U.S. Drones Fight Mexican Drug Trade

The Obama administration started to fly more unarmed drones deep into Mexican territory to collect illegal drug trafficking information. The United States officials said that this plan would provide Mexican authorities to help manage illegal drugs passing Mexican territory to the United States. In fact, the drones had proved to be helpful when Mexican authorities used these drones to find several suspects linked to the Feb. 15 killing of Jaime Zapata, a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration agent. According to the U.S officials, they are capable of peering deep into Mexico and tracking criminals’ communications and movements .This decision was, however, kept in secret, because of legal restrictions in Mexico and heated political sensitiveness regarding their sovereignty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/americas/16drug.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=mexico%20immigration&st=cse

A lot of oil, little wealth. The people's struggle.

In the midst of political instability, Chevron Corporation and the United States Agency for International Development have agreed to provide $50 million in aid to the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, each providing $25 million. Over the past several years, Chevron has invested billions in establishing facilities in Nigeria to obtain oil. However, it has faced great opposition by neighboring people and tribal groups. The region's people have vandalized facilities and taken workers hostage, expressing their anger over the corrupted system. Although the oil in the area provides wealth to the country, the people continue to live in poverty, never seeing the profits from exported oil. Over 40% of Nigeria's population lives below the poverty line and the GDP per capita is $2400. People in Nigeria experience some of the worst living conditions and injustices, while the corrupted government profits from the country's oil. As Chevron continues to spend millions in securing their facilities, it is attempting to boost the area's economic development, improve government efficiency, and help reduce conflict. It is in the company's best interest for the government to operate efficiently and help improve the people's economic development. Although their efforts are self-interested, pressure for government efficiency from large corporations could be a positive influence. After all, money is at the center of conflict.


http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2011/02/17/chevron-usaid-50m-nigeria.html

"On" "Off" switch for Internet is in government's hand!

The government of Egypt already knew what could affect the government the most. The revolution occurred in Egypt recently. And the government acted in response of the revolution; the government of Egypt turned the internet "off."
Thesedays, everything is connected with internet. Since internet is densely wired globally, blocking the internet is impossible. However, the Mubarak government successfully blocked the internet for several days, so that they could at least make the revolution a bit calmer. Still, they failed to revive the Mubarak government.
The whole world is in shock, because the Mubarak government had proved that they could interfere the global internet.
Egyptian engineers assumes that the Mubarak government had exploited some vulnerabilities in the national infrastructure. Through these vulnerabilities, it seems the Mubarak government had gained power to control the internet for this kind of purposes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/technology/16internet.html?_r=1&ref=world

$aving for the Future in Nigeria?

"Nigerian Wealth Fund to Save for Future Generations"

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-10/nigerian-wealth-fund-to-save-for-future-generations.html

Nigeria is aware that it's oil reserves aren't everlasting, and they're apparently working to find ways to reserve it. The government plans on saving 20% of it's assets from crude oil exports in 3 separate mutual fund type accounts. The accounts would be untouchable for the most part, though the finance minister can withdraw some funds from the Stabilization Funds under extreme circumstances.

The plan sounds smart at first glance, but keep in mind the country desperately needs help NOW. Why not use the money from oil sales NOW to open more plants, boost the economy, and reduce poverty? Seems like common sense to me...

Nigeria's Presidential Elections- Jonathan finally an official candidate

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/nigeria/110211/nigeria-goodluck-jonathan-election

Nigeria's current president, Goodluck Jonathan, will be running for re-election in April for the first time as a real candidate. His current term of office began when he was Vice President and the President died which meant he needed to step up and become president. The former president was a northern candidate but Jonathan is a southern candidate so there is some controversy over whether he should be allowed to run because even though the north got to have their candidate win in the last election, they argue that they should be given another term because their president died after only a year. Technically it should be time for a southern candidate to win, which would be Jonathan. There have been multiple acts of violence at some of the campaign rallies and while Jonathan is traveling the country and trying to gain support from the northerners.

Egypt protesters gradually achieving their goal

After Iran's nuclear threat, Egpyt's gatherings has become another trouble for the West. Egypt is protesting against the futureless regime in Cairo and unwilling to openly assert that it wants a successor to Hosni Mubarak who would hold to his clear line against Iran becoming a nuclear power. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered together to press a peaceful campaign for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.
There were several aggressive supporters of Mubarak. However, the opposition against Mubarak was so strong that supporters of Mubarak decreased greatly. Several government officials, began to appear in the scene of protest. The execution of Mubarak is becoming real....

Are American lawyers to good to do legal paperwork nowadays?

"Legal Ousourcing brings US / UK Attorneys to India"
Economywatch.com

More and more companies have resorted to Asian countries for cheap labor, and American lawyers are following the example into India. Instead of paying young American lawyers to do all of the dirty work - the endless paperwork, contracts, etc. - the new legal fad is to use the cheaper, yet still English-speaking and brilliant lawyers, in India. "It really is the future of legal services," claims Leah Cooper, Director of Legal Outsourcing for CPA global. The number of these legal outsourcing corporations in India has jumped from 40 in 2005 to 140 in 2009. The total profits of legal outsourcing has also increased 38% in just four years. Maybe Cooper is on to something...