And The Winner Is::Zuckerberg's Facebook

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg named Time magazine's person of the year

The Facebook co-founder named Time's person of the year 'for changing how we all live our lives'

Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire co-founder of Facebook, was todaynamed Time magazine's 2010 person of the year.

Zuckerberg, 26, beat a string of notable personalities to the accolade – including WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange and the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. The 33 rescued Chilean miners and the rightwing US Tea Party movement were also named as runners-up.

Time magazine's annual accolade is given to the person or thing judged to have most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill.

Zuckerberg was honoured "for connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them; for creating a new system of exchanging information; and for changing how we all live our lives", Time journalist Lev Grossman said.

The Time editor, Richard Stengel, announced the winner on NBC Television's Today show. Ben Bernanke, the cerebral American economist, took the prize last year, following US president Barack Obama in 2008 and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin in 2007.

The most notable runner-up is Assange, who is currently in prison pending an appeal against a decision yesterday to grant him bail over sexual allegations in Sweden.

Assange comfortably won the readers' choice award for Time's 2010 person of the year, announced earlier this week. He beat Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, by more than 230,000 votes to scoop the prize.

Time's decision has not gone down well among Assange's supporters. Many commenters on Time's official announcement are critical of the magazine's choice.

Matthias, for example, says: "Why do you let people vote if you just pick your own candidate? Assange was first! Shameless cowards." Nello Margiotta commented: "Mark Zuckerberg who? it's only a political choice of the director of Time Magazine; obviously for people in the net the person of the year is Julian Assange."

But Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, is marked out as one of the world's youngest billionaires – and now one of the youngest recipients of Time's prestigious accolade.

"In less than seven years, Zuckerberg [has] wired together a twelfth of humanity into a single network, thereby creating a social entity almost twice as large as the US," said Grossman.

"We have entered the Facebook age, and Mark Zuckerberg is the man who brought us here."

Zuckerberg is also an unlikely philanthropist. Earlier this month, hepledged to give away at least half of his fortune to charitable causes as part of a campaign led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and businessman Warren Buffett. In September, Zuckerberg pledged to donate $100m(£63m) over five years to the Newark and New Jersey school system.

"People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" said Zuckerberg last week.

Zuckerberg's dormroom creation registered its 500 millionth user earlier this year. Now thought to have about 600 million registered Facebook users worldwide, the cocksure computer scientist says it is "almost guaranteed" to reach 1 billion users eventually.

Asked whether the outcome of the readers' poll is taken into account during the decision-making process, a Time spokeswoman said: ""Time's editors gather ideas and feedback from a number of sources, including Time correspondents around the world, former people of the year, and our readers via our online poll.

"More than 1.5 million people voted in our Time.com poll this year; ultimately though, Time's person of the year is an editorial choice.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani during an interview on Sunday with Iran's state-run Press TV in Tabriz. Photograph: Str/AP

Human rights campaigners condemned an Iranian television programme, aired tonight, which showed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by stoning, at her home apparently discussing her part in the murder of her husband.

Despite speculation that she had been released, Iran's state news agency confirmed that Mohammadi Ashtiani remains in prison.

Her jailed son also appeared in the programme, in which he played the role of his father in a reconstruction.

Iran's state-run Press TV, said it had been arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to accompany his mother to her house to record her recounting the crime and that she had agreed to do so.

Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of conducting an illicit relationship outside marriage. She was given a sentence of 99 lashes, but her case was reopened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery charge was reviewed and a death penalty handed down on the basis of "judge's knowledge" – a loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present.

Embarrassed by international condemnation of the stoning sentence, Iran has tried to distract attention from Mohammadi Ashtiani's initial charge of adultery by introducing new charges against her and portraying her as a murderer.

Iran rarely carries out stonings. It executed 388 people last year, more than any other country apart from China, according to Amnesty International. Most were hanged. Ten Iranian women and four men are on death row awaiting execution by stoning.

Fonte(texto e fotografia) "The Guardian" Sexta-feira 10 de Dezembro de 2010

O uso despudorado dos Media, depois da prévia condenação à morte, será lícito?

A forma, nada ingénua, de exercer pressão sobre a opinião pública, servirá mais algum propósito que não seja o de demonstrar ao ocidente que o povo iraniano quer a condenação?

Não, não são os fanáticos religiosos, a ditadura, mas sim a defesa moral e ética de uma sociedade não corrupta, baseada nos bons princípios do Alcorão que exige o exemplar castigo. A condenada também mais não quer que ser condenada pelos seus actos, também ela exige ser purificada.

A hipocrisia das ditaduras é verdadeiramente horrível!

Wikileaks e o Acordo de Copenhaga

The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial "Copenhagen accord", the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009.

Notícia e imagem retirada The Guardian

Sim, e...

O Presidente da República afirmou hoje que escreveu com sete anos de antecedência aquilo que agora está acontecer em Portugal no domínio da economia, tendo então alertado para a importância das apostas na competitividade e aumento de produção.

"Cavaco Silva assumiu esta posição perante os jornalistas, antes de participar na XX Cimeira Ibero-Americana, em Mar del Plata, na Argentina, onde também está presente até sábado o primeiro-ministro, José Sócrates.

“Há muito tempo que aponto o rumo que Portugal tem de seguir para conseguir enfrentar as dificuldades. Logo em 2003, quando publiquei um texto intitulado ‘Dores de cabeça’, escrevi com sete anos de antecedência aquilo que está a acontecer hoje em Portugal”, disse.

Cavaco Silva destacou perante os jornalistas um segundo artigo da sua autoria, igualmente sobre as condições económicas do país.

“Antes de ser Presidente da República, também publiquei um artigo chamado ‘A ideia base’, em que dizia já nessa altura que Portugal não tinha nenhuma hipótese de se afirmar como país desenvolvido, mais próximo dos níveis de desenvolvimento da União Europeia, se não apostasse no aumento da competitividade, no aumento da produção de bens que concorrem com a produção estrangeira”, referiu."

Publicado Público on line (fotografia retirada na internet)

Será que os oráculos do passado resolvem os problemas do presente?

Será este o timing adequado para, o actual candidato à Presidência da República, a desempenhar funções de Chefe de Estado no estrangeiro, fazer estas declarações?

Será que não levanta dúvidas ao povo português como é que alguém assobia para cima de ego inchado, eu bem que lhes disse, mas entretanto esse mesmo alguém é Presidente da República do suposto barco a caminho do naufrágio?

Pois! Pois! Mas e agora, se não conseguiu convencer os governos que vão a despacho todas as quintas-feiras, não seria melhor manter mais um tabu e depois de ter ajudado o país a sair da crise, afirmar que previu e contribuiu para ultrapassar problemas?

Sim, e... para quem tem tanto cuidado com as palavras, e muitas das vezes não comenta, a bem do País, por acaso não seria melhor um bocadinho de silêncio?

A crise financeira de Portugal no The Guardian

Eurozone debt crisis: Portugal's borrowing costs jump

Portugal saw its cost of borrowing jump significantly this morning as it paid the price for the ongoing eurozone debt crisis.

Although there was relief that Portugal found buyers for the €500m (£418m) of 12-month bonds on the table, buyers at this morning's auction demanded a much higher rate of return. The debt was sold at an average yield – or effective interest rate – of 5.281%, up from 4.813% at a similar auction two weeks ago.

The auction was held just hours after Standard & Poor's ratcheted up the pressure on the Lisbon government by warning that it may cut Portugal's credit rating. Analysts had predicted that Portugal would have to pay a steep premium to find buyers for its debt today. Traders were very unwilling yesterday to buy the bonds of peripheral eurozone members, reflecting fears that Portugal, Spain or even Italy could need to tap the EU's rescue funds.

Last night, S&P announced that it had put Portugal's debt on negative credit watch, and may downgrade its A- rating in three months. The agency said there were "increased risks" to the Portuguese government's creditworthiness, and warned that its austerity cutbacks would harm economic growth.

"In 2011, Portugal's minority government is set to implement an ambitious fiscal austerity programme with an emphasis on reducing expenditures. However, we see the government as having made little progress on any growth-enhancing reforms to offset the fiscal drag from these scheduled 2011 budgetary cuts," said S&P's credit analyst Frank Gill.

"As a consequence of the Portuguese economy's structural rigidities and the volatile external conditions, we project that the economy will contract by at least 2% in 2011 in real terms."

Portugal's central bank warned yesterday that the country's financial sector faced "intolerable" risk unless the government's planned austerity measures were implemented. Last week, a general strike shut down much of the country's transport network.

The eurozone's weaker members were given some early respite from the financial markets this morning, after Jean-Claude Trichet – head of the European Central Bank – hinted at closer European harmonisation to address the crisis.

The yield, or rate of return demanded by investors, on Portuguese 10-year bonds fell slightly to 6.90% this morning, from 6.93% yesterday. The spread between the yields on Italian and Spanish bonds and their German equivalent, which hit an all-time high yesterday, also fell this morning.

It also emerged last night that the US is sending a special envoy toEurope to discuss the crisis.

Lael Brainard, the undersecretary for international affairs, will hold meetings with senior government officials in Madrid, Berlin and Paris over the next few days to "discuss economic developments in Europe as well as our longer-term work to advance our shared agenda on strong and sustainable global growth," the Treasury said in a statement yesterday.

(Imagem e notícia retirada do The Guardian em 1 de Dezembro de 2010)

United States - meios e fins

Utilizando como fonte o "The Guardian" UK retirei este video e informação que reforça o papel dos Media como"quarto poder" fundamental na garantia de liberdade e direitos dos cidadãos.

Perante o perigo nuclear em mãos fanáticas será que todos os meios justificam os fins?

"Washington is running a secret intelligence campaign targeted at the leadership of the United Nations, including the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon and the permanent security council representatives from China, Russia, France and the UK.

A classified directive which appears to blur the line between diplomacy and spying was issued to US diplomats under Hillary Clinton's name in July 2009, demanding forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications.

It called for detailed biometric information "on key UN officials, to include undersecretaries, heads of specialised agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [secretary general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders" as well as intelligence on Ban's "management and decision-making style and his influence on the secretariat". A parallel intelligence directive sent to diplomats in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi said biometric data included DNA, fingerprints and iris scans.

Washington also wanted credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers and even frequent-flyer account numbers for UN figures and "biographic and biometric information on UN Security Council permanent representatives".

The secret "national human intelligence collection directive" was sent to US missions at the UN in New York, Vienna and Rome; 33 embassies and consulates, including those in London, Paris and Moscow."