No pasa nada...

Si estás idiotizado con la recuperación de Riquelme en Boquita, seguí durmiendo tranquilo. Si te angustia la caripela de Barrionuevo en la tele, achicá el pánico. No pasa casi nada, chicos. Acá van unas fotitos casi bucólicas del mundo el las últimas horas, cortesía de RT. Miralas con desgano. Repetimos: no pasa nada, men.

Violence in Brussels as anti-austerity protesters clash with police. Protesters at the anti-austerity measures demonstration in Brussels pelted police with projectiles during violent clashes

South Korea's joint drills with US. Amphibious assault vehicles of the South Korean Marine Corps throw smoke bombs as they move to land on shore during a US-South Korea joint landing operation drill in Pohang March 31, 2014. The area is one of the most heavily armed in the world, with some 1.8 million soldiers

Anti-government protesters across eastern Ukraine prepare for an attack by the coup-imposed Kiev government’s attack, as 24 hours remain until the Kiev deadline. (Donetsk, Ukraine)

Israeli police (unseen) use a water cannon to disperse Ultra-Orthodox Jews taking part in a demonstration against compulsory military service in Jerusalem on April 10, 2014

Demonstrators dressed in Soviet military uniforms taking part in a rally in Odessa, southern Ukraine, on April 10, 2014, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the city from Nazi forces

Devastating flash floods hit Solomon Islands. At least 16 people have been killed in flash floods in the Solomon Islands. Up to 40 others are still missing and 10,000 have been left homeless. This handout photo shows flood waters in Honiara

Turkish riot police use water cannon to disperse protesters outside the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) in Ankara

ACTUALIZACIÓN

Ya que estamos, acá van algunas fotitos más, todas de los últimos días, esta vez procedentes del sitio web Press TV. Por supuesto, todas ellas confirman lo que venimos diciendo: no pasa nada, papá!

Protesters hold up banners and skull-masks during an anti-US protest against a greater US military presence in the region, near the US embassy in Manila on April 7, 2014, ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to Manila in April

Bahraini women mourn the death of Hussein Ahmed Sharaf, who died in an explosion at his home two days ago, during his funeral procession on April 3, 2014 in the village of Al-Akr south of the capital Manama

Supporters of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood take part in a rally to protest against the death penalties for the members of the radical group in Egypt, outside the Egyptian embassy in Ankara on April 9, 2014

Police blocking the way towards the venue of the European Union Informal Meeting of Ministers for Economic and Financial affairs advance through tear gas as they clash with anti-austerity protesters, in Athens on April 1, 2014

Israeli soldiers force Palestinian men, who were trying to plant olives trees on land, to leave the area, on April 8, 2014 in the occupied West Bank

Pakistani railway officials try to extinguish fire after a powerful bomb blast on a train in southwestern province of Balochistan which killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more on April 8, 2014

Pro-Russian protesters, some holding Russian national flags, storm regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on April 6, 2014

This photo shows a destroyed vehicle following an explosion in Sadr City, Baghdad's northern Shia-majority district, on April 11, 2014

People run in front of the Ministry of Housing, set on fire during an anti-government protest in Caracas on April 1, 2014

Soldiers inspect the debris following an attack on a Yemeni army headquarters on April 2, 2014, in Yemen's main southern city Aden which sparked a gun battle and killed 20 people

ACTUALIZACIÓN (2)
No podíamos terminar este panorama idílico sin esa típica nota familiera, casi compinche, que nos viene de los amigos del ABC de Madrid:

Kim Jong-un, líder supremo de Korea del Norte, habría mandado quemar vivo con lanzallamas a un viceministro. El diario surcoreano «Coshun Ilbo» publica que un alto cargo del régimen norcoreano fue quemado vivo junto a su hermana y el embajador en Cuba por haber ayudado al tío del líder. Este último ya fue ejecutado. 

Dormí tranquilo, tontín! No pasa naranja!

Visiones del final

El señor Paul Craig Roberts fue secretario asistente del Tesoro estadounidense durante la presidencia de Ronald Reagan. También, ha sido editor asociado del Wall Street Journal, entre otras publicaciones. En síntesis, nada que sugiera su filiación ideológica con algún grupo revolucionario marxista-leninista de tendencias apocalípticas. Por este motivo, cuando uno lee un artículo como el que sigue, escrito por este señor, en el sitio iraní (¡!) PressTV, lo primero que hace es rascarse la cabeza. En segundo lugar, abre los ojos como dos huevos fritos. En tercer lugar, lo postea en Astroboy inmediatamente.

Título: Is the world coming to an end or the US?

Subtítulo: 2014 is shaping up as a year of reckoning for the United States.

Fuente: PressTV (http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/10/357965/is-the-world-coming-to-an-end-or-the-us/)

Texto: “Two pressures are building on the US dollar. One pressure comes from the Federal Reserve’s declining ability to rig the price of gold as Western gold supplies shrivel and market knowledge of the Fed’s illegal price rigging spreads. The evidence of massive amounts of naked shorts being dumped into the paper gold futures market at times of day when trading is thin is unequivocal. It has become obvious that the price of gold is being rigged in the futures market in order to protect the dollar’s value from QE.

The other pressure arises from the Obama regime’s foolish threats of sanctions on Russia. Other countries are no longer willing to tolerate Washington’s abuse of the world dollar standard. Washington uses the dollar-based international payments system to inflict damage on the economies of countries that resist Washington’s political hegemony.

Russia and China have had enough. As I have reported and as Peter Koenig reports here (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38165.htm). Russia and China are disconnecting their international trade from the dollar. Henceforth, Russia will conduct its trade, including the sale of oil and natural gas to Europe, in rubles and in the currencies of its BRICS partners. This means a big drop in the demand for US dollars and a corresponding drop in the dollar’s exchange value.

As John Williams has made clear (http://usawatchdog.com/2014-crisis-in-dollar-will-trigger-inflation-john-williams/), the US economy has not recovered from the downturn in 2008 and has weakened further. The vast majority of the US population is hard pressed from the lack of income growth for years. As the US is now an import-dependent economy, a drop in the dollar’s value will raise US prices and push living standards lower. All evidence points to US economic failure in 2014, and that is the conclusion of John Williams’ April 9 report.

This year could also see the breakup of NATO and even the EU. Washington’s reckless coup in Ukraine and threat of sanctions against Russia have pushed its NATO puppet states onto dangerous ground. Washington misjudged the reaction in Ukraine to its overthrow of the elected democratic government and imposition of a stooge government. Crimea quickly departed Ukraine and rejoined Russia. Other former Russian territories in Ukraine might soon follow. Protesters in Lugansk, Donetsk, and Kharkov are demanding their own referendums. Protesters have declared the Donetsk People’s Republic and Kharkov People’s Republic. Washington’s stooge government in Kiev has threatened to put the protests down with violence.  Washington claims that the protests are organized by Russia, but no one believes Washington, not even its Ukrainian stooges.

Russian news reports have identified US mercenaries among the Kiev force that has been sent to put down the separatists in eastern Ukraine. A member of the right-wing, neo-Nazi Fatherland Party in the Kiev parliament has called for shooting the protesters dead. Violence against the protesters is likely to bring in the Russian Army and result in the return to Russia of its former territories in Eastern Ukraine that were attached to Ukraine by the Soviet Communist Party.

With Washington out on a limb issuing threats hand over fist, Washington is pushing Europe into two highly undesirable confrontations. Europeans do not want a war with Russia over Washington’s coup in Kiev, and Europeans understand that any real sanctions on Russia, if observed, would do far more damage to Europeans. Within the EU, growing economic inequality among the countries, high unemployment, and stringent economic austerity imposed on poorer members have produced enormous strains. Europeans are in no mood to bear the brunt of a Washington-orchestrated conflict with Russia. While Washington presents Europe with war and sacrifice, Russia and China offer trade and friendship. Washington will do its best to keep European politicians bought-and-paid-for and in line with Washington’s policies, but the downside for Europe of going along with Washington is now much larger.

Across many fronts, Washington is emerging in the world’s eye as duplicitous, untrustworthy, and totally corrupt. A Securities and Exchange Commission prosecuting attorney, James Kidney used the occasion of his retirement to reveal that higher ups had squelched his prosecutions of Goldman Sachs and other “banks too big to fail,” because his SEC bosses were not focused on justice but “on getting high-paying jobs after their government service” by protecting the banks from prosecution for their illegal actions. The US Agency for International Development has been caught trying to use social media to overthrow the government of Cuba.

This audacious recklessness comes on top of Washington’s overthrow of the Ukrainian government, the NSA spying scandal, Seymour Hersh’s investigative report that the Sarin gas attack in Syria was a false flag event arranged by NATO member Turkey in order to justify a US military attack on Syria, Washington’s forcing down Bolivian President Evo Morales’ presidential plane to be searched, Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” the misuse of the Libyan no-fly resolution for military attack, and on and on. Essentially, Washington has so badly damaged other countries’ confidence in the judgment and integrity of the US government that the world has lost its belief in US leadership. Washington is reduced to threats and bribes and increasingly presents as a bully.

The self-inflicted hammer blows to Washington’s credibility have taken a toll. The most serious blow of all is the dawning realization everywhere that Washington’s crackpot conspiracy theory of 9/11 is false. Large numbers of independent experts as well as more than one hundred first responders have contradicted every aspect of Washington’s absurd conspiracy theory. No aware person believes that a few Saudi Arabians, who could not fly airplanes, operating without help from any intelligence agency, outwitted the entire National Security State, not only all 16 US intelligence agencies but also all intelligence agencies of NATO and Israel as well.

Nothing worked on 9/11. Airport security failed four times in one hour, more failures in one hour than have occurred during the other 116,232 hours of the 21st century combined. For the first time in history the US Air Force could not get interceptor fighters off the ground and into the sky. For the first time in history Air Traffic Control lost airliners for up to one hour and did not report it. For the first time in history low temperature, short-lived, fires on a few floors caused massive steel structures to weaken and collapse. For the first time in history 3 skyscrapers fell at essentially free fall acceleration without the benefit of controlled demolition removing resistance from below.

Two-thirds of Americans fell for this crackpot story. The left-wing fell for it, because they saw the story as the oppressed striking back at America’s evil empire. The right-wing fell for the story, because they saw it as the demonized Muslims striking out at American goodness. President George W. Bush expressed the right-wing view very well: “They hate us for our freedom and democracy.”

But no one else believed it, least of all the Italians. Italians had been informed some years previously about government false flag events when their President revealed the truth about secret Operation Gladio. Operation Gladio was an operation run by the CIA and Italian intelligence during the second half of the 20th century to set off bombs that would kill European women and children in order to blame communists and, thereby, erode support for European communist parties.

Italians were among the first to make video presentations challenging Washington’s crackpot story of 9/11. The ultimate of this challenge is the 1 hour and 45 minute film, “Zero.” You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU961SGps8g&feature=youtu.be. Zero was produced as a film investigating 9/ll by the Italian company Telemaco. Many prominent people appear in the film along with independent experts. Together, they disprove every assertion made by the US government regarding its explanation of 9/11.  The film was shown to the European parliament. It is impossible for anyone who watches this film to believe one word of the official explanation of 9/11.

The conclusion is increasingly difficult to avoid that elements of the US government blew up three New York skyscrapers in order to destroy Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah and to launch the US on the neoconservatives agenda of US world hegemony.

China and Russia protested but accepted Libya’s destruction even though it was to their own detriment. But Iran became a red line. Washington was blocked, so Washington decided to cause major problems for Russia in Ukraine in order to distract Russia from Washington’s agenda elsewhere.

China has been uncertain about the trade-offs between its trade surpluses with the US and Washington’s growing encirclement of China with naval and air bases. China has come to the conclusion that China has the same enemy as Russia has–Washington.

One of two things is likely: Either the US dollar will be abandoned and collapse in value, thus ending Washington’s superpower status and Washington’s threat to world peace, or Washington will lead its puppets into military conflict with Russia and China. The outcome of such a war would be far more devastating than the collapse of the US dollar.”

Dos notis dos

Mientras el Imperio echa espuma por la boca, con la cara desencajada y enrojecida de gritarle al mundo que se porte bien porque si no le va a romper la nariz una y otra vez, Rusia y China tienen otros planes y se apuran a comunicarlos. Al respecto, veamos dos notas aparecidas estos días. La primera de ellas fue escrita por William Engdahl para el sitio iraní PressTV (http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/06/357386/china-uses-economy-to-avert-cold-war/). 

Título: PressTV: China heading off cold war through economic diplomacy

Epígrafe: During his visit to Duisburg, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a master stroke of economic diplomacy that runs directly counter to the Washington neo-conservative faction’s effort to bring a new confrontation between NATO and Russia

Texto: “Using the role of Duisburg as the world’s largest inland harbor, an historic transportation hub of Europe and of Germany’s Ruhr steel industry center, he proposed that Germany and China cooperate on building a new “economic Silk Road” linking China and Europe. The implications for economic growth across Eurasia are staggering.

In his remarks, accompanied by German Economics Minister Sigmund Gabriel and local politicians, Xi stressed that Germany and China were the two economic locomotives at either end of that Silk Road and, by cooperating on a shared vision of rail and other infrastructure, could being entire new economic areas into being along the route. The term Silk Road is a conscious Chinese revival of the term used to describe the ancient trade and cultural routes between China and Central and South Asia, Europe and the Middle East that were created during the Han Dynasty, about AD 200 BC.

The Economic Silk Road and a separate Maritime Silk Road were first mentioned in a speech by Xi last November at the 3rd Plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Xi’s latest diplomacy promoting the idea confirms it is no pipe dream. It is strategic priority. China needs to find new export markets or preserve existing ones, as well as to narrow development gaps between the well-developed coastal areas like Shanghai and the less-developed inland parts of the country and preserve stability inside China and its neighborhood. Xinjiang province lies along the Silk Road and is also home to a radical current within its Muslim Uyghur population.

What Xi left unsaid but is clear, is that his proposal comes at an extremely critical point when the issue of peace and war by miscalculation hangs in the balance over Washington’s manipulation of events in and around Ukraine. The path of the new infrastructure corridor passes through Russia. There is no economic alternative. Thereby, it serves at the same time to bind the economic futures and prospects for peaceful cooperation between Russia and Germany especially.

Xi made his Duisburg remarks as part of a highest-priority Chinese economic plan. A week before flying to Germany, Xi met Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Beijing. He asked Saudi Arabia to join in building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, to promote transportation connectivity and cultural exchanges. Two days later, the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, also a critical land along the proposed economic Silk Road, was in Beijing where he discussed cooperation on the huge project. He indicated his country’s readiness to cooperate as did Afghanistan President Karzai.

The Economic Silk Road is clearly central to China’s economic strategy of developing the western areas of China and creating economic stability among her neighbors to secure stable supplies of raw materials and also open new trade markets. Since taking office March 2013, Xi and his prime minister have paid personal visits to Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan—all along the proposed route of the Silk Road project.

Xi said China’s proposal of building the Silk Road economic belt, based on the idea of common development and prosperity, aims to better connect the Asian and European markets, will enrich the idea of the Silk Road with a new meaning, and benefit all the people along the belt. China and Germany, at the opposite ends of the belt, are two major economies that serve as the driving engines for economic growth respectively in Asia and Europe, Xi stressed. Currently China and Germany are linked by the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe international railway.

In 2011 China opened the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Duisburg railway. In 2013 the Chengdu-Lód? Poland direct cargo rail link crossing Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus was launched. The economic benefits of rail links as opposed to sea shipping from China’s coastal ports to Europe or air freight are huge. A complete trip on the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Duisburg connection takes only 16 days, while for the Chengdu-Lód? line, it’s 12 days. China-Europe railway transport is considerably quicker than sea passage that takes about 40–50 days and is much cheaper than air cargo. Moreover, railway transport enables more convenient trans-shipments and enables more rapid transport to the final destination.

Notably, among the Putin advisers singled out by Washington for personal sanctions was the head of the Russian Railways, a vital partner in the new Silk Road project. Washington seems locked into an ideology of economic sabotage, confrontation and wars to maintain their failing global hegemony.

Central Asia stability key

The concept of a New Silk Road Economic Belt was presented during Xi Jinping’s landmark 10-day visit to Central Asia in September 2013. He visited four Central Asian states: Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (Premier Li Keqiang visited this country as well in his November trip) and Kyrgyzstan. He also took part in the 13th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek and went to Russia to attend the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, where he met Vladimir Putin for the fifth time in the first year in office.

Xi presented a five-point proposal to jointly build the New Silk Road Economic Belt to strengthen relations between China, Central Asia and Europe. They are:

1. strengthen policy communication, to help “switch on a green light” for joint economic cooperation;

2. strengthen road connections to build a great transport corridor from the Pacific to the Baltic Sea, and from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean, then gradually build a network of transport connections between eastern, western and southern Asia;

3. strengthen trade facilitation, with a focus on eliminating trade barriers and taking steps to reduce trade and investment expenses;

4. strengthen monetary cooperation, with special attention to currency settlements that could decrease transaction costs and lessen financial risk while increasing economic competitiveness; (this would see a lesser role for the dollar).

5. strengthen people-to-people relations. Here China has made available to Shanghai Cooperation Council members 30,000 governmental for study in Chinese universities over 10 years and announced that China intends to invite 10,000 teachers and students to come to China as well.

A key driver of economic development among the bitterly poor regions of the Silk Road will be establishment of Special Development Zones by Beijing along the route that will connect to other economic centers in China as well as China’s western and southern neighborhoods. The first has just been created called Lanzhou New Area in China’s Gansu Province. A “New Area” is a comprehensive economic development zone in or close to a big city or metropolitan area. They are established by the State Council with preferential conditions and privileges to boost its development. Currently, there are six New Areas in China, with four of them in coastal provinces. The decision to establish the Lanzhou New Area in northwest China—one of the poorest regions—is a clear signal that Beijing is paying special attention to speeding up development of China’s western regions and to connecting it to other, well-developed parts of China. Lanzhou New Area, in a population center of almost 4 million people, is the first comprehensive zone of this type in northwest China, and the first on the historic Silk Road.

China’s decision now to focus on “going West” also has a major security component.  Beijing needs to secure export markets and diversify its transport network—the main topic raised by Xi during his trip to Central Asia—especially the increasingly unstable sea lanes in Asia’s South and Southeast. China is very vulnerable to disruption of the Malacca Strait, where there has been an increase in pirate attacks, illegal trafficking and unresolved maritime disputes. Almost 85% of imports to China are transported along this route, including 80% of China’s energy imports. Beijing is well aware should Washington ever decide to Target China in a confrontation, blocking the Malacca Strait would be no problem.”


***

La segunda noticia apareció hoy en Zero Hedge (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-09/russia-and-china-about-sign-holy-grail-gas-deal). También incluye a China y Rusia en un megaemprendimiento favorable para ambos países.

Título: Russia And China About To Sign "Holy Grail" Gas Deal

Texto: Several weeks ago we reported that in response to ongoing alienation of Russia by the west Putin was aggressively setting the stage for Russia's eastward expansion, set to culminate with a "holy grail" gas deal with China. We said that "while Europe is furiously scrambling to find alternative sources of energy should Gazprom pull the plug on natgas exports to Germany and Europe (the imminent surge in Ukraine gas prices by 40% is probably the best indication of what the outcome would be), Russia is preparing the announcement of the "Holy Grail" energy deal with none other than China, a move which would send geopolitical shockwaves around the world and bind the two nations in a commodity-backed axis."

Reuters added, reflecting on the recent trip of Rosneft executive chairman to Asia, that "the underlying message from the head of Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft, was clear: If Europe and the United States isolate Russia, Moscow will look East for new business, energy deals, military contracts and political alliances.  The Holy Grail for Moscow is a natural gas supply deal with China that is apparently now close after years of negotiations. If it can be signed when Putin visits China in May, he will be able to hold it up to show that global power has shifted eastwards and he does not need the West."

It's time for an update. According to Itar-Tass, "Russia's Gazprom and China are poised to conclude a gas supply contract in coming weeks, the first in a series of energy projects planned between the two countries. "We’re working now to sign a gas contract in May," said Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. "Consultations are continuing and Gazprom's leaders are holding talks with Chinese partners on the contract terms. We hope to conclude the contract in May and believe it should come into effect by the year end."

The key sticking point remains the price: "Base price is the only problem to be solved,” Dvorkovich said on Wednesday at a session of a Russia-China intergovernmental commission on energy co-operation, co-chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli." However, even if Russia concedes the topline to China, it will surely "more than make up for it in volume" to borrow a line from Amazon, and furthermore the geopolitical implications from such a deal, not to mention the increase in national leverage vis-a-vis its dealings with Europe and the West, will more than make up for any immediately revenue shortfalls.

But wait - there's more in the rapidly shifting geopolitical axis which increasingly positions Russias as a key commodity source for China:

In other plans, Russian company Novatek’s Yamal region LNG (liquefied natural gas) project was near ready for signing, Drovkovich said. Russia's Rosneft had several interesting plans "seeking to increase maritime supplies by several million tonnes per year,” he said.

“Russia and China have agreed to jointly develop gas fields in (Russia's far eastern) Sakhalin and East Siberia,” Dvorkovich said. “We have discussed co-operation in the coal sphere, agreeing to develop deposits, supply equipment and build electric power plants as well as providing China with additional electricity supplies”.

“We’re finding mutually advantageous decisions on certain projects that will allow us to implement them in the shortest period of time,” Dvorkovich added. Conditions were right to speed the Tianjin oil refinery project and to build a petrochemical facility, he said.

This is happening as Ukraine announced overnight that it won't import Russian gas in April due to the surge in price that Gazprom is demanding from the US proxy state, and following ongoing Gazprom invoiving of how much Ukraine owes it which at last count was well over $2 billion - an amount which we be funded from the still to be finalized western aid to be provided for Ukraine.

Of course, at this pace, Ukraine and even Europe, will become far less meaningful markets to Russia as Putin prepares to announce what indeed would be the holy grail of gas supply deals, one that reduces Russia's reliance on European energy imports and substantially raises Russia's relevance to China as the two countries increasingly become the bestest of buddies.

Which certainly is also why, as Bloomberg reported this morning, "in the talks between China and U.S.’s Hagel overnight, the Chinese are taking a different tack. Rather than argue the merits of the disputed islands/history, they seem instead to say that it’s none of the U.S. business to get mixed up in something in another part of the world and between two sovereign nations. 

Bloomberg's conclusion: "Not only is this probably music to Putin’s ears, it also serves to ratchet up the tensions."

Just wait to see how "ratcheted up" tensions will be once Russia and China are finally locked into a bearhug of mutual codependence.”

Bug

Buen día, chicos. ¿Qué tal si nos ponemos un poquito paranoicos? A ver, a ver...

Fuente: Diario El País (http://tecnologia.elpais.com/tecnologia/2014/04/09/actualidad/1397027162_293877.html)

Título: Un error de ‘software’ compromete la seguridad en Internet

Texto: “Las compañías de Internet se apresuraron hoy a poner un parche a sus sistemas después de que se alertara de un grave error de software en el método de encriptación OpenSSL que ha comprometido seriamente desde 2012 la seguridad de dos tercios de las páginas web existentes.

El fallo, bautizado como "heartbleed", fue localizado por ingenieros de Google y de la empresa de ciberseguridad Codenomicon la semana pasada. El lunes por la noche los responsables de OpenSSL dieron a conocer el problema al tiempo que publicaron una actualización que lo soluciona.

La vulnerabilidad se remonta a la versión OpenSSL 1.0.1 lanzada el 14 de marzo de 2012 y afecta también a la versión 1.0.1f.

Según la página creada para explicar el incidente informático, Heartbleed.com, el error ponía al alcance de cualquier hacker el acceso a unidades de información privada y protegida alojadas en servidores que usaran OpenSSL, una codificación de seguridad de uso extendido en Internet.

"Tu red social, la página web de tu empresa, la de comercio electrónico, la de tus aficiones, la página desde la que instalas un software o incluso páginas gubernamentales podrían haber sido vulnerables a OpenSSL", se indica en Heartbleed.com. A esa lista hay que añadir correos electrónicos, mensajería instantánea y redes privadas de comunicación (VPN).

Yahoo anunció hoy que había puesto un parche a este fallo tras aparecer como una de las páginas que estaban todavía expuestas, según una clasificación elaborada por GitHub en la que también aparecen Eventbrite y Flickr, entre otras.

Google, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Blogspot, Amazon, Wordpress y Pinterest, que utilizan SSL, también repararon ya el fallo.

No se tiene constancia de que ningún pirata informático se haya dado cuenta de esta debilidad del sistema OpenSSL, si bien un hacker podría haber accedido a información sin dejar rastro, según los expertos.

Desde la red de seguridad Tor Project, afectada por el error desoftware, se advirtió de que el fallo era tan alarmante que recomendó a las personas que "necesiten elevado anonimato y privacidad en Internet" que se mantuvieran "alejados de Internet totalmente durante los próximos días hasta que las cosas se calmen".

***********

Fuente: Russia Today (RT; http://rt.com/news/heartbleed-encryption-security-bug-269)

Título: Major encryption security bug ‘Heartbleed’ impacts two-thirds of the web

Texto: “Tens of millions of servers were exposed to a security vulnerability called “Heartbleed” in OpenSSL, software used to encrypt much of the internet. While an emergency patch has been released, sites like Yahoo have raced to fortify security.

On Monday afternoon, the open-source OpenSSL project released an emergency security advisory warning of “Heartbleed,” a bug pulls in private keys to a server using vulnerable software, allowing operators to suck in data traffic and even impersonate the server.

As described by the Verge, Heartbleed “allows an attacker to pull 64k at random from a given server's working memory. It's a bit like fishing — attackers don't know what usable data will be in the haul — but since it can be performed over and over again, there's the potential for a lot of sensitive data to be exposed. The server's private encryption keys are a particular target, since they're necessarily kept in working memory and are easily identifiable among the data. That would allow attackers to eavesdrop on traffic to and from the service, and potentially decrypt any past traffic that had been stored in encrypted form.”

OpenSSL is used by around 66 percent of the web to encrypt data, according to LifeHacker. The software is used to protect usernames, passwords, and any sensitive information on secure websites. According to reports, sites need to install updated, non-compromised software to vanquish further exposure to the bug’s vulnerabilities. Tens of millions of servers were exposed to Heartbleed, according to Verge.

"It is catastrophically bad, just a hugely damaging bug," said International Computer Science Institute security researcher Nicholas Weaver.

Yahoo may have been the largest entity whose sites were exposed to Heartbleed, which is actually two years old but is only now gaining the attention of the broader public after detection by Google researcher Neel Mehta.

Yahoo said it has successfully updated its servers. "Our team has successfully made the appropriate corrections across the main Yahoo properties (Yahoo Homepage, Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Food, Yahoo Tech, Flickr and Tumblr) and we are working to implement the fix across the rest of our sites right now,” Yahoo said in a statement.

As a result of Heartbleed, Yahoo reportedly leaked user information for most of the day. Any servers running OpenSSL on Apache or Nginx were also affected, implicating a multitude of common websites and services, according to The Verge. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and major e-banking services do not appear affected.

The Tor Project said that "if you need strong anonymity or privacy on the internet, you might want to stay away from the internet entirely for the next few days while things settle."

Yet experts have also suggested that even if a server is patched, private keys may have been compromised before the fix, allowing vulnerabilities to linger.

"I bet that there will be a lot of vulnerable servers a year from now," Weaver said. "This won't get fixed."

Affected sites need new SSL certificates, which is expensive and time-consuming but necessary to purge Heartbleed. A safe SSL certificate should show an “issued on” date after the recent security patch.

Passwords on affected sites must be changed, experts say, but after a site’s security is properly bolstered. "These are really subtle bugs," Weaver says. "You might detect it if you ran it through a memory checker, but this is not the kind of thing that just shows up looking at the code."

There are tools that test sites for Heartbleed vulnerability. Yet susceptibilities will remain depending on the website.

“Because individual servers have to be fixed manually, some sites might not get around to repairing the bug for quite a while,” wrote The Wire. “In other words, take Heartbleed on a site-by-site basis. Very few sites have offered comprehensive information on what to do about Heartbleed to its users.”

Heartbleed has proved a bigger menace – in scale of computers affected and the severity of the breach – than “GoToFail,” a bug that hassled Apple earlier this year."

Ebola

Empezó en Guinea, si bien ya está en alerta toda Africa Occidental. Leemos en el diario El País del día de hoy:

Título: Los casos de Ébola aumentan un 60% en una semana

Subtítulos: La enfermedad se ha cobrado ya 90 víctimas mortales / Según datos de la OMS, los casos han subido de 86 el 26 de marzo a 137 / "Cuando llegamos a Gueckedou el director del hospital acababa de morir. Era una persona muy querida, y eso crea un trauma", cuenta el Luis Encinas, de Médicos Sin Fronteras / El Ébola se extiende a Malí, el cuarto país afectado /  El Ébola avanza imparable

Texto: "Cuando llegamos a Gueckedou ya había bastantes casos. Y al viajar luego a Macenta, el director del hospital acababa de morir de Ébola. Era una persona muy querida, y eso crea un trauma, tanto para los colegas como para los familiares y la población". Luis Encinas, enfermero español y coordinador regional de Médicos sin Fronteras, quiere hablar de las personas con las que trata a diario en esta ciudad cercana a la frontera con Liberia. Quiere hablar del trauma de los que se curan y deben volver a su vida normal tras perder a varios miembros de su familia. O de la frustración de los profesionales sanitarios que deben entrar completamente cubiertos, con varias capas, a la zona de aislamiento, y que no pueden dar la mano al enfermo "y no poder acompañarlo en sus últimos momentos".

Es el primer brote de Ébola que tiene lugar en Guinea, y el efecto está siendo devastador. En solo una semana, los casos en ese país y en los vecinos Liberia y Sierra Leona han aumentado en un 60%: de 86 enfermos el 26 de marzo a 137 confirmados este miércoles por la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Han muerto 90 personas en los tres países. El gobierno de Malí, además, ha confirmado este viernes otros tres casos sospechosos dentro de sus fronteras.

La enfermedad no tiene vacuna ni tratamiento. "La parte social es muy importante. Ves a gente que te dice: 'Si no me vas a curar, ¿no puedo probar un tratamiento medicinal artesano?". Encinas, un profesional que ya ha trabajado con seis brotes de esta enfermedad, lo tiene claro: "¿Y por qué no, si eso alivia el miedo tanto para él como para la familia?". Los trabajadores deben mantener la cabeza fría. "Un día llegamos a un barrio periférico de la ciudad donde se habían muerto cuatro miembros de una misma familia en menos de un mes. El padre, el responsable de la familia, también estaba enfermo". Y en ese escenario, lo único que se puede hacer es ponerse manos a la obra.

En el principal foco, el precio del cloro para desinfectar casi se ha doblado en solo unas semanas

"El foco principal está en Guinée Forestière (La Selva Húmeda Guineana)", explica por teléfono Susana Dos Santos, directora en Guinea de Acción Contra el Hambre. Su asociación, que se encuentra en el país con proyectos propios, ha movilizado a algunas decenas de sus trabajadores para informar en escuelas, mezquitas y mercados. "Por ahora el guineano medio puede comprar desinfectante como cloro o lejía", esencial para eliminar el virus de la ropa y las casas de los enfermos, "pero en Guinée Forestière el precio del cloro ha subido de 4.000 a 7.000 francos guineanos". Es decir, de 43 céntimos de euro a 74, en un país donde la renta per cápita es de 396,8 euros (en España es de 23.209,5 euros). 

"Lo que más se necesita es una gran campaña de concienciación" sobre métodos preventivos, opina Dos Santos. Al no haberse dado antes en el país un brote de esta enfermedad existe un desconocimiento entre la población sobre cómo evitar el contagio. Y como el principal síntoma es la fiebre, la enfermedad puede confundirse con otra. En la zona forestal donde está el foco principal, al sureste del país (se extiende dentro de Sierra Leona), el pueblo caza para comer. La enfermedad supuestamente se transmite a través de murciélagos y pasa a los monos. Estos últimos enferman, y al manipular la carne para cocinarla, las personas también se contagian, ya que el mero contacto con una secreción infectada (ya sea sangre o sudor) es un peligro. El Gobiernoprohibió la venta y consumo de murciélagos la semana pasada. "Es su costumbre y es normal. Además, la gente necesita comer proteínas, no pueden alimentarse solo de verduras y legumbres", razona Dos Santos.

"Los ciudadanos están bastante preocupados", explica desde el terreno la cooperante. "Uno de nuestros trabajos principales, junto con el Ministerio de Salud, es tranquilizar a la gente. Informamos de todo lo que implica la enfermedad". Según Dos Santos, la mayor barrera para contener la epidemia es la falta de infraestructuras: "Faltan recursos financieros y humanos, de jabón, de medicamentos paliativos y de equipos de protección para los profesionales".

En Guinea, cuando alguien cae enfermo es trasladado al hospital y puesto en aislamiento. Los médicos que lo atienden deben cubrirse por completo el cuerpo, ya que el mero contacto con la ropa puede contagiar. Por eso, la Cruz Roja desinfecta las casas de los pacientes una vez estos las dejan, y la ropa y las sábanas se queman. "Los pacientes tienen contacto entre sí", explica Encinas. "En una habitación tenemos a una pareja junta, en otra a dos señoras... intentamos separarlos por sexos, porque el factor cultural es muy importante".

En un artículo publicado por The Lancet, un especialista de Médicos Sin Fronteras explica que una gran dificultad en este brote va a ser coordinarse con los tres Gobiernos implicados (Guinea, Sierra Leona y Liberia). Para frenar la expansión del virus hay que seguir la cadena de transmisión en sentido opuesto, explica el experto. Un médico de su organización caminó durante 8 kilómetros a través de las zonas rurales del sur para localizar a un posible paciente. La falta de médicos es grave: ni siquiera hay médicos suficientes para lidiar con enfermedades comunes. Según la OMS, hay un médico por cada 10.000 personas en el país. "La situación en Sierra Leona es aún peor", declara el experto. Y aunque en Liberia hay infraestructuras algo mejores, ninguno de los tres sistemas nacionales de salud están preparados para controlar una epidemia de Ébola.

La epidemia más letal de Ébola de la historia fue la de Uganda en 2000, que causó 425 casos y 224 muertos, pero la cepa no era la misma que la que se extiende ahora por Guinea. El brote actual corresponde a la cepa Zaire, la más mortífera de las que hay, y el brote actual es el quinto en incidencia de la historia de esta mutación el particular. La ola más dura de la cepa Zaire ocurrió en 1976, con 318 casos y 280 muertos. Con ella supo la humanidad de la existencia de esta amenaza.”

Carne seca de animales silvestres en la carretera de Yamoussoukro. La carne de antílopes, ardillas, puerco espines, murciélagos o monos forma parte del menú habitual de los habitantes del África occidental y central. Los expertos en Ébola sospechan que este puede ser el origen del contagio del virus.

¿Son o se hacen?

Uno se pregunta a esta altura si los europeos son imbéciles en estado puro o si han permitido contaminarse con algún signo neurológico cercano a un pensamiento. Incapaces siquiera de servir el café en alguna mesa de negociaciones, ¿en qué pensaban cuando entraron como caballos en la jugada ucraniana del Imperio? ¿Tienen idea de lo que es reeditar el fascismo a 500, 1.000 kilómetros de sus propias casas? ¿No aprendieron NADA del Siglo XX?

Respuesta posible: la Unión Europea es en realidad un curro bancario, financiero, a veces económico (en el sentido de productivo). Hace treinta años que estos tipos no hacen política. Le regalaron la iniciativa a una banda de neoliberales de treinta años promedio, que no leyeron un solo libro de historia en su vida, y se dedicaron a llenarse la boca con idioteces, repitiendo pavadas propias de revistas de kiosko. Se lo merecen, chicos. Jódanse.

Mientras tanto:  http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2014/04/07/actualidad/1396856900_865565.html

El Rey

Disculpen la demora en postear. Un viaje imprevisto. En fin. Sigamos con lo nuestro: cada vez son más las voces que sugieren que el rey está desnudo. Miren este artículo si no, de Razmy Baroud para Asia Times Online de hoy: 

Título: An empire beyond salvation

Texto: “US Secretary of State John Kerry couldn't hide his frustration anymore as the US-sponsored Palestinian peace process continued to falter. After eight months of wrangling to push talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority forward, he admitted while on a visit to Morocco on April 4 that the latest setback had served as a "reality check" for the peace process. But confining that reality check to the peace process is hardly representative of the painful reality through which the United States has been forced to subsist in during the last few years. 

The state of US foreign policy in the Middle East, but also around the world, cannot be described with any buoyant language. In some instances, as in Syria, Libya, Egypt, Ukraine, and most recently in Palestine and Israel, too many calamitous scenarios have exposed the fault lines of US foreign policy. The succession of crises is not allowing the US to cut its losses in the Middle East and stage a calculated "pivot" to Asia following its disastrous Iraq war. 

US foreign policy is almost entirely crippled. For the Obama administration, it has been a continuous firefighting mission since George W Bush left office. In fact, there have been too many "reality checks" to count. 

According to the logic of the once powerful pro-Israel Washington-based neoconservatives, the invasion of Iraq was a belated attempt at regaining the initiative in the Middle East and controlling a greater share of the energy supplies worldwide. 

Sure, the US media made much noise about fighting terror, restoring democracies and heralding freedoms, but the neo-cons were hardly secretive about the real objectives. They tirelessly warned about the decline of their country's fortunes. They labored to redraw the map of the Middle East in a way that they imagined would slow down the rise of China and the other giants that are slowly but surely standing on their feet to face up to the post-Cold War superpower. 

All such efforts were bound to fail. The US escaped from Iraq, but only after altering the balance of power and creating new classes of winners and losers. The violence of the invasion and occupation scarred Iraq, and also destabilized neighboring countries by overwhelming their economies, augmenting militancy and creating more pressure cookers in political spaces that were, until then, somewhat stable. 

The war left the US fatigued and set the course for a transition in the Middle East, although not the kind of transition that the likes of former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had championed. There was no "New Middle East" per se, but rather an old one that is in much worse shape than ever before. 

When the last US soldier scheduled to leave Iraq had crossed the border into Kuwait in December 2011, the US was exposed in more ways than one. The limits of US military power was revealed - by not winning, it had lost. Its economy proved fragile - as it continues to teeter between collapse and "recovery". It was left with zero confidence among its friends. As for its enemies, the US was no longer a daunting menace but a toothless tiger. 

There was a short period in US foreign policy strategy in which Washington needed to count its losses, regroup and regain initiative, but not in the Middle East. The Asia Pacific region, especially the South China Sea, seemed to be the most rational restarting point, and for a good reason. 

Writing in Forbes magazine in Washington, Robert D Kaplan described the convergence underway in the Asia pacific region. He wrote, "Russia is increasingly shifting its focus of energy exports to East Asia. China is on track to perhaps become Russia's biggest export market for oil before the end of the decade." 

The Middle East is itself changing directions, as the region's hydrocarbon production is increasingly being exported there; Russia is covering the East Asia realm, according to Kaplan, as "North America will soon be looking more and more to the Indo-Pacific region to export its own energy, especially natural gas." 

But the US is still being pulled into too many different directions. It has attempted to police the world exclusively for its own interests for the past 25 years. It has failed. "Cut and run" is essentially an American foreign policy staple, and that too is a botched approach. Even after the piecemeal US withdrawal from Iraq, the US is too deeply entrenched in the Middle East region to achieve a clean break. 

The US took part in the Libya war, attempting to do so while masking its action as part of a larger drive by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization so that it shouldered only part of the blame when things went awry, as they predictably have. Since the January 25 revolution, its position on Egypt was perhaps the most inconsistent of all Western powers, unmistakably demonstrating its lack of clarity and relevance to a country with a massive size and influence. 

However, it was in Syria that US weaknesses were truly exposed. Military intervention was not possible - and for reasons none of which were moralistic. Its political influence proved immaterial. Most importantly, its own legions of allies throughout the Middle East are walking away from beneath the US leadership banner. The new destinations are Russia for arms and China for economic alternatives. 

President Barack Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia in late March might have been a step too little too late to repair America's weakening alliances in the region. Even if the US was ready to mend fences, it has neither the political will, the economic potency, nor the military prowess to be effective. True, the US still possesses massive military capabilities and remains the world's largest economy, but the commitment that the Middle East would require from the US at this time of multiple wars and revolutions is by no means the kind of commitment the US is ready to impart. In a way, the US has "lost" the Middle East. 

Even the "pivot" to Asia is likely to end in shambles. On the one hand, the US's opponents, Russia notwithstanding, have grown much more assertive in recent years. They too have their own agendas, which will keep the US and its willing European allies busy for years. The Russian move against Crimea had once more exposed the limits of US and NATO in regions outside the conventional parameters of Western influence. 

If the US proved resourceful enough to stage a fight in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, the battle - over energy supplies, potential reserves, markets and routes - is likely to be the most grueling yet. China is not Iraq before the US invasion - broken by decades of war, siege and sanctions. Its geography is too vast to besiege, and its military too massive to destroy with a single shock and awe. 

The US has truly lost the initiative, in the Middle East region and beyond it. The neo-cons' drunkenness with military power led to costly wars that have overwhelmed the empire beyond salvation. Now, US foreign-policy makers are mere diplomatic firefighters, from Palestine, to Syria to Ukraine. For the Americans, the last few years have been less a "reality check", more the new reality itself.”