Norway, Syria is an oil producer, nearly 400,000 barrels per day. It still brings the government around US$3.2bn. Perhaps not a great deal compared to other nations in the region, but still a good quantity. The one thing that does surprise me is the USA not stepping in and helping the rebels in Syria, because of the threat to Israel of what might happen if a more extreme Islamist type government takes over from the Assad's Alawite government: unless it doesn't want to upset Iran.
I am in a quandary with regard to the actions of the Algerians. Whether these members of the Qaddafi family present a threat to a future Libyan state or not is open to question, but it is more the Libyans who should have stopped the exit rather than the Algerians for allowing it. After all they, the Algerians, allowed normal Libyans to enter when this trouble started, albeit with a lot more difficulty.
I am happy that Muammar al-Qaddafi has, seemingly, been removed as he has been creating problems for the region and world in general ever since he removed King Idris in 1969, starting with his accepting the Palestinians who committed the Munich Massacre, both alive and dead, the various actions in the Philippines, supporting the IRA, blowing up people in Berlin, Lockerbie and othe places, the killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, trying to attack dissident Libyans in Mecca, supporting FARC in Colombia and supporting the Serbs against Bosnian Moslems. The man is evil and needs stopping, which has hopefully happened.
