Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Iran's electricity network has integrated to power grids of seven neighboring countries to meet their energy demands, says Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou.

Iran's electricity grid is currently connected to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, Namjou told IRNA on Sunday.

The UK government has been warned by union leaders to abandon their idea of “ideological mantra of cuts” or face a double dip recession.

The warning came as new figures suggested that Britain's massive service sector was going through a startling loss of jobs.

Tehran's imports have passed $24.2 billion in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21), Iran's Customs says.

New data show the country's imports increased by 22.2 percent between March and August compared with the corresponding figure last year, Mehr news agency reported.

The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) says the world's reliance on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for crude oil will increase in the future.

“Global dependence on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for crude oil will rise in the next five to 10 years as output by non-OPEC nations falls,” IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka told AFP on the sidelines of a conference on the launch of the organization's Energy Technology Perspectives 2010 report in New Delhi on Friday.

A stronger than expected recovery has encouraged Germany to lift this year's growth forecast from the previous 1.4 percent to 3.0 percent.

Germany expects an improvement in the job market with the number of unemployed dropping below three million, according to a report published in the German daily Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung on Saturday.

Iran says it is mulling over the outlines of a joint agreement with Bahrain for the export of Iranian natural gas to the Persian Gulf state.

Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said on Saturday that Iranian and Bahraini officials met in Tehran to discuss measures for the establishment of a joint commission to increase cooperation in the natural gas sector, Mehr news agency reported.

China's Ministry of Commerce says the nation's exports to Iran have crossed the $5 billion mark, up roughly 50% year on year.

China exported $5.44 billion worth of goods to Iran during the first two quarters of 2010, registering a 48.6 percent increase compared to the similar period last year, Fars News Agency quoted the Chinese Ministry of Commerce as saying.

The US Labor Department figures show the world's biggest economy is still battling the recent recession, as its unemployment rate has increased to 9.6 percent in August.

The figures provide millions of unemployed men and women across the United States with an insight into the status of their ailing economy in terms of current and prospective job markets.

On this episode of Counting the Cost, we look at the threat of a double-dip recession, Pakistani cricket and the world of sports betting.

UK employers' concerns over an economic meltdown and public spending cuts have greatly overshadowed service sector activity.

The UK's service sector has experienced its slowest growth since April 2009 with a marked fall in hiring activities, the Daily Telegraph said in an exclusive report on Friday.