Wednesday, 19 January 2011 10:14
'The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was accused today of tacitly propping up dictatorship in north Africa and of botched diplomacy in France's ambivalent response to the tumults in Tunis.
Analysts, EU diplomats and French opposition figures said the Sarkozy administration, following years of close relations with the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, had been caught napping by the "jasmine revolution" despite weeks of protests in the former French colony and the extensive and intimate human, business, and political links between France and Tunisia.
"Overall the French have been agnostic, along the lines of 'better the dictator you know than the dictator you don't,'" said an EU official.'
Read more: Sarko Propping Up Regime In Face Of Tunisian Protests?
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 09:53
'It’s been called the "Trusted Internet ID" scheme by some observers. It won’t matter what we choose to call the government’s proposed Internet licensing system because in the end we probably won’t have a say in it.
Earlier in the week we reported that the US Department of Commerce was preparing to create an Internet ID for all Americans. White House Cyber security Coordinator Howard Schmidt said that the Department of Commerce is "the absolute perfect spot in the US government" to build an online "identity ecosystem."
Right off the bat I can tell you that attempting to force people to identify themselves on a national level doesn’t have much to do with the Department of Commerce’s official mission. We should all be feeling skeptical about this ID scheme.'
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 08:07
'A spectre is haunting Europe: the illusion that Latvia’s financial and fiscal austerity is a model for other countries to emulate. Bankers and the financial press are asking governments from Greece to Ireland and now Spain as well: “Why can’t you be like Latvia and sacrifice your economy to pay the debts that you ran up during the financial bubble?” The answer is, they can’t – without an economic, demographic and political collapse that will only make matters worse.
Only a year ago it was recognized that decades of neoliberalism had crashed the U.S. and several European economies. Years of deregulation, speculation and lack of investment in the real economy had left them with rising inequality and little consumer demand, except for what was financed by running up debt. But the financial press and neoliberal policymakers counterattacked, using the “Baltic Tigers” as an exemplary battering ram to counter Keynesian spending policies and the Social Europe model envisioned by Jacques Delors.'
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 07:38
'"Russia made its choice a long time ago ...we supported and will support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem [al-Quds]," Medvedev said on Tuesday at a press conference with acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank oasis town of Ariha (Jericho).
Medvedev also said without Israel's “reasonable” decision on its settlement activity, Middle East talks will not be progressive.
"It is impossible to close your eyes to this fact,” the Russian president said.'
Read more: Russia Backs Independent Palestine
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