Japão e Vietnã reafirmam contrução conjunta de usina nuclear

Vietnam, Japan nuclear project intact despite Fukushima

Reuters / Kiyoshi Takenaka – 31/10/2011

Japan and Vietnam on Monday reaffirmed their plan to build a nuclear power plant in the Southeast Asian country using Japanese technology, even as Tokyo still struggles to put the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years under control.

Last October, energy-hungry Vietnam accepted Japan as a partner in the construction of two nuclear reactors in Ninh Thuan province in central Vietnam.

But in March, a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling functions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, triggering fuel rod meltdowns, explosions and radiation leakage.

A joint statement, released after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung, said Japan was committed to enhance nuclear safety by sharing lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident.

China, Laos Mianmar e Tailândia concordam em ação conjunta para aumentar segurança do Rio Mekong

China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand agree to secure Mekong River shipping after deadly boat raid

Xinhua News – 31/10/2011

BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand on Monday agreed to take joint action to crack down on cross-border crime and secure transportation along the Mekong River, after 13 Chinese sailors were killed in a deadly boat raid earlier this month.

The pledge came out of a one-day law enforcement meeting among senior cabinet members from the four countries. The meeting took place nearly one month after two cargo ships were attacked on Oct. 5, resulting in the murder of 13 Chinese sailors.

The 4,880-km-long Mekong River, a so-called “Golden Channel” linking Cambodia, Vietnam and the four countries, has served as a major trade route for the countries and the China-ASEAN free trade zone. Shipping on the Mekong River has been suspended after the deadly boat attack.

While meeting with delegation heads of the four countries attending the conference on Monday, Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, called for a thorough investigation into the attack.

Alemanha ameaça cancelar venda de submarino para Israel como protesto a novos assentamentos

Foto por: ISRAEL-IRAN/SUBMARINES REUTERS/Havakuk Levison/Files

 Germany Threatens To Halt Submarine Sale to Israel

SPIEGEL – 31/10/2011

Germany is threatening to stop the delivery of a “Dolphin” submarine to Israel in protest over the country’s settlement policies. Government sources confirmed the development when asked by SPIEGEL following speculation last week in the Israeli media that Germany might halt the sale.

The move is in response to the recent decision by the Israeli government to approve the construction of 1,100 homes in Gilo, an Arab part of Jerusalem captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. The Israeli government considers the area to be a Jewish suburb, but the international community contests that description.

The threat by German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been the subject of considerable concern in Israel.

The nuclear-weapons capable Dolphin submarines are an important part of the Israeli military strategy. The navy already owns three of the submarines and two further vessels are currently being built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), the shipbuilding division of German steelmaker Thyssen-Krupp, in Kiel, Germany.

Russia: Rebuilding an Empire While It Can – Lauren Goodrich, STRATFOR

Russia: Rebuilding an Empire While It Can

STRATFOR / Lauren Goodrich – 31/10/2011

U.S.-Russian relations seem to have been relatively quiet recently, as there are numerous contradictory views in Washington about the true nature of Russia’s current foreign policy. Doubts remain about the sincerity of the U.S. State Department’s so-called “reset” of relations with Russia — the term used in 2009 when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed a reset button to her Russian counterpart as a symbol of a freeze on escalating tensions between Moscow and Washington. The concern is whether the “reset” is truly a shift in relations between the two former adversaries or simply a respite before relations deteriorate again.

The reset actually had little to do with the United States wanting Russia as a friend and ally. Rather, Washington wanted to create room to handle other situations — mainly Afghanistan and Iran — and ask Russia for help. (Russia is aiding in moving supplies into Afghanistan and withholding critical support from Iran.) Meanwhile, Russia also wanted more room to set up a system that would help it create a new version of its old empire.

Russia’s ultimate plan is to re-establish control over much of its former territories. This inevitably will lead Moscow and Washington back into a confrontation, negating any so-called reset, as Russian power throughout Eurasia is a direct threat to the U.S. ability to maintain its global influence. This is how Russia has acted throughout history in order to survive. The Soviet Union did not act differently from most of the Russian empires before it, and Russia today is following the same behavioral pattern.

Principais pontos da declaração final da XXI Cúpula Ibero-Americana

Principais pontos da declaração final da XXI Cúpula Ibero-Americana

AFP – 29/10/2011

ASSUNÇÃO — Chefes de Estado e governo, e representantes de América Latina, Espanha, Andorra e Portugal assinaram neste sábado, em Assunção, a declaração final da XXI Cúpula Ibero-Americana, cujo lema foi Transformação do Estado e Desenvolvimento.

Seguem os principais pontos do documento:

- TRANSPARÊNCIA NA ADMINISTRAÇÃO PÚBLICA:

“Fortalecer a administração pública e garantir a vigência de regras claras e previsíveis em matéria de gestão pública, com o objetivo de contribuir para o governo democrático com participação dos cidadãos.”

Estados Unidos pretende aumentar presença militar no Golfo Pérsico após sua saída do Iraque

Foto por: Andrea Bruce/The New York Times

 U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq

The New York Times / Thom Shanker, Steven Lee Meyers – 29/10/2011

The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

The plans, under discussion for months, gained new urgency after President Obama’s announcement this month that the last American soldiers would be brought home from Iraq by the end of December. Ending the eight-year war was a central pledge of his presidential campaign, but American military officers and diplomats, as well as officials of several countries in the region, worry that the withdrawal could leave instability or worse in its wake.

After unsuccessfully pressing both the Obama administration and the Iraqi government to permit as many as 20,000 American troops to remain in Iraq beyond 2011, the Pentagon is now drawing up an alternative.

In addition to negotiations over maintaining a ground combat presence in Kuwait, the United States is considering sending more naval warships through international waters in the region.

Brasil deve receber R$ 922 bi até 2015 em infra-estrutura

Brasil deve receber R$ 922 bi até 2015 em infra-estrutura

Monitor Mercantil / Marcelo Bernardes – 28/10/2011

Até o ano de 2015 o setor de infra-estrutura do país deverá receber investimentos da ordem de R$ 922 bilhões. Os recursos serão destinados as áreas de energia (petróleo e gás), transporte e logística, telecomunicações e saneamento básico. Esse volume, se comparado ao que foi destinado para o ano de 2010 (R$ R$ 146 bilhões, mostra que os governos (federal, estadual e municipal) consideram o setor como fundamental para atender as demanda da Copa do Mundo de 2014, e os Jogos Olímpicos de 2016, conforme disse nesta sexta-feira ao MONITOR MERCANTIL, Nivaldo Tetti, presidente da Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Base (Abdib), antes de participar da abertura do 7º Seminário de Infra-estrutura da Cámara Oficial Española de Comercio en Brasil – Oportunidades de negócios nas cidades-sede do mundial de 2014: Belo Horizonte, Brasília e Rio de Janeiro.

“Esses investimentos são significativos. Constatamos que os investimentos vêm crescendo nos últimos anos, principalmente em infra-estrutura. Nós estamos tentando manter o investimento médio em cerca de R$ 180 milhões/ano no setor. Se isso acontecer, nos próximos cinco anos a situação vai melhorar muito para a população brasileira”, disse, acrescentando que esses investimentos podem gerar, nesse período, cerca de 1 milhão de novos empregos.

Turquia dá proteção a rebeldes sírios

In Slap at Syria, Turkey Shelters Anti-Assad Fighters

The New York Times / Liam Stack – 27/10/2011

ANTAKYA, Turkey — Once one of Syria’s closest allies, Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and allowing them to orchestrate attacks across the border from inside a camp guarded by the Turkish military.

The support for the insurgents comes amid a broader Turkish campaign to undermine Mr. Assad’s government. Turkey is expected to impose sanctions soon on Syria, and it has deepened its support for an umbrella political opposition group known as the Syrian National Council, which announced its formation in Istanbul. But its harboring of leaders in the Free Syrian Army, a militia composed of defectors from the Syrian armed forces, may be its most striking challenge so far to Damascus.

On Wednesday, the group, living in a heavily guarded refugee camp in Turkey, claimed responsibility for killing nine Syrian soldiers, including one uniformed officer, in an attack in restive central Syria.

Turkish officials describe their relationship with the group’s commander, Col. Riad al-As’aad, and the 60 to 70 members living in the “officers’ camp” as purely humanitarian. Turkey’s primary concern, the officials said, is for the physical safety of defectors. When asked specifically about allowing the group to organize military operations while under the protection of Turkey, a Foreign Ministry official said that their only concern was humanitarian protection and that they could not stop them from expressing their views.

Economia estadunidense dá mostras de se recuperar aos poucos

Foto por: Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg News

 U.S. Economy Picks Up Pace, Averting a Stall

The New York Times / Shaila Dewan – 27/10/2011

Economic growth in the United States picked up in the last quarter in the latest encouraging sign that the recovery, while painfully slow, had not stalled.

Consumers spent more, especially on health care and utilities, and businesses invested more, in software and vehicles among other items, spurring the fastest growth in a year. The nation’s total output of goods and services grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent from July to September, almost double the 1.3 percent rate in the previous quarter, the Commerce Department estimated on Thursday.

That pace is not brisk enough, however, to recover the ground lost in the economic bust, relieve unemployment or even entirely dispel fears of a second recession.

“It ain’t brilliant, but at least it’s heading in the right direction,” said Ian Shepherdson, the chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics, a data analysis firm. “I want to see 4 percent, but given that people were talking about a new recession, I’ll take 2.5 or 3.”

Conselho de Segurança da ONU vota pelo fim das operações na Líbia

UN votes to end no-fly zone over Libya

Al Jazeera – 27/10/2011

The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to end NATO’s no-fly zone over Libya, despite the country’s calls for a delay.

The 15-member body voted on Thursday to end the no-fly zone, in place since March, from 11:59pm Libyan time (21:59 GMT) on October 31.

NATO, which carried out the air strikes that played a key role in the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader, is due to meet on Friday in Brussels to formally declare an end to its seven-month-old air operations.

The meeting will also discuss new ways to help the National Transitional Council (NTC), which is now in control of Libya.

Coreia do Norte e Coreia do Sul se encontram em Moscou para discutir retomada de diálogos de desnuclearização

Foto por: REUTERS/Kyodo

North, South Koreas discuss resumption of six-party talks

RIA Novosti – 27/10/2011

Representatives of South Korea and North Korea are holding talks with Russian officials in Moscow on resuming six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

“Talks between Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin and South Korean chief nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam started today,” Lukashevich said.

“On October 28, the Foreign Ministry will host talks between First Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov and Borodavkin and North Korea’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan,” he said.

Geórgia aceita proposta de entrada russa na OMC

After 18 years, Russia on verge of WTO membership

Reuters / Margarita Antidze, Gleb Bryanski – 27/10/2011

(Reuters) – Russia was close to joining the World Trade Organization after being offered a “take it or leave it” compromise Thursday by its tiny neighbor Georgia, the last holdout in Moscow’s tortuous 18-year path to membership of the global trading club.

Russian entry to the WTO would be the biggest step in world trade liberalisation since China joined a decade ago, and the United States and the European Union have urged all sides to try to settle membership terms by the end of this year.

Only Algeria has spent longer trying to negotiate WTO membership, and after a big diplomatic push, trade diplomats say the conditions are so favorable for Russia that it’s a case of ‘now or never.’

Georgia, like all WTO members, has an effective veto on Russia’s membership, and it is the last to agree. Its offer of a compromise deal was the climax of a long and knotty negotiation, overseen by Swiss mediators, about how to handle trade through two breakaway regions of Georgia that are loyal to Russia.

Comissão de Relações Exteriores e Defesa Nacional aprova indicações para embaixadas no Azerbaijão e no Cabo Verde

Na mesa, esquerda para direita: República do Azerbaijão, Embaixador Sérgio de Souza Fontes Arruda; Presidente da CRE, senador Fernando Collor de Mello (PTB-AL); República de Cabo Verde, Embaixador João Inácio Oswald Padilha.

 CRE aprova indicações para embaixadas no Azerbaijão e no Cabo Verde

Agência Senado / Gorette Brandão – 27/10/2011

A Comissão de Relações Exteriores e Defesa Nacional (CRE) aprovou nesta quinta-feira (27) os nomes de Sérgio de Souza Fontes Arruda para chefiar a embaixada do Brasil na República do Azerbaijão e de João Inácio Oswald Padilha, para a mesma função na República de Cabo Verde. As indicações vão ser encaminhadas agora a Plenário, para decisão final.

O Azerbaijão recuperou sua independência em 1991, após 70 anos de dominação soviética. Aos senadores, na sabatina, Sérgio Arruda salientou que o país depende fundamentalmente da riqueza gerada pelas reservas de petróleo, mas que vem se esforçando para diversificar sua economia, o que abre espaço para o incremento das relações comerciais entre os dois países. Conforme disse, o patamar dos negócios ainda é modesto, representado por trocas da ordem de US$ 22 bilhões, com maior participação das exportações do Brasil.

Sérgio Arruda, que desde 2008 ocupa a embaixada brasileira em Kuala Lumpur, na Malásia, teve sua indicação para o Azerbaijão examinada pelo senador Eduardo Suplicy (PT-SP). Ainda sobre o Azerbaijão, observou que está situado no Cáucaso, região que divide a Europa e a Ásia, entre o mar Negro e o Cáspio, numa posição considerada estratégica para a geopolítico regional e, ainda, o próprio jogo entre as grandes potências.

Debatedores defendem restrições à aquisição de terras por estrangeiros na Amazônia

Da esquerda para a direita: assessor de Política Estratégica do Ministério da Defesa, Capitão-de-Mar-e-Guerra, Paulo César Garcia Brandão; presidente da Subcomissão, senadora Vanessa Grazziotin (PCdoB-AM); Consultor Geral da Advocacia Geral da União, Arnaldo Sampaio de Moraes Godoy.

Debatedores defendem restrições à aquisição de terras por estrangeiros na Amazônia

Agência Senado / Anderson Vieira – 27/10/2011

O Brasil precisa aumentar a restrição e ter mais controle sobre a compra de terras por parte de estrangeiros na Amazônia. O alerta foi feito pelo consultor-geral da Advocacia-Geral da União, Arnaldo Sampaio Godoy, e pelo assessor de Políticas Estratégicas do Ministério da Defesa, capitão-de-mar-e-guerra Paulo César Garcia Brandão, que participaram, nesta quinta-feira (27), de audiência da Subcomissão Permanente da Amazônia para tratar do assunto.

O representante da AGU lembrou que a restrição à aquisição de terras por parte de cidadãos não nacionais é comum no mundo inteiro e não há em tal prática qualquer resquício de xenofobia ou discriminação.

- Há países que sequer permitem a compra de terras por indivíduos de outras nacionalidades. No mundo de hoje, informação é fundamental. Precisamos saber nas mãos de quem estão nossas terras. É uma questão estratégica, de soberania e até de segurança alimentar – opinou Arnaldo Godoy, que ainda fez um histórico das legislações e dos conflitos jurídicos existentes sobre o tema desde o século 19.

China lança Livro Branco sobre sistema legal comunista

Foto por: Xinhua/Wan Xiang

China issues white paper on socialist legal system

Xinhua News / Deng Shasha – 27/10/2011

The Chinese government on Thursday issued a white paper on the Socialist System of Laws with Chinese Characteristics.

The laws have been categorized as a milestone in the development of China’s socialist democratic legal system.

The white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, introduces the establishment, components and features of the socialist system of laws.

By the end of August 2011, the Chinese legislature had enacted 240 effective laws, including the current Constitution, 706 administrative regulations and over 8,600 local regulations, the white paper says. Governing China by law and building a socialist country under the rule of law is a fundamental principle for the Communist Party of China, says the white paper.

Helicópteros da OTAN violam espaço aéreo paquistanês

NATO helicopters violate Pakistan’s airspace

Xinhua News / Mu Xuequan – 27/10/2011

NATO helicopters Wednesday violated Pakistan’s airspace and intruded inside the volatile North Waziristan tribal region, which the U.S. and Afghan officials claim is the main base for al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban, officials in the region said.

The choppers entered Pakistani airspace from neighboring Afghanistan in the border area of Datta Khel, just few km from Miranshah, center of North Waziristan, they said.

Local tribesmen also spotted the NATO helicopters at around 02: 00 p.m. local time, who they said had been flying for five minutes. They had arrived from Paktiya province.

Officials said that Pakistani forces fired warning shots forcing the NATO helicopters to return to Afghanistan.

Líderes da União Europeia chegam a acordo quanto à dívida grega

EU leaders strike deal on eurozone debts

Al Jazeera – 27/10/2011

“Three-pronged” agreement reached in Brussels entails a 50 per cent cut in private banks’ Greek bond holdings.

European leaders have agreed to a last-minute deal on the eurozone debt crisis to help Greece reduce its debt by $150bn.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy announced in Brussels on Thursday that European private banks had agreed to take a 50 per cent cut in their Greek bond holdings. He said the agreement “represents an effort of 100 billion euros [$150bn]“.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Brussels, said: “In theory this agreement should help Greece and not spread contagion in the eurozone and other economies.”

Vietnã e Filipinas preparam acordo para cooperação naval em zonas disputadas no Mar do Sul da China

Philippines, Vietnam forge naval agreement on Spratlys

Asia One / Norman Bordadora – 26/10/2011

The navies and coast guards of the Philippines and Vietnam have forged cooperation agreements despite the continuing disputes among the countries claiming the resource-rich Spratly Islands.

President Benigno Aquino III and visiting Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang also agreed on Wednesday that adherence to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) was important in the peaceful resolution of territorial issues in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

The two leaders witnessed the signing in Malacañang of the memoranda of understanding for information sharing between the two navies and for a hotline between the two coast guards.

“We also exchanged information and views on issues relating to the West Philippine Sea [which Vietnam calls East Sea] and reaffirmed the importance of the maintenance of peace, stability, maritime safety and security in the region,” Mr. Aquino said in a press statement issued after his bilateral meeting with Sang.

Governo argentino exige que receita de exportação das empresas do setor extrativo sejam completamente repatriadas

Presidente argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

 Gobierno estableció la obligación de liquidar divisas en el mercado local a petroleros y mineras

Télam – 26/10/2011

El gobierno nacional restableció la obligatoriedad del ingreso y negociación en el mercado de cambios de la totalidad de las divisas provenientes de operaciones de exportación de petróleos crudos, sus derivados, gas y de empresas mineras.

La medida fue dispuesta a través del decreto 1722, firmado por la presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner; por el jefe de Gabinete, Aníbal Fernández; y por el ministro de Economía, Amado Boudou.

El decreto, publicado hoy en el Boletín Oficial, señala en sus considerandos que “las commodities que se exportan provenientes de las actividades minera y petrolera, recursos no renovables, cuentan con un régimen diferencial que las exime de la liquidación de divisas”.

En el caso de las compañías petroleras, la libre disponibilidad de divisas es de 70%.

Agência Nacional de Segurança estadunidense ajuda bancos a combater ataques de hackers

Foto por: Reuters/Jason Reed

 Exclusive: National Security Agency helps banks battle hackers

Reuters / Andrea Shalal-Esa, Jim Finkle – 26/10/2011

The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage.

The assistance from the agency that conducts electronic spying overseas is part of an effort by American banks and other financial firms to get help from the U.S. military and private defense contractors to fend off cyber attacks, according to interviews with U.S. officials, security experts and defense industry executives.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also warned banks of particular threats amid concerns that hackers could potentially exploit security vulnerabilities to wreak havoc across global markets and cause economic mayhem.

While government and private sector security sources are reluctant to discuss specific lines of investigations, they paint worst-case scenarios of hackers ensconcing themselves inside a bank’s network to disable trading systems for stocks, bonds and currencies, trigger flash crashes, initiate large transfers of funds or turn off all ATM machines.

China quer construir bases nas áreas tribais do Paquistão, fronteira com Xinjiang

Clique na imagem para ampliar

 China seeks military bases in Pakistan

Asia Times / Amir Mir – 26/10/2011

ISLAMABAD – While Pakistan wants China to build a naval base at its southwestern seaport of Gwadar in Balochistan province, Beijing is more interested in setting up military bases either in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan or in the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) that border Xinjiang province.

The Chinese desire is meant to contain growing terrorist activities of Chinese rebels belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked East

Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) that is also described as the Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP).

The Chinese Muslim rebels want the creation of an independent Islamic state and are allegedly being trained in the tribal areas of Pakistan. According to well-placed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, Beijing’s wish for a military presence in Pakistan was discussed at length by the political and military leadership of both countries in recent months as China (which views the Uyghur separatist sentiment as a dire threat) has become ever-more concerned about Pakistan’s tribal areas as a haven for radicals.

Partido Islâmico na Tunísia ganha vantagem e propõe coalizão

Tunisia Islamic Party Calls for Coalition After Taking Lead in Elections

Bloomberg / Mariam Fam, Jihen Laghmari – 26/10/2011

Tunisia’s Islamic Ennahdha party called for a coalition with secular groups after saying it has the lead in national balloting, a sign of the strength of long- repressed Islamist movements following revolts in the region.

Ennahdha, banned until six months ago, said it won 40 percent of the National Constituent Assembly’s 217 seats, according to a statement yesterday. The counting of votes in the Oct. 23 elections continued, with preliminary official results showing Ennahdha taking 30 of the 73 seats for which votes were tallied. The party said it will begin consultations to form a unity government and that no group will be excluded from talks.

“Ennahdha has intelligently understood the rules of the political game,” said Sofienne Ben Farhat, an independent political analyst. “This Islamist party, despite the votes that it has gained so far, knows it cannot rule alone. Ennahdha is not the Taliban and Tunisia is not Afghanistan.”

OTAN se nega a construir escudo anti-mísseis unificado com Rússia

Russia gets NATO ‘nyet’ on missile defense

Russia Today / Robert Bridge – 25/10/2011

NATO officials say they are willing to “cooperate” with Russia in the US missile defense system, while balking on the possibility of building a single system.

Unfortunately, NATO on Tuesday once again refrained from putting its money where its mouth is, offering Moscow cheap words, as opposed to priceless action when it comes to a genuine partnership in the construction of a European missile defense system, which the US says is needed to protect Europe from a ‘rogue’ missile strike.

Russia was assured, once again, that the system was no cause for alarm.

The US missile defense shield slated for Europe “does not pose any threats to Russia’s defense capabilities,” James Appathurai, NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General, told his Russian hosts at a press conference in Moscow.

Governo do Iémen pede cessar-fogo aos rebeldes

 

Yemen calls truce as sporadic blasts heard

Reuters / Mohamed Sudam, Mohammed Mukhashaf – 25/10/2011

Yemen’s government signed a ceasefire with a dissident general on Tuesday to try to end weeks of worsening bloodshed but sporadic explosions and gunfire were still heard in the north of the capital.

After months of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule, a standoff between him and an opposition made up of protesters, tribesmen and renegade soldiers tipped into street fighting last month. Previous truces collapsed.

A government official said the ceasefire deal between Saleh’s administration and the breakaway general, Ali Mohsen, would take effect at 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Tuesday but residents of the Hasaba and Sofan neighborhoods in northern Sanaa said they heard explosions after that time.

State media later said the truce was stabilizing and a mediator expressed optimism it would hold.

Líbia e Iraque: o preço do sucesso – Stratfor

Libya and Iraq: The price of Success

Stratfor / George Friedman – 25/10/2011

In a week when the European crisis continued building, the White House chose publicly to focus on announcements about the end of wars. The death of Moammar Gadhafi was said to mark the end of the war in Libya, and excitement about a new democratic Libya abounded. Regarding Iraq, the White House transformed the refusal of the Iraqi government to permit U.S. troops to remain into a decision by Washington instead of an Iraqi rebuff.

Though in both cases there was an identical sense of “mission accomplished,” the matter was not nearly as clear-cut. The withdrawal from Iraq creates enormous strategic complexities rather than closure. While the complexities in Libya are real but hardly strategic, the two events share certain characteristics and are instructive.

Estados Unidos tem superioridade nuclear sobre a Rússia

U.S. has ‘nuclear superiority’ over Russia

RIA Novosti – 25/10/2011

Data published by the U.S. Department of State on Tuesday indicates that the United States has some 300 more deployed nuclear weapons than Russia.

According to New START Treaty Aggregate Numbers of Strategic Offensive Arms facts sheet, posted on the State Department’s website, the United States has 822 deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers, while Russia has 516.

Russia is also at a disadvantage in the number of warheads on deployed carriers – 1,566 warheads against 1,790 American warheads.

Terremoto na Turquia mata pelo menos 279 e deixa centenas de desaparecidos

Foto por: REUTERS/Osman Orsal

 Turkey quake kills at least 279, hundreds missing

Reuters / Jonathon Burch, Seda Sezer – 24/10/2011

Rescuers searched the rubble of collapsed buildings Monday for survivors and victims of a major earthquake that killed at least 279 people and injured more than 1,300 in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

Rescue and relief efforts focused on the city of Van and the town of Ercis, 100 km (60 miles) to the north, but hundreds were also feared dead in remote villages of mud-brick houses after Sunday’s 7.2 magnitude quake, Turkey’s strongest in a decade.

Desperate survivors cried for help beneath heaps of smashed concrete and twisted metal, some using mobile phones to tell friends they were alive, as earth-moving machines and troops raced against time in Van and Ercis.

Thousands of people made homeless by the quake were forced to spend a second night outdoors in the hilly, windswept Van region, enduring near-freezing temperatures. Families huddled round open fires that glowed in the dark. Some stayed in tents put up on soccer pitches, living on handouts from aid agencies.

Ocidente tem mais motivos para comemorar morte de Gaddafi do que os Líbios – Foreign Policy

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Foreign Policy / David Rieff – 24/10/2011

Libyans may be celebrating the killing of Muammar al-Qaddafi, but you’d better believe that Western governments are breathing a sigh of relief themselves.

Whether the NATO countries — who had only a few years ago welcomed Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi back into the international fold in exchange for his renouncing his chemical and nuclear weapons programs and allowing U.S. and British experts to come and help dismantle them — played any role in what certainly appeared in first reports from the scene to have been the summary execution of the Libyan dictator will probably never be known. What the video evidence does prove is that the Libyan revolutionary forces did not find him already dead or killed by a NATO airstrike; nor does the initial claim that he was killed in “crossfire” between insurgent forces and diehard regime loyalists stand up to even the most minimal scrutiny.

NATO does acknowledge that its planes bombarded the convoy in which Qaddafi was fleeing the city of Sirte shortly before it was intercepted on the ground by the insurgents, but it has denied it even knew he was there. If that is true, and the French, British, and Americans did not try to make their own luck, then they certainly were very lucky indeed.

Em debate as diversas opções de energia

Foto por: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

 Think Again: Nuclear Power – Japan melted down, but that doesn’t mean the end of the atomic age.

Foreign Policy / Charles D. Fergunson – Novembro de 2011

“Fukushima Killed the Nuclear Renaissance.”

No. At first it looked like a natural disaster of epic proportions: shock waves rippling outward from a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off northeast Japan followed by a 30-foot tsunami, a one-two punch that all but obliterated the coastal city of Sendai and its environs. Then the electricity went off at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, and a random act of natural destruction became a parable of technological society run amok. Stories of tsunami-leveled villages gave way to harrowing accounts of nuclear engineers trying, and failing, to stop the meltdown of first one, then a second, and finally a third reactor at Fukushima.

We’d seen this movie twice before, of course: first in 1979, when inexperienced operators allowed a reactor to overheat and melt down at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and most apocalyptically in 1986, when the reactor meltdown at Chernobyl forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents of what is now Ukraine and Belarus and all but finished off the Soviet economy. And in the wake of the March 11 Fukushima meltdown, commentators predicted the end of an industry that seemed to have finally escaped the shadows of its two earlier disasters. “All nuclear operators,” Moody’s Investors Service warned in an early April report, “will suffer the consequences that emerge from a post-Fukushima environment.”

Hillary Clinton – A visão norte-americana do século do Pacífico

America’s Pacific Century

Foreing Policy / Hillary Clinton – Novembro de 2011

The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action.

As the war in Iraq winds down and America begins to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, the United States stands at a pivot point. Over the last 10 years, we have allocated immense resources to those two theaters. In the next 10 years, we need to be smart and systematic about where we invest time and energy, so that we put ourselves in the best position to sustain our leadership, secure our interests, and advance our values. One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade will therefore be to lock in a substantially increased investment — diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise — in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Asia-Pacific has become a key driver of global politics. Stretching from the Indian subcontinent to the western shores of the Americas, the region spans two oceans — the Pacific and the Indian — that are increasingly linked by shipping and strategy. It boasts almost half the world’s population. It includes many of the key engines of the global economy, as well as the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. It is home to several of our key allies and important emerging powers like China, India, and Indonesia.