A agenda Obama de ‘liberdade na Net‘ está a virar-se contra os EUA?

On Thursday, President Obama declared access to social networks to be a “universal” value, right alongside freedom of speech. But when those networks helped weaken Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, one of the U.S.’ strongest allies in the Middle East, the Obama team demanded Mubarak turn the Egyptian Internet back on — but didn’t abandon support for him, either. Maybe this “Internet Freedom Agenda” wasn’t so well thought out?
For more than a year, the White House has been pushing the idea that online connections are a good thing — no matter what’s said using those tools. It’s a way of signaling to wired people, not just governments, that the U.S. is on their side. The Obama administration called for Twitter to stay online during 2009 protests in Iran, and U.S. cash for new social networks like Pakistan’s Humari Awaz and SMS relief webs for Haitian earthquake victims. “The very existence of social networks,” State Department tech adviser Alec Ross said, “is a net good.”
Now comes the test. The Internet Freedom Agenda may have just undermined an ugly pillar of the U.S.’ Mideast strategy — supporting dictators — without doing much to aid the discontented millions that might replace it. While Obama tepidly calls on Mubarak to let people keep tweeting, Egyptian protesters may want the U.S. ”to completely get out of the picture,” as one told al-Jazeera. “Just cut aid to Mubarak immediately and withdraw backing from him, withdraw from all Middle Eastern bases, and stop supporting the state of Israel.”

Ver artigo na Wired

Ataque suicida no principal aeroporto de Moscovo

 President Dmitry Medvedev blamed lax security for a suicide bombing at Russia’s busiest airport that killed 35 people as investigators raced to find the organizers of the “terrorist attack.”

Medvedev told prosecutors to probe security personnel at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport for possible negligence in allowing yesterday’s bombing and ordered increased vigilance at airports and train stations.

“There were obvious violations of security provisions,” Medvedev said on state television today, after delaying his departure to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Elena Galanova, a spokeswoman for Domodedovo, declined to comment on Medvedev’s remarks.

At least seven of the people killed were foreigners, including U.K. and German citizens, according to the Emergency Ministry’s website. Nine of the 35 bodies had yet to be identified as of 10 a.m. local time today, with another 110 people still in hospital, the ministry said.

The blast in the arrival hall of the largest air hub in eastern Europe was the second attack on the Russian capital in less than a year. Forty people died in twin subway bombings during morning rush hour last March. Doku Umarov, a militant from the southern Russian region of Chechnya, where government forces fought two wars against separatists between 1994 and 2000, claimed responsibility for those blasts. [...]

Ver notícia no Bloomberg

Reivindicações de liberdade na Tunísia: cartoon de Sondron para o jornal L'Avenir

Entrevista com Nouriel Roubini: A Europa tem de crescer para evitar o colapso do Euro

Europe, says star economist Nouriel Roubini, needs to take immediate action to shore up the euro. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Roubini said Germany must provide more money to defend the common currency and allow the European Central Bank to loosen monetary policy. Otherwise, disaster could be looming.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Roubini, when you recently acquired a new penthouse in Manhattan for $5.5 million observers on both sides of the Atlantic hailed it as a sign: The man who predicted the financial crisis had regained confidence in the US housing market and in the US economy.

Roubini: There's a bit of good news -- and a lot of bad news. In 2011, the US economy will likely grow by 2.7 percent. That's a robust rate of growth. The risk of a second slump has dropped considerably. The US Federal Reserve's policy of buying government bonds and the middle-class tax benefits of the Obama administration are already having an effect. That's the good news.

SPIEGEL: And the bad news?

Roubini: The persisting housing crisis, the implications of this on the financial condition of banks and, above all, the high public debt and deficit, both at the federal and state levels. The US is in a dilemma. In the medium term, there is no getting around budget consolidation, otherwise the country will be threatened by a debt crisis such as Europe is currently experiencing. However, given the weak recovery so far, the US must do all it can to boost economic growth.

SPIEGEL: Tax cuts for the super rich, which are part of President Barack Obama's tax package, are hardly going to create additional growth.

Roubini: And that's the heart of the problem. The plan is a complete waste of money. It's going to increase the deficit without doing anything to kick-start the economy. And, unfortunately, I don't see any chance of this fiscal stalemate changing significantly before the presidential elections in 2012. The White House and the Republican majority in Congress block each other's proposals, and there is no such thing as bipartisan crisis management in the US. I'm sure that the public debt of the US will eventually make the markets very nervous in the next few years [...].

Ver notícia no Der Spiegel

Grécia planeia a construção de muro contra imigração ilegal na fronteira com a Turquia

The Greek government plans to build a wall along its 206-km-long land border with Turkey to help keep out unwanted migrants on the model of the US border with Mexico.
Greek junior minister for citizen protection, Christos Papoutsis, a former EU commissioner for energy, made the announcement in an interview with the Athens News Agency on Friday (31 December), saying: "Co-operation with other EU states is going well. Now we plan to construct a fence to deal with illegal migration."
"The Greek society has reached its limits in taking in illegal immigrants ... We are absolutely determined on this issue. Additionally, we want to provide a decisive blow against the migrant smuggling rings that trade in people and their hopes for a better life," he added.
Mr Papoutsis compared the planned construction to the 1,050-km-long fence running through sections of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas on the Mexico-US border.
Built at a cost of €1.8 billion over the past five years and backed-up by cameras, radar surveillance, jeep-mounted patrols and predator drones, the 4.5-metre-high metal wall initially raised howls of protest on humanitarian and environmental grounds, but has since gained widespread public support in the US. [...]

Ver notícia no EUObserver

Atentado contra Igreja cristã copta em Alexandria agita o espectro de violência confessional

L'Egypte redoutait dimanche une aggravation des tensions confessionnelles après l'attentat qui a fait 21 morts devant une église copte d'Alexandrie, pour lequel les autorités privilégient la piste du terrorisme international et la mouvance d'Al-Qaïda.
Des traces de sang étaient toujours visibles dimanche matin sur la façade de l'église des Saints à Alexandrie, mais le calme semblait revenu après les affrontements de la veille entre jeunes chrétiens et policiers.
L'émotion restait toutefois vive parmi les fidèles, qui ont assisté à la messe dominicale en scandant "Ô croix, nous sommes prêts à nous sacrifier pour toi". Samedi soir, les funérailles des victimes coptes avaient rassemblé plus de 5.000 personnes dans le cimetière chrétien de la deuxième ville du pays.
La presse égyptienne de tous bords exhortait chrétiens et musulmans à faire bloc, craignant que ce massacre commis dans la nuit du Nouvel An ne provoque une escalade des tensions.

Ver notícia na France 24

Feliz Ano Novo de 2011!