expansion

Following weeks of mass protests, the 82-year-old Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power for well over two decades, announced his resignation. What this basically means is that Algeria that used to be considered a no-go country by Western intelligence communities due to the harsh stance that Algiers took on opposing their activities, has now shown to the world that it’s no less volatile than such countries as Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.

The state of Michigan has given a preliminary go-ahead for food and beverage maker Nestle to nearly triple the amount of groundwater it will pump from beneath the state, to be bottled and sold at its Ice Mountain plant, approximately 120 miles from Flint. [1]
Source: mlive.com
Nestle Waters North America asked the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to allow the company to increase pumping from 150 to 400 gallons-per-minute at 1 of its production wells north of Evart.

The base is Russia’s only naval base in the Mediterranean.

On August 26, President Obama created the largest ecologically protected area on earth by expanding a national marine monument in Hawaii, his home state, to encompass more than half a million square miles. It’s called the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. [1]
The area of remote Pacific waters known for both extraordinary marine life and importance to native cultures is twice the size of Texas. [2]