Hamed Jafarnejad / Fars News via Reuters

An Iranian soldier participates in the Velayat-90 war game on Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran on Dec. 28, 2011.

Foreign media are subject to severe restriction on their ability to make and distribute news pictures in Iran. So, when images like this move right after Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz you know that the Tehran is sending a clear message. In fact, Iran’s navy chief Habibollah Sayyari told the country’s English language press on Wednesday that closing the Strait of Hormuz will be easier than drinking a glass of water.

At the same time the U.S. Navy’s 5^th fleet warned Iran that any disruption of traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz oil route “will not be tolerated.”

About 20% of the world's oil supply transits throught the Strait of Hormuz.

Msnbc.com news services report: Western nations are growing increasingly impatient with Iran over its nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies have accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charges, saying its program is geared toward generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

The U.S. Congress has passed a bill banning dealings with the Iran Central Bank, and President Barack Obama has said he will sign it despite his misgivings. Critics warn it could impose hardships on U.S. allies and drive up oil prices.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer, with an output of about 4 million barrels of oil a day. It relies on oil exports for about 80 percent of its public revenues. Read more...

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SANA via Reuters

Black smoke is seen rising from Homs refinery in Syria on Dec. 8, 2011 in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency. A pipeline carrying oil from the east of the country to a refinery in Homs was blown up on Thursday.

Reuters reports from BEIRUT:

A Syrian pipeline carrying oil from the east of the country to a vital refinery in Homs was blown up Thursday in what the official news agency SANA said was an act of sabotage by an armed terrorist group.

Opposition activists said flames and clouds of thick black smoke were seen at the site of the explosion in a suburb of the city, the epicenter of popular unrest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in March.

"This is the main pipeline that feeds the Homs refinery," said Rami Abdulrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The activist network also reported seven people killed in Homs Thursday by snipers and in "random" shootings.

SANA said the pipeline was attacked in the Tal Asour area to the northwest of the refinery on the outskirts of Homs, a city of 800,000 where -- activists say -- about 1,500 people have been killed in the crackdown. Read the full story.

Anonymous via Reuters

Black smoke is seen rising from a pipeline in Homs on Dec. 8, 2011. The pipeline was blown up on Thursday, an activist group said.

Related content:

• Syria's Assad: Only a 'crazy' leader kills citizens
• Clinton: Syria must do more than remove Assad; regime of 'tolerance' needed
• Dozens of bodies dumped in Syrian city, activists say
• Syrian activists living in exile speak out
• Syrian government's diplomatic concession coincides with show of force

Tobias Schwarz / Reuters

Left to right, France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pose to mark the opening of the North Sea gas pipeline on Germany's Baltic coast in Lubmin November 8, 2011.

 The German, French, Russian and Dutch leaders opened the North Sea gas pipeline on Germany's Baltic coast. 

Many years ago, while working as a newspaper photographer, our editor outlawed check-passings, ground-breakings and all other  made-for-press events. What do you think about photos like these?

Jay Reeves / AP

Brandon Franklin picks up a tar ball washed in by Tropical Storm Lee from amid shells at Gulf Shores, Ala., on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011. Franklin, coastal plans manager for the city, said the tar balls are suspected of being pieces of submerged tar mats left over from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials said Tuesday that they plan to test the black and brown globs to find out if they're related to last year's oil spill.

Jay Reeves / AP

Tar balls washed in by Tropical Storm Lee are amid shells on the beach at Gulf Shores, Ala., on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011. City officials suspect the tar balls are left over from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. Officials said Tuesday that they plan to test the black and brown globs to find out if they're related to last year's oil spill.

Full story.

Slideshow: World’s thirst for oil

Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters

Around the globe countries are drilling for it, distributing it, trading it and looking for ways to run their economies with replacements for it.

Launch slideshow

Those of us who’ve been to North Dakota know what a lonely place it can be. I’ll never forget the first time I visited my in-laws wheat farm near New England, N.D. You have to drive miles and miles along some of the loneliest stretches of road in the country to get there. Don’t even get me started on what the winters are like. Cold might not have been invented there, but they’ve perfected it.

You’ve got to be a hearty soul to make it in North Dakota, and that is why I was attracted to the pictures that AP’s Gregory Bull made for his “Man camp” story. Bull does a good job of depicting the work and temporary home life of the oil workers.

Gregory Bull / AP

Ben Shaw hangs from an oil derrick outside of Williston, N.D. With what many are calling the largest oil boom in recent North American history, temporary housing for the huge influx of workers, known as "man camps," now dot the sparse North Dakota landscape.

Gregory Bull / AP

A man walks back to his temporary housing unit outside of Williston, N.D.

AP’s Martha Irvine reports:

After a 12-hour day, Jacob Austin, a 22-year-old line cook at the camp, stands on a pile of rocks in the camp parking lot, playing his guitar.

"I could tell you the worst thing about a man camp. It's a man camp, and not a woman camp."

He pauses, strums his guitar some more, and smiles at a female reporter.

"It's nice to see you here." Read More...

Gregory Bull / AP

Jacob Austin plays his guitar in a field next to a temporary housing unit outside of Williston, N.D. on July 25, 2011.

Slideshow: World’s thirst for oil

Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters

Around the globe countries are drilling for it, distributing it, trading it and looking for ways to run their economies with replacements for it.

Launch slideshow

Str / Reuters

An emergency response crew hired by Exxon Mobil cleans up an oil spill along the Yellowstone River in Laurel, Montana on July 5. An Exxon Mobil pipeline ruptured on Friday night about 150 miles downstream from Yellowstone National Park near the town of Laurel, just southwest of Billings, dumping up to 1,000 barrels, or 42,000 gallons, of crude oil into the flood-swollen river.

Jim Urquhart / AP

Oil covers a pond alongside the Yellowstone River in Laurel, Mont. on July 5.

Related links:

• Slideshow: World's thirst for oil
• Flood surge could spread Yellowstone River oil spill

Larry Mayer / The Billings Gazette via AP

Oil swirls in a flooded gravel pit in Lockwood, Mont., after a pipeline break early Saturday, July 2. The ExxonMobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River near Billings in south-central Montana ruptured and dumped an unknown amount of oil into the waterway, prompting temporary evacuations along the river.

Read the full story here.

According to the AP: Shell oil co. flew journalists in a helicopter over a cleared area in the delta where locals ran makeshift refineries turning stolen crude oil tapped from pipelines into diesel and kerosene. The company blamed nearly all of its oil spills in 2009 on sabotage from thieves and militants. Environmentalists and community activists routinely blame Shell for the spills, pointing at the company's aging pipelines and poor cleanup efforts. Full story.

Sunday Alamba / AP

Oil is seen on the creek water's surface near an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria's Delta region.

Sunday Alamba / AP

An illegal oil refinery is seen in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria's Delta region.

Sunday Alamba / AP

Oil is seen on the creek water's surface near an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria's Delta region.

Sunday Alamba / AP

Smoke rises from an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria's Delta region.

Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters

A view of an illegal oil refinery is seen in Ogoniland outside Port Harcourt in Nigeria's Delta region March 24, 2011.Crude oil thieves -- known locally as "bunkerers" -- have been a fact of life for years in Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, puncturing pipelines and costing Nigeria and foreign oil firms millions of dollars in lost revenues each year.

Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters

Smoke rises from an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland outside Port Harcourt in Nigeria's Delta region.

Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters

Oil surfaces on water near an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland outside Port Harcourt in Nigeria's Delta region March 24, 2011.

 Here's an article that provides some context for the existence of "bush refineries."