Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a success for the IMF

The idea here is not to judge what is widely discussed everywhere. An investigation is running and will probably be the reflection of what really happened.

We have no knowledge of the facts so we will only focus ourselves on what Mr Strauss-Kahn did when he was the head of the IMF.

1/ The achievements

The reform of the voting rights:

Six months were necessary for DSK to make members reach an agreement. The voting rights have been recalculated and now give more power to emerging countries. The IMF reached a consensus on the new distribution of votes that is much closer to what the world’s economy is like today.

The improvement of the finances:

The accounts of the IMF were in such a bad shape in 2007 that it was necessary for DSK to make them sell some of their gold reserves. Budget cuts were also established and a lot of executives were fired. The organization has never been as rich as it is today! For that reason, members decided in April 2009 to triple IMF’s resources and in November 2010 to double their own contribution to the capital of the organization.

Interest-free loans for poor countries:

It is under Strauss-Kahn that, for the first time in its history, the IMF decided in July 2009 to cancel the interests of the poorest countries for a period of two and a half years; period that can be extended.

The modernization of the loans’ instruments and surveillance:

Facing the world economic crisis, the IMF looked for ways to protect countries that were not necessarily in a desperate situation. He invented in 2009 a "flexible" credit line for the countries that are well managed. A report will also be issued by the IMF this summer and will study the cross-border repercussions of the different “big savings” policies that have been put in place in China, United States, Great Britain, Japan and in the Euro zone.

2/ What he was still working on

The reform of the international monetary system:

Few member states are satisfied how the system works and DSK wanted to place the IMF at the top of the upcoming reform. He resigned after having only drawing the directions to follow.

The restoration of the image of the IMF in countries facing difficulties:

Strauss-Kahn was often delighted to notice that thanks to his changes, the IMF was better considered now than before in countries where the institution had left a disastrous souvenir (South Korea, Indonesia,…). African countries, Brazil and India had always seen the IMF as being one of the tools of the developed nations against them but this image was also deeply changing. DSK wanted now to tackle the bad feeling countries where he had to intervene and impose draconian rigorous programs have towards the IMF. He will not have the time to and therefore the IMF will remain particularly unpopular in countries such as Romania, Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

The change of the institution’s world vision:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, coming from the political world, has pronounced speeches on the disparities and the damages of the financial globalization that have been widely acclaimed. However, he didn’t have the time to transform his words into actions and the IMF remains an example of the domination of the western countries over the rest of the world.

No one needs to be pro Strauss-Kahn to notice that he has done a great job for the institution and that he followed perfectly what he had in mind. He has been appointed by Western countries and he has served them well. He even managed to “clean” the IMF by improving its finances and renew its image around the world.

Everybody knew he was one of the greatest economists of these times and he proved it everyday acting as one of the most influential person in the world.

Now, countries are fighting and are proposing their own candidates. We are talking a lot about having someone from an emerging country but it seems that Europe, Japan, US and Russia are particularly reluctant.

Mrs Lagarde will probably be the candidate of the countries of the G8 and we will see if, in the case she is appointed, she brings the same spirit and energy Mr Strauss-Kahn did.

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Rob Summer's miracle

An electric stimulation on the spinal cord permits to Mr Summers to stay up on his legs and walk on a tapis roulant for a few minutes after 5 years.

This new experimental treatment has been done in USA and is going to give a real hope to any person that, like Mr Summers, have lost the capability to move their body.

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LinkedIn values itself at $3billion!

LinkedIn will go public on New York Stock Exchange later this month. In order to do so, the company had to prepare a file containing its figures and valuations.

From the file sent earlier this week to the Securities and Exchange Committee, LinkedIn estimates its valuation at three billion dollars. This committee acts as a gendarme of markets across the Atlantic.

The start-up recognized in its presentation that its growth could slow down in the future but investments are being planned to increase the capacities of the site.

The professional website could even not be profitable this year. In 2010, the network registered fifteen million dollars of profits on a 243 million dollar turnover. This income was 78 million dollars in 2008 so it went up by 300% in two years, which constitutes LinkedIn main argument.

LinkedIn went past the bar of hundred million subscribers. In March 2011, they have reached the amount of 102 million accounts.

Despite of these impressive figures, certain analysts remain sceptical. LinkedIn’s business model is based on the recruitment, the marketing solutions and the “premium” accounts. It is therefore very different from the ones of websites such as Facebook or Zynga that aim at making their users consume via their interfaces.

Investors are more looking for websites that are actually doing their best to make users consume and buy. This might be a problem in the future for LinkedIn but the initial public offer it will get will for sure be a good barometer to estimate the chances of success of other social networks trying to go public.

It will be very interesting to follow LinkedIn’s evolution and from there we should be able to underline future trends. We will then see if we can fear a new “dot com bubble”….

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Janice Tunnicliffe, forced to be without technology

Janice Tunnicliffe is a 55 years old woman, mother of two, from England,

Everything started after she did a chemio therapy three years ago, the treatment has been successful but unfortunately it left another disease… the disease for technology (better known as electrosensitivity).

What is Electrosensitivity?

A unhealthy sensitivity (or sensitivities) to a particular source of electricity, for example mobile phones, computers, power lines or even minor electrical equipment. Symptoms are wide-ranging and can include skin problems, headaches, fatigue, fainting, light sensitivity, heart problems and much more. Electrical HyperSensitivity is a name given to those who are severely affected.

From http://www.electrosensitivity.org

Miss Tunnicliffe is forced to stay at home without any kind of technology, no phone, no internet, no common utilities, and she has special windows to prevent electromagnetic waves to come into the house,

This disease, in a way, is taking her back to 1800's and unfortunately the government is not helping her, there are few hospital that could treat her but all of them are private.

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Monica Silva and “l’io dentro di me”

Monica Silva is a Brazilian artist based in Europe.

Monica went to England in 1986 and after having spent 2 years in London she moved to Italy.

She has been for eight years assistant director for national and international advertising production but then, in 2001, she needed to do something more, she felt the need to properly express her self and to show her knowledge!

She started working in professional photography industry and after a while she became a member of “Nikon Pro Photographer” expanding her skills and knowledge.

The thirst of sharing and communicate got bigger and bigger and then she decided to move to the world of art photography.

She did a big step for her career and personal life and actually she finally got the freedom to express herself that she was looking for.

The latest production of Monica is called “l’io dentro di me”, an incredible art exhibition, what makes it unique is the completely new approach to the photography, both photographer and model are giving to the viewer something more.. both of them show a deep part of themselves through the pictures .

What it’s really uncommon is the concept behind the entire “formula”, for ones, normal and famous people have the possibility to show their intrinsic soul and to escape from the “standard way of living” made by the need to show off something that is not ours.

For ones we can express ourselves without being judged.

The exhibition is currently running at “Palazzo Pichi Sforza” Sale Kemon, Via XX Settembre, 134, Sansepolcro (AR) and it will end the 12nd of July.

more info at:

Monica Silva Web site

Monica Silva on Facebook

Monica Silva on Twitter

Monica Silva on youtube

Thanks to Monica Silva we have the possibility to show you some of the picture she realized in her work called "L'io dentro di me".

Samuele Bersani "L'uomo del mondo che non c'è (The invisible one)"

Gianluca Macaluso "the russian"

Gilber Kruft "emotional side"

Deanna Orienti "cat woman side"

Angela Menegoni "Elfian mood"

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A bit of fun: Amusing laws that have never been revoked!

We wanted to share with you a few amusing laws that still exist around the world:

In Florida, try not to have a too big argument with your loved one. It is stipulated by law that if you break more than three plates a day because of an argument; you could end up in jail!

In Kentucky, a law says, “no woman can be seen wearing a bathing suit unless she is with two police officers or equipped with a club”. An amendment has been added later saying that the law doesn’t apply to women who are less than 27kgs or more than 90kgs.

In Kansas it is against the law to ask for ask ice cream if you are eating a cherry pie!

In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk.

In Minnesota, law forbids you to hang out male and female underwear on the same clothesline!

In Kentucky, if a man pushes his wife out of the bed because she has cold feet, he could end up in jail!

In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon.

In the UK, a few funny laws have never been revoked:
- it is against the law to allow a boy who is less than 10years old to watch a naked dummy.
- It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
- a man who feels the need to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle.
- a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants; even, in a policeman’s helmet if she requests to.
- It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.
- if you are a woman, you are not able to eat chocolate in public transports, says a law of 1800.
- In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset.
- In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.

In Island, it is forbidden to blow on a streetlamp.

In Hawaii, you cannot laugh loudly in public after 10pm.

What is really funny is to try to imagine what people had in min

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Android Phones and Tablets are not secure!!

A German study revealed today that most of the phones and tablets using Android as an operating system are not secure.

IT specialists of the University of ULM in Germany have demonstrated that the incredible amount of 99,7%(!!) of these terminals present a fault in security. Moreover, the breach is caused by Google itself and doesn’t come from another application.

This negligence allows malicious people to access any kind of data but the ones of Gmail apparently. It means that someone can have access to Google servers and modify them. The diary, the contacts, the text messages and photo albums can also be seen by someone else.

So if you are using a phone or a tablet using Android as an operating system, you should clearly think about checking for any update and install them. All the versions older than a month are subject to be affected.

Until the problem is not entirely solved by Google, it is also suggested to Android users to deactivate their automatic connection to WI-FI networks.

After Facebook and Apple, Google also seems to have problems dealing with private information and data.

Is it still possible to imagine our information as being private? We seriously doubt so..

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Gentlemen, to your coffee maker! It is for your own good!

An American scientific study has been published yesterday Tuesday. It shows that men who drink coffee in high quantity have fewer risks of developing a prostate cancer.

From what we can understand of this study, men who drink six cups of coffee a day or more see the risk of having the most lethal type of prostate cancer decrease by 60%!

The study has been published by the Harvard School of Public Health and demonstrates that it has been done seriously.

Lorelei Mucci, the Harvard associated professor, asserted that "Few studies studied in detail the association between the consumption of coffee and the risk of developing a lethal cancer of the prostate”.

She then underlined that “Our study is the most important one because it properly observed if coffee lowers the risks of prostate cancer or not".

More than 47.911 American men between 1986 and 2008 have been examined. 5.035 cases of cancer have been observed, among which 642 were lethal.

We can notice that the positive effects coffee has on this type of cancer are the same whether the coffee is decaffeinated or not. It means that the benefits are coming from its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory values.

This research is definitely a breakthrough as the cancer of the prostate is the most lethal one in the United States and one man out of six is subject to develop one throughout his life.

Maybe no one will refuse a coffee after dinner anymore. Gentlemen, to your coffee maker!

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Russia: the Kremlin explains to children why a country needs a political opposition.

The Kremlin launched yesterday on its website a section dedicated to Russian children. The goal is to make them understand why a country needs a “political opposition”. The section has been designed child-friendly and is full of coloured animations.

Doing that, Russian administration wants to show that they highly consider the opposition and that it is not as marginalized as other countries think it is.

The section is available on kids.kremlin.ru and is entitled “what is an opposition and why do we need it”. Kids can find a lot of questions-answers forms explaining the positive role of independent media or the importance of listening to political opponents even if sometimes it is “unbearable and they don’t make any sense”.

To the question “ why the political power needs to listen to its opponents”, the Kremlin answers that it is “to protect the power of making errors and to protect the population of its potential abuse”. The Kremlin concludes its report by saying that “in a democratic country, the power is organized in a way that even its opponents are useful for the State”.

The author of this project is Grigori Oster and is one of the most famous Russian write for children. He made it because “we tried to explain to children that in a normal democratic state, the opposition should not slow down the government but on the contrary be of a great help”.

This project is definitely very interesting, especially in a country like Russia that is often reduced to a non-democratic entity by Europe and the US.

In one year, new presidential elections will take place in Russia and for the moment the discussions are focused on who will run for the ruling party. This is for sure a very good communicational tool and maybe a proof that the situation in Russia is not as bad as we imagine it over here.

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Bill Gates wants to “save 10 million lives before 2020”

This Tuesday, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the biggest living philanthropists asked the world leaders to make vaccines’ research a priority in order to “ save 10 million lives" before 2020.

He made this announcement during the 64th Health World Assembly, which gathers in Geneva about sixty Ministers and 1.800 delegates representing 193 members of the WHO.

Bill Gates, in his speech, was speaking to donor countries and told them to invest more and more in vaccines and immunizations "even if you have to face budgetary crisis"..

Gates stated that thanks to these new investments " Effective systems of immunization will put an end to polio and will allow all children to enjoy five or six new vaccines".

The President of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made the promise that “We can save four million lives before 2015, and 10 million lives before 2020".

Knowing that a leadership is "essential" to realize his vision, Bill Gates announced that from 2012, his foundation would offer a prize to the person or the organization that would make an innovative and exclusive contribution to the next decade that he named the “decade of vaccines”.

He ended his speech by saying that "The best systems of immunization work when the leaders feel responsible for results".

Calling for world leaders to contribute more and try to make them invest more in research is a very good initiative indeed. But Bill Gates, as being one of the most influential people in the world, probably knows better than no one how things work and move.
He personally benefited from a system that puts profits and assets before anything else. The problem here is not to ask governments to do more efforts especially in a time of important economic recession.

Populations in developed countries are obviously touched by the awful situation in Africa and other parts of the world but are far more concerned by their own problems now.

Instead of calling for governments again and again, Bill Gates and his wealthy contributors should be better try to talk to the big organizations that are actually making profits on this situation.

Big pharmaceutical companies owned by banks prefer to waste vaccines and medicines instead of selling them at a lower price to countries that need them more than anything else.

This is the business they are into and the economical logic they are following is clear and indisputable. Good luck to everyone trying to make them understand that their business model should be changed in order to become philanthropic organizations…

Maybe this is on what governments could act by changing some laws and policies…

But who will pay for the more and more expensive political campaigns afterwards?

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Do you want to watch a future day?

This video shows us a "possible overview" of how a normal day could be in our next future,

It's amazing to see how the people think and dream and actually apply themselves on the realization of their views.

After having watched this video and actually believe that something like that will take place in the future I think our generation is completely different from the past ones.

We are living in a "kind of present" that it's already a future because we strictly believe in new technology coming out and after a day is already a remote past!

I was thinking about the complete different approach to the technology we have in comparison with our parents for example.

Our parents that watched not so far ago the first man on the moon, but they were skeptical about mobile phones or Internet or flying cars or iPhone...
Our parents that watching star treck were thinking without any doubt that it was just pure imagination, something incredible, something just for movies, something that couldn't have been taken in consideration if talking about future applied technology but then, we are going to Mars..

And us? Aren't we a generation of dreamers? I think the internet revolution has been one of the biggest revolution of the entire history, I am not talking about business but idea.

Internet lets people talk, communicate, share and develop easily and faster.

Any people nowadays is allowed to dream and actually find a solution to realize an idea!
This is the power of our generation!

the real possibility to realize our dream :)

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The “G8 of the Web” or the “eG8”, the next step for more control?

As you might already know, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to organize a talk about the web, prior to the G8 meeting planned at the end of May.

This reunion will be called the “G8 of the web” or the “eG8” and Mark Zuckerberg has just confirmed that he will attend the event organized by Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, on May 24th and 25th of this year.

He was not supposed to come but after a while decided to “take the time to think about it". In the end, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, will be in Paris on May the 24th and 25th.

This “eG8” seems quite interesting and Facebook’s young entrepreneur is one of the more than a 1000 decision-makers who are big players in the digital ecosystem and will participate to this forum.

The ambition of this reunion is to discuss the role of Internet in the economic growth. Among the participants we can also note the presence Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, Eric Schmidt, the president of Google, or even Rupert Murdoch, the absolute boss of News Corp.

The result of their exchanges and discussions will be presented the next day, in Deauville, to the head of governments gathered for the “regular” G8.

During this meeting they are meant to find a common position. The development and the implementation of this new project will be discussed during another meeting, probably in October. This additional meeting is an initiative of Eric Besson, French Secretary of Commerce and Digital Economy.

The “eG8” is for sure a very good idea and follows the trend of thoughts that governments should monitor Internet and its activities more closely.
For a “normal” citizen, this kind of meetings could also mean more control for these huge organizations that are News Corp, Google and Facebook but of course not, they are doing it for us and our well-being…

We will of course keep you informed of what is said in Paris on the 24th and 25th of May.

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Alaina Giordano got a premature death sentence

Mrs Alaina Giordano is a strong woman, her life is tough and she is fighting to have what she deserves.

The next fight for Alaina will be to have the possibility to take her sons with her even if she is struggling with her medication to fight cancer.

The explanation of the decision was: “children deserve a normal childhood and it’s better for them to stay with the wealthiest parent”.

Are we saying that being ill is not normal? Do we want to raise our children under a cup of glass or do we want them to have an overview of what the life could, can and will be?

The childhood is the most important period of everyone's life and all of us should have the opportunity to spend our time with our parents in equal proportion to be well educated on what life can present us and to be loved.

Do you think that a mother that unfortunately has got a cancer cannot have the possibility to share her love?

The childhood is an important period not only for babies but also for the parents especially for mothers; they can enjoy their time with them and give their footprint to the education of their “little angels”.

Unfortunately the cancer will take Mrs Alaina with him but Alina has got a premature death sentence once the judge decide to take off her child.

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Facebook is now inspiring parents… sad or funny?

Looking for an original first name for their daughter, an Israeli couple was inspired by Facebook and named their baby " Like ", reported the daily paper Maariv today.

The parents chose this first name according to the icon " Like " from the popular social network, which the Internet users use to mean that they appreciate the information posted by someone else.

" We named our daughter Like because it is modern and innovative ", declared in the Israeli newspaper the father of the baby, Lior Adler. "I verified that the first name existed nowhere else in the country because it was the priority for me ", he explains. " In our opinion, it is the modern equivalent of the first name Ahava (love in Hebrew) ".

As you can imagine, the birth was announced on Facebook and the parents were delighted to notice that the news received 40 Likes.

It is not the first time they give an unusual first name to one of their children. Fascinated by cooking, they wanted to share their taste and called their first two daughters "Pie" and "Vash" (honey in Hebrew).

Let’s hope for the girls that people won’t be too harsh to them. Parents might have forgotten that kids are pretty mean in school..

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Stefano Ottomano: a brilliant inspiration

Stefano Ottomano is a young Italian composer born in Bari. He is a musician and a lecturer in several music schools in the south of Italy.

Stefano has been always attracted by music and thanks to his bachelor degree and multiple master courses he attended with lecturers like: Leigh H. Stevens, Mark Ford, Ruud Wiener, Tim Adams, Emil Richards, etc.. he is now a complete musician with an amazing creativity.

Mr Ottomano is not a common musician, he is also an author widely recognised; especially for the textbook: “Nuovo metodo di avviamento alla batteria per bambini”. He also is the composer of multiple movie soundtracks, and can show on his credit to have done the soundtrack of “non te ne andare” by Alessandro Porzio.

But what makes Mr. Ottomano unique is his capacity to try new ways of composing and play music.

Thanks to his Italian flair giving him the excellence and genius, he developed the “poker for 50 Harps”, a completely new way of playing the Harp in the orchestra.

This new approach is a world premier; it has been developed according to a proper poker game! The Harps are disposed in a different position than normal and the harmonious development of the metrics play a game of poker.

The last Ep released by Mr Ottomano is called “come trascinate dal vento” and is already having huge success.
Mr Ottomano is usually compared with famous musicians like: Philip Glass, Win Mertens and Ludovico Einaudi. Do you know why?

Check this out and you will understand!

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Breaking news: 20 years old Australian dies tragically while “planking”.

Following our first article on the new trend called “planking”, our team wanted to share with you this tragic news.

Acton Beale, 20 years old Australian living in Brisbane, died when he fell from a seventh-floor balcony while having his picture taken.

We said before that the police was getting very concerned with people planking in Australia and what happened yesterday sadly proves them right.

Ross Barnett, Queensland state police deputy commissioner, told reporters that Beale fell from a balcony railing while a friend was taking his picture on Sunday morning in Brisbane. The railing is believed to have been two inches wide.

Because of this, Julia Gallard, Australian prime minister has called today for an end to the Internet phenomenon and described Acton Beale’s as “being really tragic”. She urged the so-called plankers to “consider the safety implications of their pastime”.

We hope that this death will force people to think a bit more but human nature is so particular that it will probably increase the interest people have for this new trend.

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ICC delivers an arrest warrant against Gaddafi

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced today that he has asked for international arrest warrants against Libyan leader Mouammar Gaddafi, his elder son Seif Al-Islam and the leader of the intelligence service Abdallah Al-Senoussi for crime against humanity.

"On the basis of the proofs we have collected so far, the office of the prosecutor has asked the preliminary chamber to deliver international arrest warrants against Mouammar Gaddafi, Seif Al-Islam and Abdallah Al-Senoussi ", declared Luis Moreno-Ocampo, during a press conference in The Hague, city where the ICC sits.

Now, the judges of the ICC have different choices. They can either decide to accept the request of the prosecutor, to reject it or to ask the prosecutor’s office for additional information.

The United Nations Security Council referred the matter to Luis Moreno-Ocampo on February the 26th. He decided to file a case for crime against humanity and open an investigation on March the 3rd. Eight persons were aimed by the investigation, among whom Colonel Mouammar Gaddafi and three of his sons.

Since the beginning of the revolt in Libya, the spiral of violence caused thousands of deaths according to the prosecutor of the ICC, and urged 750.000 persons to run away.

International pressure is getting stronger and an end has to be reached, as the population is the one caught in the middle of a political chess-game designed by the international coalition.

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The Cyberspace, a vital concern

The American presidency office has announced yesterday that the White House is ready to reveal this week its propositions regarding the international cooperation in the cyberspace.

The document, which will be revealed today, is entitled " US International Strategy for Cyberspace" and has been long-waited by the International Community.

It is the "first political document of this kind showing our global vision on the future of the international cooperation concerning the cyberspace", has explained the White House in a statement.

The idea of the document is to show how America wants to emphasize several "partnerships with other countries and other people to insure prosperity, security and the openness the United States are looking for in a more and more interconnected world".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made the freedom on the Internet one of her priorities, will talk about this this week. Mrs Clinton's points will discuss the potential role of the cyberspace into defending American interests.

The speech will also talk about the importance of having an international cooperation that will put the cyberspace at the centre of attentions in foreign policy discussions.

Obama’s administration said that the President will attend the event with his special adviser for the antiterrorism, Mr John Brennan. The Minister of Justice Eric Holder and the Minister of Internal Security, Mrs Janet Napolitano will also be attending.

This announcement intervened just after the presentation by the White House of the main parts of a project that aims to strengthen the power the administration and the private sector have against cyber attacks. The White House plans to ask the main actors of the energy, transport and financial sectors to work out how to improve the security on their networks.

The US seem to be determined to move fast. Once again Europe and the others have to decide if they just want to follow or if they want to be a proposal force..

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