A admninistração Obama e o trauma da revolução iraniana

Grandes donativos árabes a universidades britânicas levam a ensinamentos ‘hostis‘

Sir Howard Davies, the director of the London School of Economics, has at last done the honourable thing and resigned from the university’s governing council. The LSE’s shameless prostituting of its good name in return for Muammar Gaddafi’s blood money (as the Tory MP Robert Halfon has rightly called it) is as great a betrayal of the spirit of a university as there has ever been in Britain.

But while it will take the LSE quite some time to regain a seat at the table of respectability, it is not the only university that has reason to feel ashamed. The LSE is said to have received no more than £300,000 of the £1.5 million it was due from Libya.

Yet, on the most conservative estimate, other British universities have received hundreds of millions of pounds from Saudi and other Islamic sources – in the guise of philanthropic donations, but with the real intention of changing the intellectual climate of the United Kingdom.

Between 1995 and 2008, eight universities – Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, University College London, the LSE, Exeter, Dundee and City – accepted more than £233.5 million from Muslim rulers and those closely connected to them.

Much of the money has gone to Islamic study centres: the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies received £75 million from a dozen Middle Eastern rulers, including the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia; one of the current king’s nephews, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, gave £8 million each to Cambridge and Edinburgh. Then there was the LSE’s own Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, which got £9 million from the United Arab Emirates; this week, a majority of the centre’s board was revealed to be pushing for a boycott of Israel. [...].

Ver notícia no Telegraph 

Crescente deterioração das relações entre a Turquia e a União Europeia

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused German society of "xenophobia" and the German government of "discrimination" ahead of a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The remarks follow an unfriendly encounter with French President Sarkozy.

Speaking to a group of ethnic Turks in Dusseldorf on Sunday (27 February) ahead of his meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hannover on Monday, Mr Erdogan said: "We are observing the xenophobia in certain European countries, notably Germany, with great unease ... Islamophobia is a crime against humanity, just as anti-Semitism is."

He urged German politicians not to feed the fear of foreigners, but also called on the 2.5 million ethnic Turks in Germany to try to fit in.

"I want everybody to learn German and to get the best level of education they can ... I want Turkish people to be present at all levels in Germany, in the administration, in politics, in civil society," he added, the German press agency, DPA, reports.

A day on earlier on Saturday, in an interview with the regional daily, the Rheinische Post, the Turkish premier came close to accusing Ms Merkel's political party of racism. [...]

Ver notícia em EUObserver

As universidades ocidentais e os donativos de países árabes: lições do escândalo Kadhafi na LSE

A donation of €1.78 million from the Gaddafi family and a PhD granted to one of the Libyan dictator's sons has put the London School of Economics in a pickle, just as a fresh study on EU universities highlights the problems of dwindling public funds for education.

The London School of Economics, one of the top-ranking universities in Europe, on Monday (21 February) acknowledged it had received a gift of €1.78 million from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, chaired by Saif al Islam, one of the Libyan dictator's seven sons and a former graduate.

The university also admitted it had "delivered executive education programmes to Libyan officials", but said it had now decided to sever all those links "in view of the highly distressing news" about hundreds of protesters killed by armed forces.

"The school intends to continue its work on democratisation in north Africa funded from other sources unrelated to the Libyan authorities," it said in a statement published on its website.

Seen as one of the 'reformists' in the Gaddafi clan, Saif al Islam had spent four years at the LSE researching his PhD entitled "The Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Global Governance Institutions: From Soft Power to Collective Decision Making?"

But in a speech broadcast on Sunday on public television, the LSE graduate threatened demonstrators with "rivers of blood" and called them Western agents and drug addicts, warning about civil war, an Islamist take-over and the splitting of the country into a petro-rich east and a poor west.

One of his LSE mentors, David Held, a professor of political science, on Monday also dissociated himself from his former student.

"My support for Saif al Islam Gaddafi was always conditional on him resolving the dilemma that he faced in a progressive and democratic direction. The speech last night makes it abundantly clear that his commitment to transforming his country has been overwhelmed by the crisis he finds himself in. He tragically, but fatefully, made the wrong judgement," the professor said in an emailed statement. [...]


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‘Para qualquer parte do mundo que se olhe, a religião é importante‘ afirma Tony Blair

 “Do we want societies that are open to those who are different, who have different faiths and cultures than our own; or do we want, in the face of insecurity and economic crisis, to close down, to look after “our own” first and foremost? And if we want open ones, what are the conditions for such openness to prevail?
“It is true of Mexico...it is also true of the Middle East.  There are three elements in play.  However, they are operating within a region in which religion occupies a vital, if not determining space in society.  Ask how important is religion in the lives of people in Europe, and the answer is around 30-35%.  In the Middle East it is 90-95%.  If you don’t understand religion in the Middle East, you don’t understand the Middle East. So as these recent changes transform the Middle East region, the way religion affects that transformation is profoundly significant.
“The missing bit of Middle East policy is inter-faith.  Why?  Because if the concern is that Islam feels disrespected by the West, the answer is to engage in a dialogue that proves it isn’t. This begins in school, should be analysed and debated in university and should be grounded in political, social and cultural exchange.
“The reason religion is important is that it is about so much more than religion.  It is about history, culture, tradition, belonging, identity and meaning.  It is about the philosophy of life.  It is about the spirit not the flesh.  If the Middle East produces political change, without social change that is based on an open mind towards others, then it will have been a revolution half formed and unfinished and the economic change, so vital to advancing the position of the people, will likewise fall short.
“Globalisation is accelerating all these trends.  When I am asked to define the leading characteristic of today’s world, I say: its speed of change.  Movements, swirls of opinion, waves of change arise, build momentum and come crashing down against our preconceived positions or notions with bewildering velocity.  We adjust or we are swept away.”
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation partners with Tecnológico de Monterrey as part of its Faith and Globalisation Initiative which is a network of leading universities on every continent. The course at Tecnológico de Monterrey is now in its second semester, and the number of students has increased by nearly one hundred – from 195 to 284. The Initiative undertakes academic teaching and research to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between faith and globalisation.  The results help emerging leaders understand how faith motivates people, and analyses the impact of religion on the modern world.

Ver artigo completo na TonyBlairFaithFoundation

Cartoon de Belibel: o novo Presidente do Líbano alimenta o jogo destrutivo da Síria e do Hezbollah

Uma quantidade de disparates sobre o Egipto

"David Cameron has criticized ‘state multiculturalism' in his first speech as prime minister on radicalization and the causes of terrorism.
 "At a security conference in Munich, he argued the U.K. needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to all kinds of extremism. He also signaled a tougher stance on groups promoting Islamist extremism. ... As Mr. Cameron outlined his vision, he suggested there would be greater scrutiny of some Muslim groups which get public money but do little to tackle extremism".
 ‘Ministers should refuse to share platforms or engage with such groups, which should be denied access to public funds and barred from spreading their message in universities and prisons,' he argued. ‘Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism,' the prime minister said."
For those of us who have been calling for years for the United Kingdom and Europe to become "intolerant" of the radical Islamist threat to our culture, this is a thrilling and gratifying moment.
It is the obligation of both citizen and statesman to avoid both illusion and self-delusion when considering national threats. And so it is ironic that on the same weekend that the British government finally removes the scales from its eyes and looks straight-on at the mortal threat that aggressively asserted Islamist values pose to our civilization, in Egypt - at the constant hectoring of Washington voices - the remnants of the Mubarak government begins its halting, perhaps inevitable march toward the illusion of Egyptian democracy. [...]

Ver artigo no Rear Clear Politics

Rebeldes em Armas! Cartoon de Hajjaj

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. [...]

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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!

Irritação da Turquia sobre o pacto Chipre-Israel

Turkish authorities yesterday warned that a bilateral economic deal between Cyprus and Israel aimed at mutual prospecting for oil in the eastern Mediterranean could strain ongoing United Nations-mediated talks aimed at reunifying the divided island.
According to Turkey’s semiofficial Anatolia news agency, the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s undersecretary, Feridun Sinirlioglu, warned Gaby Levy, Israel’s ambassador to Turkey, that the deal would have a negative impact. Sinirlioglu argued that “such unilateral moves [on behalf of the Greek Cypriots] that ignore the will of the Turkish-Cypriot side will harm ongoing settlement talks on the island.”
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources told Kathimerini that Ankara aims to pressure Israel into breaking its pact with Cyprus. The sources said Ankara may use its ties with Lebanon and militant Shiite movement Hezbollah as a way of exerting pressure on Israel. Nicosia has made similar deals with Lebanon and Egypt, which Turkey also has urged the Arab nations to break.
Israel yesterday defended its decision. “This agreement is an issue between Israel and Cyprus and it in no way affects a third country,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. “We do not see how a third country would have anything to say about it,” he added. Another unidentified Israeli official accused Turkey of “monstrous chutzpah” for using “as an argument its occupation of the northern part of Cyprus to denounce the deal.”
The agreement defines the sea border between Cyprus and Israel and delineates an exclusive economic zone between the two countries, allowing them to prospect for oil together. Already the discovery of a huge gas deposit off the Israeli port of Haifa, and close to Cyprus, has fueled great interest in the region’s potential.

Ver notícia no Kathimerini

O Japão redefine a sua estratégia militar face à ameaça da China e Coreia do Norte

Japan, which shares a maritime border with China, said Beijing's military build-up was of global concern.
Japan will also strengthen its missile defences against the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.
The policy document has been approved by the cabinet and will shape Japan's defence policy for the next 10 years.
Japan is changing its defence policy in response to the shifting balance of power in Asia, analysts say.
Defences will be scaled down in the north, where they have been deployed since the Cold War to counter an invasion from Russia.
The military focus will now be in the far-southern islands of Japan, closer to China.
Japan is concerned by China's growing naval might and increased assertiveness in the East China and South China seas.
"China is rapidly modernising its military force and expanding activities in its neighbouring waters," the new guidelines said.
"Together with the lack of transparency on China's military and security issues, the trend is a concern for the region and the international community."
Relations between Japan and China deteriorated sharply in September, after collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol boats near a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Ver notícia na BBC [...]

O prémio Nobel da Paz e a cadeira vazia, cartoon de Vador

Ataque suicidida em Estocolmo

At a Sunday morning press conference, Säpo said it had taken over the investigation into the nearly simultaneous bombings from the Stockholm police. The investigation will be overseen by chief prosecutor Tomas Linstrand.

"We are opening an investigation into a terrorist crime under Swedish laws," Anders Thornberg, head of Säpo's security department, told a press conference, a day after the explosions targeted shoppers in the Swedish capital.

Thornberg called the incident “very serious”, although he reiterated that Säpo had no plans to raise the threat level in Sweden as a result of the attack.

“We’re now working to assess whether similar events might take place. We can’t rule it out,” he said.

He added there is “no connection” to between Saturday's attack and a bomb threat investigation Gothenburg from early November, a probe which was subsequently dropped without any charges being filed.

Saturday's attack consisted of two explosions which occurred just minutes apart shortly before 5pm local time.

In the first blast, a car exploded, injuring two passers-by who were sent to hospital with minor injuries. Police say the vehicle was filled with cannisters of liquefied petroleum gas.

A second blast occurred just minutes later about 200 metres away, killing one man. An eye witness who arrived on the scene before police told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper it appeared something had exploded on the man's abdomen.

Ver notícia no The Local