy in Africa's largest oil producer that saw fuel price more than doubled.
Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters
Muslims pray while Christians form a protective human chain around them during a protest against the elimination of a popular fuel subsidy that has doubled the price of petrol in Nigeria's captial Abuja, Jan. 10, 2012. Nigerians took to the streets on Tuesday in growing numbers on the second day of protests against a sharp increase in petrol prices, piling pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to reverse his removal of fuel subsidies.
How often do you see Christians protecting Muslims in Africa?
AP reports: Religiously motivated attacks killed 13 people in Nigeria on Tuesday, as tens of thousands took to the streets in a second day of nationwide protests against the scrapping of a fuel subsidy that has nearly doubled petrol prices.
A mob killed five people in a mosque in Benin City in the south while in the north, Islamist militants shot dead eight people in a bar.
The assault was most likely a reprisal against northern Muslims for attacks by the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram on Christians of southern origin in the north, including a spate of deadly raids on churches which have killed dozens.
Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters
A woman prays during a protest against the elimination of a popular fuel subsidy that has doubled the price of petrol in Nigeria's capital Abuja, Jan. 10, 2012.
Related:
Nigerians take protest over fuel prices to gates of the 1%
Nigerian protest over fuel prices turns violent
Sunday Alamba / AP
An angry youth protests in front of a burning barrier following the removal of a fuel subsidy by the government in Lagos, Nigeria, on Jan. 10, 201.
"One day the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich" read a sign held by one young man in Abuja on Monday.
The Associated Press reports from LAGOS, Nigeria:
Angry youths erected a burning roadblock outside luxury enclaves in Nigeria's commercial capital Tuesday as a paralyzing national strike over fuel prices and government corruption entered its second day.
The flaming tires and debris sent thick, dark smoke over part of Ikoyi Island, home to diplomats and many of the oil-rich nation's wealthy elite. It also signaled the danger of spiraling violence as protests continue in the country of more than 160 million people. Police shot at least three protesters to death on Monday. Read the full story.
Previously on PhotoBlog: Extremes of wealth and poverty revealed in photographs of Nigerian oil industry
Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters
Protesters hold placards and shout slogans on Ikorodu road in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, Jan. 3, 2012. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to protest the recent increase in fuel prices after a government subsidy was removed.
Sunday Alamba / AP
A man walks past a fire burning on a major road during a fuel subsidy protest in Lagos, Nigeria, Jan. 3, 2012. Angry mobs of protesters stopped gas station owners from selling fuel Tuesday while others lit a bonfire on a major highway in an attempt to thwart the government's removal of a cherished consumer subsidy that had kept gas affordable for more than two decades.
Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters
Policemen beat up a protester during a rally against the removal of the fuel subsidy in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos Jan. 3, 2012. Hundreds of demonstrators in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos shut petrol stations, formed human barriers along motorways and hijacked buses on Tuesday in protest against the shock doubling of fuel prices after a government subsidy was removed.
AP reports:
An angry mob protesting spiraling fuel prices assaulted a soldier Tuesday and one man was killed at a demonstration elsewhere, signs of growing unrest over the government's hugely unpopular decision to end a subsidy program that had kept gas costs down for more than two decades.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene in the megacity of Lagos said the protest had started with activists wielding signs and walking down a major expressway, but before long angry protesters lit bonfires and vandalized at least three gas stations. A wounded man later ran along the road shouting: "The police shot me, take me to hospital!"
In the central city of Ilorin, another violent protest where policemen fired tear gas left a man dead. The National Labor Congress accused the police in a statement Tuesday of shooting the "antifuel hike protester." Continue reading...
EDGARD GARRIDO / Reuters
Taxis remain idle during a strike by taxi drivers outside the presidential house in Tegucigalpa February 28, 2011. The taxi drivers are demanding the government of President Porfirio Lobo pay a bonus to offset rising fuel prices, according to the Honduran Association of taxi drivers (ATAXISH). According to the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Juan Jose Cruz, the rise in fuel prices is due to the political crisis in the Middle East.
I wonder how the rising price of fuel affects the ice cream seller - are his supplies more costly, or do the protests create more business? Here are some recent stories about Honduras.
A. Majeed / AFP - Getty Images
Pakistani police officials and firefighters gather beside flames which erupted from the wreckage of NATO oil tankers following an unexploded timed device blast at a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar on Feb 26. Four NATO tankers gutted by a series of blasts on Feb. 25 caught fire again when an unexploded timed device went off, wounding two people in northwestern Pakistan, police said. More than two dozen militants had struck a terminal on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar on Feb. 25 and planted devices on 12 out of 18 parked tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
See a full slideshow and read more about the dangers that fuel haulers face here.
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