Federico Bordonaro

Da Forbes.com

The latest chapter in the tale of Microsoft’s (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) dealings with the EU involves a letter from Kroes about the upcoming Windows Vista operating system. The missive outlines the Commission’s concerns that Vista’s new functions will not give customers enough choice in using competing software packages. It comes after Microsoft asked Europe’s regulators to set out any possible antitrust problems with the new operating system.

M K Bhadrakumar su Asia Times del 31 marzo

The calculus of power remains the same. Economic plunder continues to bleed Ukraine white. GDP growth declined from 12% in 2004 to 2.5% in 2005. The results of Sunday’s election show that the people’s disillusion has followed the same downward curve.

[…] The biggest potential “revolution” comes next year, when Russians go to the polls to elect a president. But if the Bush people thought these color revolutions were merely dress rehearsals for the main event, they might be mistaken. There can be half a dozen different ways that the Kremlin may approach the transition in 2007, but the bottom line is that it will not bend down to a noisy revolution.

Il Giappone aggiorna la propria alleanza strategica con gli USA nel segno della Ballistic Missile Defense.

Articolo scritto per Asia Times Online

Analisi scritta per il P.I.N.R. sulle elezioni ucraine del 26 marzo.

Whatever the outcome of the elections, expect Moscow to continue putting pressure on the coming Ukrainian government to secure its own strategic and economic interests. Since Washington and its N.A.T.O. allies appear determined to include Kiev in their security and economic community, the whole area connecting the Baltic regions to the Caucasus — via Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia — is set to remain a contested zone by competing U.S. and Russian influences.

N.A.T.O.’s insistence on penetrating the Russian-dominated Eurasian landmass could therefore prove strategically short-sighted as it will likely undermine a better and more useful partnership between Washington and Moscow.

Such a perspective does not summon political stability in the four concerned countries. For the European Union, the prospect to integrate Ukraine in the coming decade may cause further divisions among key powers, and Kiev’s march toward Western economic standards appears long and difficult.

Articolo scritto con Mahan Abedin per Terrorism Monitor, quindicinale edito dalla Jamestown Foundation.

L’argomento della possibile minaccia terroristica in prossimità delle elezioni è balzato recentemente in prima pagina sui giornali nazionali, in conseguenza di un travel warning del Dipartimento di Stato USA.

As PINR forecasted, the aftermath of President Alexander Lukashenko’s re-election in Minsk is being marked by friction between the U.S.-E.U. combine and the Russo-Belarus axis. Belarusian opposition called the polls “a fraud” and denounced state-induced violence against its candidates.
…Lukashenko’s autocratic rule is no secret in Eastern and Western Europe, and opposition parties and associations will continue their struggle at the expense of political stability. The next two years will not be easy for Lukashenko to manage, as the national economy’s growth rate is expected to slow and Russia virtually remains Minsk’s sole ally abroad.

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Un’intervista del filosofo statunitense Daniel C. Dennett per il settimanale tedesco Der Spiegel.
Dennett ritiene che non si possa continuare a “proteggere le scienze sociali e umane dal pensiero evoluzionista”.

Testo disponibile in inglese e in tedesco.

Articolo scritto per Asia Times Online:

Total SA’s recent agreement with PetroChina to develop a Chinese gas field was only one of a wave of investments in China by European oil majors. Though China has arguably bent WTO rules to limit foreign firms’ influence in the energy industry, that has hardly dampened the ardor of Total and other EU companies.