'Nunca estuve uniformado' durante el combate, aseguró Roméo Langlois.

El Tiempo.

Luego de su liberación, el periodista francés pasa su primera noche en Bogotá.

"Yo nunca estuve uniformado en ningún momento. Eso es muy importante que quede muy claro", afirmó el reportero sobre las 10:30 de la noche a su llegada a Bogotá, proveniente de Florencia, Caquetá.

Aseguró que se puso "un casco militar blindado y un chaleco antiesquirlas, después de pensarlo mucho, sabiendo que no era lo ideal, pero tuve la intuición de que ese no era cualquier operativo", y aclaró que nadie lo forzó.

Según lo previsto, el periodista francés viajará este jueves a su país. Aunque se creía que partiría de inmediato a Francia, Langlois decidió pasar en Bogotá la primera noche después de su liberación.

Horas antes de su llegada a la capital del país, Roméo Langlois recordó ante los medios el día en que fue secuestrado. En su relato dijo que vio morir a un uniformado. "El militar hasta el último momento hizo chistes, se mostró como un valiente", aseguró.

El presidente Juan Manuel Santos, a través de su cuenta de Twitter, se refirió a la liberación de Langlois. "Celebramos la liberación del periodista francés que nunca debió ser secuestrado", escribió sobre la media noche del miércoles.

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Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will

The New York Times.

WASHINGTON — This was the enemy, served up in the latest chart from the intelligence agencies: 15 Qaeda suspects in Yemen with Western ties. The mug shots and brief biographies resembled a high school yearbook layout. Several were Americans. Two were teenagers, including a girl who looked even younger than her 17 years. 

President Obama, overseeing the regular Tuesday counterterrorism meeting of two dozen security officials in the White House Situation Room, took a moment to study the faces. It was Jan. 19, 2010, the end of a first year in office punctuated by terrorist plots and culminating in a brush with catastrophe over Detroit on Christmas Day, a reminder that a successful attack could derail his presidency. Yet he faced adversaries without uniforms, often indistinguishable from the civilians around them. 

“How old are these people?” he asked, according to two officials present. “If they are starting to use children,” he said of Al Qaeda, “we are moving into a whole different phase.” 

It was not a theoretical question: Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret “nominations” process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. He had vowed to align the fight against Al Qaeda with American values; the chart, introducing people whose deaths he might soon be asked to order, underscored just what a moral and legal conundrum this could be. 

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Panetta to explain U.S. strategic shift to Asian allies.

Reuters.

(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will brief allies on the U.S. strategic shift toward Asia and will seek to allay concerns that fiscal uncertainty could undermine Washington's commitment to the effort as he begins a week-long visit to the region this weekend.

With the Asia-Pacific region unsettled by renewed tensions over competing sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, Panetta flies to Hawaii on Wednesday for briefings with the head of the U.S. Pacific Command before traveling on to Singapore for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue.

He later spends two days apiece in Vietnam and India, countries that have become increasingly important to the U.S. push for a rules-based regional order that would protect freedom of navigation and trade while resolving conflicts peacefully.

The trip is Panetta's first to the Asia-Pacific area since the Pentagon issued its new strategic guidance in January calling for a shift in focus toward the region, creating "news and buzz" about the concept, a U.S. defense official said.

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Paris Not Ruling Out Military Intervention in Syria

SpiegelOnline.

As the list of countries expelling their envoys from Syria continues to grow, French President François Hollande said Tuesday night that he will not rule out international military intervention in the country.

Speaking on the French television broadcaster, France 2, Hollande said that, as was the case in Libya in 2011, such an action would require a mandate from the United Nations. "It is not possible to allow Bashar Assad to massacre his own people," Hollande said.

Hollande's comments came on the same day France and several other European countries, including Germany, joined the US, Australia and Canada in expelling their Syrian ambassadors. Japan announced it is sending home the Syrian envoy to Tokyo on Wednesday.

Pressure has been mounting on Syria this week from the international community following news of a massacre of 108 people over the weekend in the Syrian town of Houla. The majority of those killed were women and children, and UN officials said Tuesday that most were not killed by artillery fire, but were summarily executed, probably by the shabiha militia supporting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

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India’s Economy Slows, With Global Implications.

The New York Times.

NEW DELHI — India’s coalition government just celebrated the third anniversary of its tenure with a self-congratulatory banquet that could not have been more poorly timed: India’s currency, the rupee, is falling; investment is down; inflation is rising; and deficits are eating away at government coffers. While short-term growth has slowed but not ground to a halt, India’s problems have dampened hopes that it, along with China and other non-Western economies, might help revive the global economy, as happened after the 2008 financial crisis. Instead, India is now facing a political reckoning, as the country’s elected leaders must address difficult, politically unpopular decisions — or risk even deeper problems. 

“When India was being run comparatively well in 2008, they seemed to cope with these external shocks, at least from a financial perspective,” said Glenn Levine, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, Australia. “I think people are starting to question the long-term Indian story. That is the difference now.” 

India’s difficulties come as the global economy is wobbling once again. Europe is grappling with a sovereign debt crisis that could shatter the continent’s economic and political union. The United States is still not producing enough new jobs. China’s growth has weakened, with a real estate downturn and stalling exports, while important emerging economies like Brazil are slowing down, adding to pessimism about the world economy at a critical time. 

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India's fight for Myanmar

Al Jazeera.

Chang Mai, Thailand - When Indian foreign minister SM Krishna traveled to Myanmar in June 2011, he brought with him a gift of ten heavy-duty rice silos. It was a sweetener for the new Myanmar government, which had taken office only months before. Krishna became the first foreign dignitary to meet with newly elected ministers, and his visit symbolised India's drive to court the quasi-military outfit now occupying Naypyidaw.

The silos, delivered three years after the devastating Cyclone Nargis, were however something of a diversion, the more benign face of a relationship that took root in the early 1990s and sullied India's image as a beacon of democracy in the region. After it had about-faced on support for Myanmar's pro-democracy movement during the administration of PV Narasimha Rao, India became one of only eight countries to regularly supply weaponry to the Myanmar junta - when former junta chief Than Shwe trod the red carpet in New Delhi in 2010, Myanmar expatriates burned effigies in the streets.

India's decision to overhaul a generally principled foreign policy in favour of a realpolitik agenda was driven largely by the rapid growth of regional markets, particularly the Asian Tigers - Rao had been able to exploit growing unease within the Indian cabinet at what it saw as an overtly idealistic approach to international relations that, despite winning plaudits from the west, had meant its economy was losing out as regional countries sped forth.

In Myanmar, India saw a gateway to East Asian markets and a goldmine of natural resource capability. As the "Look East" policy took shape in the early 1990s, officials began tentative approaches to the then ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In 1993, Rao sent foreign minister JN Dixit to Yangon, a visit that both outraged Myanmar's political opposition, and marked perhaps the strongest signal of shifting attitudes within the Indian cabinet.

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Ayesha & Parag Khanna: What is it about Singapore?

 www.paragkhanna.com

IT IS a cliche that the Pacific Ocean is displacing the Atlantic, China will replace America at the top of the world’s hierarchy of power, and the East will surpass the West. We do not believe any of that for a minute. The multipolar world we are entering will have no single winner, and the three-pillared West of the European Union, North America and Latin America remains a triangular zone of peace and the foundation of global stability.

But a world of continued Western power is not a world of Western dominance. Areas once considered the West’s eminent domain such as the Middle East and Africa are now looking East for investment and exports, and new models of growth, development and governance. It would not hurt for the West to do the same.

We can all start by looking at Singapore, to which we are relocating shortly.

For the past generation, Eastern talent has been educated in the West and stayed, rising to the top of professions from medicine to academia, and founding over 40 per cent of Silicon Valley start-ups. But Asia’s wave of economic growth, infrastructure spending, and improved governance have been luring back Chinese ‘sea turtles’ and non-resident Indians, among others, to shiny new corporate parks and research labs. You do not even have to be Asian: China is launching a new scheme to recruit the best and brightest talent from all races and nations on permanent visas – call it a ‘red card’.

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Venezuela y la conspiración de cada día

BBC Mundo

Abraham Zamorano

Caracas

 Magnicidios, revueltas populares inducidas y golpes de Estado de todos los colores. Raro es el día en que los venezolanos no desayunan con titulares sobre un plan para matar al presidente Hugo Chávez o con los preparativos de un autogolpe por parte del gobierno.

El propio Chávez alimenta las teorías.

 El Crucigramagate, el pasatiempo que supuestamente llamaba a matar al hermano del presidente Adán Chávez, ha sido sólo la más rocambolesca de las conspiraciones que inundan el panorama venezolano.

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Amartya Sen- The Crisis of European Democracy

NY Times

Daniel Stolle

IF proof were needed of the maxim that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the economic crisis in Europe provides it. The worthy but narrow intentions of the European Union’s policy makers have been inadequate for a sound European economy and have produced instead a world of misery, chaos and confusion.

There are two reasons for this.

First, intentions can be respectable without being clearheaded, and the foundations of the current austerity policy, combined with the rigidities of Europe’s monetary union (in the absence of fiscal union), have hardly been a model of cogency and sagacity. Second, an intention that is fine on its own can conflict with a more urgent priority — in this case, the preservation of a democratic Europe that is concerned about societal well-being. These are values for which Europe has fought, over many decades. 

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British Foreign Secretary to Head to Moscow

Ria Novosti

British Foreign Secretary William Hague is heading to the Russian capital on a working visit on Sunday to discuss the situation around Syria, Hague said.

“In Moscow tomorrow. Will call on Russia to support rapid and unequivocal pressure on [the President Bashar] Assad regime and accountability for crimes,” Hague wrote in his Twitter microblog late on Saturday.

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Hermanos Musulmanes y exprimer ministro de Mubarak lideran votación en Egipto

Telesur

Mohamed Mursi y Ahmed Shafiq pasarían a segunda vuelta (Foto: Reuters)

Resultados preliminares anunciados este viernes por la hermandad islamita señalan que los dos candidatos que pasarían a segunda vuelta electoral, por la presidencia en Egipto, son el candidato de los Hermanos Musulmanes, Mohamed Mursi, y el exprimer ministro del régimen de Hosni Mubarak, Ahmed Shafiq.

La hermandad islamita informó que, con aproximadamente el 90 por ciento de las actas escrutadas, Mursi es líder con el 25 por ciento de los votos, seguido por Shafiq con el 23 por ciento, sobre la base de unas 12 mil 800 mesas electorales, de un total de 13 mil 100.

De confirmarse los resultados, quedarían fuera de competencia los otros tres candidatos que tenían opciones reales: el exmiembro de la Hermandad Musulmana, Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, con el 20 por ciento; el líder del Partido Dignidad, Sabbahi Hamdeen, con 19 por ciento; y el exjefe de la Liga Arabe, Amr Moussa, con 11,6 por ciento.

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Joseph Stiglitz: Después de la austeridad

Project-Syndicate

Illustration by Paul Lachine

NUEVA YORK.– La reunión anual del Fondo Monetario Internacional dejó claro este año que Europa y la comunidad internacional continúan sin timón en términos de política económica. Los líderes financieros, desde los ministros de economía y finanzas hasta los líderes de instituciones financieras privadas, repitieron el mantra actual: los países en crisis deben poner en orden sus asuntos, reducir sus déficits y deudas públicas, adoptar reformas estructurales, y promover el crecimiento. La confianza, reiteraron numerosas veces, debe ser restaurada.

Ese tipo de pontificación suena un tanto afectada cuando proviene de quienes, al mando de bancos centrales, ministerios de hacienda y finanzas, y bancos privados llevaron al sistema financiero mundial al borde de la ruina y fueron artífices del desastre actual. Lo que resulta aún peor, poco se explica sobre cómo lograr la cuadratura del círculo. ¿Cómo puede recuperarse la confianza mientras las economías en crisis caen en recesión? ¿Cómo puede revivirse el crecimiento cuando la austeridad probablemente signifique una mayor disminución de la demanda agregada, lo que reducirá aún más la producción y el empleo?

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América Latina, refugio para empresas españolas en tiempos de crisis

BBC Mundo

En el preciso instante en que el presidente boliviano, Evo Morales, anunciaba la expropiación de la filial de una firma española de electricidad en su país el 1º de mayo, el líder de otra empresa española, la petrolera Repsol, lo esperaba para inaugurar juntos una planta de procesamiento de gas natural en esa nación.

Esa misma semana, se abrían en América Latina seis fases de octavos de final de la Copa Libertadores, el principal torneo de clubes de fútbol del continente, al que desde hace un tiempo se le añade el nombre "Santander" por el banco que la patrocina, también de origen español.

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Mario Draghi: Europa necesita un salto valiente hacia la integración política

elEconomista.es

El presidente del Banco Central Europeo (BCE), Mario Draghi, cree que Europa necesita dar un salto hacia una mayor integración política para convencer a los inversores sobre el futuro de la unión monetaria. Nowotny: el BCE podría tener que decidir una tercera megainyección de liquidez.

Durante su intervención, el presidente del BCE ha asegurado que las "medidas extraordinarias" adoptadas por la institución que preside han impedido el "colapso de los mercados bancarios" y han permitido "ganar tiempo" durante la crisis financiera.

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Brasil defenderá políticas sociais em reunião da ONU

Daniella Jinkings
Agencia Brasil

Brasília – Na próxima sexta-feira (25), o país vai defender suas políticas de combate à pobreza, como o Brasil sem Miséria e o Bolsa Família, durante a apresentação de relatório à Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU), em Genebra (Suíça), sobre a situação dos direitos humanos. De acordo com a ministra Maria do Rosário, da Secretaria de Direitos Humanos, as políticas sociais têm feito do Brasil um país mais igualitário.

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Deal with Iran to be reached soon at Baghdad Talks: IAEA chief

Global Times

China

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano (L) talks with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili (R) in Tehran, capital of Iran, May 21, 2012. Amano arrived in Tehran on May 21 for crucial nuclear talks. Photo:Xinhua/Adel Paziar

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Venezuela aprueba ley para interceptar e inutilizar aviones del narcotráfico

Bio Bio Chile

El Parlamento venezolano aprobó el martes una ley que permitirá a las Fuerzas Armadas interceptar e inutilizar aviones que infrinjan las normas del espacio aéreo, lo que incluye a los aparatos vinculados al narcotráfico, una propuesta del presidente Hugo Chávez.

La Asamblea Nacional adoptó por unanimidad la Ley de Control para la Defensa Integral del Espacio Aéreo para “la aplicación de acciones de interceptación, persuasión e inutilización de toda aeronave (…) que infrinja las disposiciones sobre circulación aérea”, según un comunicado.

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Clinton: Ratify Law of the Sea Treaty this year

Foreign Policy.

The U.S. Senate should ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty before the end of the year because it is in Amerca's economic and national security interests, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify today. 

The treaty is "critical to the leadership and security of the United States" and joining it is "a priority for the Department of State and for me personally," Clinton will tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning, according to prepared remarks obtained in advance by The Cable. Clinton will testify alongside Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey in what will be the first in a series of hearings convened by SFRC Chairman John Kerry (D-MA). 

"U.S. interests are deeply tied to the oceans," Clinton will say. "No country is in a position to gain more from the Law of the Sea Convention than the United States." 

Link.

Ecuador se adhiere a la Convemar.

Telégrafo.

El pleno de la Asamblea Nacional aprobó ayer la adhesión del Ecuador a la  Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Derecho del Mar (Convemar), solicitada por el presidente Rafael Correa, el cual, poco después de tomada la decisión legislativa, celebró  la medida al asegurar que unirse a este tratado será “beneficioso internacionales para el país”. 

El Parlamento ecuatoriano aprobó la medida con 81 votos a favor de 102 asambleístas presentes.

Previo a la votación,  la Comisión de Relaciones Internacionales de la Asamblea advirtió que la Convemar  es el único instrumento de carácter universal y vinculante que reconoce y fortalece los derechos de los Estados ribereños con respecto al uso del mar, hasta una distancia de 200 millas marinas.

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Robert Skidelsky- Why China Won’t Rule

Social Europe Journal

Is China poised to become the world’s next superpower? This question is increasingly asked as China’s economic growth surges ahead at more than 8% a year, while the developed world remains mired in recession or near-recession. China is already the world’s second largest economy, and will be the largest in 2017. And its military spending is racing ahead of its GDP growth.

The question is reasonable enough if we don’t give it an American twist. To the American mind, there can be only one superpower, so China’s rise will automatically be at the expense of the United States. Indeed, for many in the US, China represents an existential challenge.

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Ernesto Laclau: “Si hay un régimen político al cual es inherente el autoritarismo ese es el neoliberalismo”.

ANDES.

Quito, 17 mayo (Andes).- “Hoy día escucho hablar del peligro autoritario que los nuevos regímenes populistas presentan para las sociedades latinoamericanas no puedo menos que reírme. Porque si hay un régimen político al cual es inherente el autoritarismo no son los regímenes populistas, sino el neoliberalismo”.

Así definió el teórico político argentino Ernesto Laclau a los actuales regímenes que se erigen en América Latina. Estas afirmaciones las hizo durante su intervención denominada Institucionalismo y populismo en América Latina, dictada en la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, en Quito.

Según el intelectual, para apuntalar estas políticas neoliberales fue necesario tener regímenes militares. "Sin Videla, en Argentina,  y Pinochet, en Chile, los planes del neoliberalismo no hubiesen sido posibles", argumentó.

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Reino Unido envía un submarino nuclear a las Malvinas

RT.

Londres ha enviado a las Malvinas al submarino 'HMS Talent', conocido en la Real Armada británica como el 'cazador-asesino'.

La presencia de la nave, armada con misiles Tomahawak y torpedos Spearfish y enviada el sábado por los británicos, podría agravar seriamente  la actual tensión diplomática entre Reino Unido y la Argentina, provocada por la disputa territorial por el archipiélago.

El submarino nuclear  arribaría en las Malvinas el 14 de junio, día en que se cumplen 30 años del fin del conflicto bélico por la soberanía del territorio, informó este domingo el diario inglés The Sun.

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Anne-Marie Slaughter: Globalizing NATO

 Project Syndicate.

PRINCETON – Next week, NATO’s 28 members will meet in Chicago for their annual summit. Sixty-two years after the North Atlantic Treaty was signed, binding the United States, Canada, and ten European states to consider an attack on one an attack on all, NATO is transforming itself into a twenty-first-century global security organization. The result will be a safer world.

In 1949, the world was rapidly dividing into two principle political-military blocs, East and West, alongside a large “non-aligned movement.” NATO faced off against the Warsaw Pact, created by the Soviet Union and its allies in 1955. Within both blocs, smaller powers clustered around the superpower. No flexibility existed within either bloc for smaller groups of members to deploy alliance assets.

Today, NATO is becoming, in the words of its secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, “a hub of a network of security partnerships and a center for consultation on global security issues.” It is a “globally connected institution,” with more than 40 individual country partners and growing ties to other international organizations.

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Emir Sader: Posneoliberalismo en Brasil

ALAI

Las referencias fundamentales para comprender el mundo contemporáneo son el imperialismo y el capitalismo, sin los cuales nada resulta inteligible. Así, evaluar a gobiernos y a fuerzas políticas significa, antes que todo, evaluar la posición que tienen respecto a estas dos referencias.

Los nuevos gobiernos latinoamericanos, que se volvieron mayoritarios en el continente, deben ser considerados progresistas, porque desarrollan procesos regionales de integración autónomos respecto a la hegemonía norteamericana y, por otro lado, a contramano de los gobiernos neoliberales que los han precedido, priorizan políticas sociales y no ajustes fiscales, a la vez que desarrollan Estados que inducen el crecimiento económico y garantizan derechos sociales, en lugar de Estados mínimos.

En el período histórico contemporáneo, los gobiernos y las fuerzas políticas tienen que ser evaluados en esa óptica: en qué medida reproducen o ayudan a superar el neoliberalismo, en qué medida fortalecen o debilitan la hegemonía norteamericana. Muchos otros aspectos pueden ser tomados en cuenta, pero lo central, lo determinante, para evaluar gobiernos y fuerzas políticas son esos criterios.

Gobiernos latinoamericanos como los de México, Chile, Colombia, Panamá, entre otros, por ejemplo, reproducen el modelo neoliberal y, a la vez, son aliados fieles del gobierno norteamericano, representando uno de los polos del campo político latinoamericano.

Por otra parte, los gobiernos progresistas tienen una postura de independencia y soberanía en sus políticas externas, constituyendo un bloque de gobiernos que resisten a la influencia norteamericana en la región. En el marco interno, han reaccionado frente a los gobiernos neoliberales, disminuyendo el principal problema latinoamericano, la desigualdad.

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G-8 or G-Zero? Why the West No Longer Sets the Global Agenda.

GlobalSpin/Time.

The spectacle of some of the most powerful leaders in the world gathering at Camp David on Friday for the G-8 summit, and then for this weekend’s NATO anniversary in Chicago, won’t disguise the fact that things seem to be gradually falling apart. These once-mighty symbols of international leadership appear almost paralyzed before the tides of economic, financial and political change. The opening of William Butler Yeats’ 1921 poem that found the best devoid of conviction and the worst filled with passionate intensity reads as if crafted as an elegant introduction to an analysis of the global political moment.

The G-8 convenes as the eurozone is threatening to unravel, most immediately in the showdown over Germany’s insistence that Greece either swallow the toxic austerity medicine that could kill its economy, or see it be banished from the eurozone, potentially triggering global financial losses of the order of $1 trillion. But the forum is unlikely to settle the fate of Greece, much less the underlying tension over policies of austerity to cut spending debt, and stimulus policies to revive growth.

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Michael Klare: The Energy Wars Heat Up

TomDispatch.

Conflict and intrigue over valuable energy supplies have been features of the international landscape for a long time.  Major wars over oil have been fought every decade or so since World War I, and smaller engagements have erupted every few years; a flare-up or two in 2012, then, would be part of the normal scheme of things.  Instead, what we are now seeing is a whole cluster of oil-related clashes stretching across the globe, involving a dozen or so countries, with more popping up all the time.  Consider these flash-points as signals that we are entering an era of intensified conflict over energy.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, Argentina to the Philippines, here are the six areas of conflict -- all tied to energy supplies -- that have made news in just the first few months of 2012:

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Facebook Raises $16 Billion in I.P.O.

The New York Times.

Facebook pulled it off.

As investors raced to buy shares, the sprawling social network raised $16 billion on Thursday, in an initial public offering that valued Facebook at $104 billion.

While the I.P.O. shares, 421 million of them, are being sold at $38 each, the feverish anticipation of their debut could drive them higher on Friday when the stock starts trading about 11 a.m. Newly public technology stocks — particularly ones that have captured investors’ attention like Facebook — often achieven double-digit gains in a one-day pop.

Investors who buy Facebook shares are taking a stake in a unique and potentially valuable business. But they are also exposing themselves to the risks posed by a relatively young company operating in uncharted territory.

The I.P.O. signals a rapid evolution for the company. In just eight years, Facebook has gone from a scrappy college service founded in a Harvard dormitory to the third-largest public offering in the history of the United States, behind General Motors and Visa.

Investors now consider Facebook more stalwart than start-up. At $104 billion, the social network’s market value is higher than those of McDonald’s, Citigroup, Amazon and all but a handful of other American companies.

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Irán amenaza a Google con acciones legales si elude denominación "golfo Pérsico"

El Universo.

Irán amenazó hoy a la compañía de internet Google con emprender acciones legales contra ella si elude en sus mapas y servicios geográficos la denominación de "golfo Pérsico", informó hoy la televisión oficial en inglés, PressTV.

Desde hace varios meses, Irán ha emprendido una intensa campaña contra "denominaciones alternativas" o que eluden denominar como Pérsico al golfo que forman este país junto con Irak y la península Arábiga.

Algunos países árabes lo denominan "golfo Arábigo" o simplemente "el Golfo", lo que Irán considera una medida para tratar de devaluar sus derechos históricos y políticos en la zona.

"Jugar con las nuevas tecnologías en asuntos políticos es una de las nuevas medidas de los enemigos (Occidente y sus aliados) contra Irán, y, en este sentido, utilizan a Google como un juguete", dijo hoy a los periodistas el portavoz del Ministerio de Exteriores iraní, Ramín Mehmanparast.

Mehmanparast advirtió a Google de que podría sufrir "graves daños" y enfrentarse a "acciones legales", que no precisó, si "evita el uso apropiado del nombre de golfo Pérsico", pues para él omitirlo en sus mapas supone "jugar con los sentimientos y las realidades de la nación iraní".

Recientemente, Google ha eliminado de sus mapas la denominación de "golfo Pérsico", cuya zona aparece en ellos sin nombre, mientras que alrededor de la península Arábiga si continúan con su denominación tradicional el mar Rojo, el golfo de Adén, el mar Arábigo y el golfo de Omán.

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Muchos ganan con el TLC y si pierden, habrá apoyo: Santos

Portafolio.co

Con la petición del presidente de la Asociación Nacional de Empresarios (Andi), Luis Carlos Villegas, de una mayor intervención del Banco de la República para controlar la revaluación y rompiendo una botella de vino espumoso de California, ayer se hizo un acto simbólico en Cartagena en el primer día de vigencia del Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con Estados Unidos.

En esta ciudad se embarcó un contenedor cargado de confecciones, en su mayoría jeans, que llegarán este fin de semana a un puerto de Florida, y se suman al cargamento de flores que ayer llegó a Miami desde Bogotá y 50 contenedores despachados desde Barranquilla.

“Este es el comienzo de un tratado que tiene muchos ganadores, y que los pocos perdedores tendrán todo el apoyo del Gobierno”, dijo el presidente, Juan Manuel Santos, en un mensaje leído por Catalina Crane, alta consejera para la Gestión Pública.

En el comunicado, Santos reiteró que con la entrada del tratado se crearán 500.000 nuevos puestos de trabajo en cinco años y mejores ingresos en cada familia, no solo por los desempleados que encontrarán trabajo sino porque recibirán mejores ofertas laborales.

Agregó que desde ayer ingresarán a los Estados Unidos 2.000 productos manufactureros que no estaban cubiertos con el APDEA. “Es una buena noticia, si se tiene en cuenta que el 75 por ciento de las importaciones de Estados Unidos son manufacturas”, dijo el mandatario en su mensaje.

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Iraq oil industry experiences new boom

The Washington Post.

BAGHDAD — Over the past four decades, Iraq’s oil production has traced the path of a roller coaster, propelled upward by geysers of crude and dragged downward by the weight of war and sanctions. In the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi output has failed to achieve the heights it reached under Saddam Hussein — until now.

In April, Iraq exported more crude than it has in any month since it invaded Kuwait in 1990. This success, according to analysts and policymakers, could jolt the global economy and help offset the loss of oil supplies from Iran.

It also signals the rise of Iraq as a modern petro-state, with all the power and problems that enormous oil wealth brings.

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Robert Kaplan: NATO's Ordinary Future.

Stratfor.

Whatever one thought of the Libya intervention, the details make for a bad advertisement about NATO. As one U.S. Air Force planner told me, "It was like Snow White and the 27 dwarfs, all standing up to her knees" -- the United States being Snow White and the other NATO member states being the dwarfs. The statistics regarding just how much the United States had to go it alone in Libya -- pushed by the British and French -- despite the diplomatic fig leaf of "leading from behind," are devastating for the alliance.

More than 80 percent of the gasoline used in the intervention came from the U.S. military. Almost all the individual operation orders had an American address. Of dozens of countries taking part, only eight air forces were allowed by their defense ministries to drop any bombs. Many flew sorties apparently only for the symbolism of it. While most airstrikes were carried out by non-U.S. aircraft, the United States ran the logistical end of the war.

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French, German rifts show already

Los Angeles Times.

PARIS — Exuberant supporters were still out celebrating Francois Hollande's election as president of France when the first fissures began opening up in the Franco-German motor that drives the rest of Europe.

Although officials on both sides of the Rhine vowed to continue their close political cooperation, German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a blunt rejection Monday of Hollande's pledge to renegotiate a Europe-wide fiscal treaty to rein in public debt.

Nor would she countenance deficit spending to boost the economic growth that Europe so desperately needs, pouring cold water on another of Hollande's campaign promises. Growth could come only through "structural reforms," the conservative Merkel said.

It was an awkward start for the European Union's newest but most important power couple, the leaders of its two biggest economies and political heavyweights, who together hold the key to how the continent deals with its dire debt crisis. The global economy now depends in major part on what results from the collision between rigid German insistence on fiscal rectitude and the wave of anti-austerity anger sweeping through Europe, with left-leaning Socialist Hollande riding its crest.

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Pepe Escobar: A history of the world, BRIC by BRIC.

 Al Jazeera.

Goldman Sachs - via economist Jim O'Neill in 2001 - invented the concept of a rising new bloc: BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and, later, South Africa). Some cynics couldn't help calling it the "Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept".

Now that doesn't really apply. Goldman now expects the BRICS countries to account for almost 40 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, and will include four of the world's top five economies.

Soon, in fact, that acronym may have to expand to include Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea and, yes, nuclear Iran: What would that make? BRIIICTSS? Despite its well-known problems as a nation under economic siege, Iran is also motoring along as part of the N-11, yet another distilled concept. It stands for the "next 11" emerging economies.

The multitrillion-dollar global question remains: Is the emergence of BRICS a signal that we have truly entered a new multipolar world?

Yale's canny historian Paul Kennedy (of "imperial overstretch" fame) is convinced that we either are about to cross or have already crossed a "historical watershed", taking us far beyond the post-Cold War unipolar world of "the sole superpower". There are, argues Kennedy, four main reasons for that: the slow erosion of the US dollar (formerly 85 per cent of global reserves, now less than 60 per cent), the "paralysis of the European project", Asia rising (the end of 500 years of Western hegemony), and the decrepitude of the United Nations.

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