Blasts aimed at Iraqi Shiites, police kill 23

 Insurgents launched a wave of attacks across Iraq on Monday, primarily targeting Shiite communities and pilgrims and killing at least 23 people, officials said.
The attacks appeared aimed at undermining security and confidence in the government by fomenting sectarian conflict. Overall violence has dropped since the nation neared a civil war several years ago, but attacks of a sectarian nature come almost daily, and government forces seem powerless to prevent them.
The deadliest blasts on Monday were in the town of Musayyib, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital, where militants planted bombs around two houses, one belonging to a police officer. Two women, two children and three men were killed in the pre-dawn explosions, a police officer said.
In Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Karrada, a parked car bomb went off next to a tent for Shiite pilgrims making their way to the southern city of Karbala to mark the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, a police officer said. Five were killed and 25 wounded, he said.
The explosion rattled nearby buildings and sent a thick plume of black smoke billowing into the air. Ambulances and police rushed to the scene in the busy downtown shopping district, and several helicopters hovered above.
A roadside bomb injured six pilgrims in the capital's Baiyaa neighborhood later in the evening, according to police.
That came hours after a parked car bomb exploded in a busy street in the city of Hillah where local government offices are located, killing three people and wounding 21, another police officer said. He said some Shiite pilgrims were among the casualties, but he didn't say how many. Hillah is about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad.
Two other Shiite pilgrims were killed and 16 wounded in the town of Khalis, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, when two bombs exploded simultaneously, another police officer said. In the town of Latifiyah, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, one pilgrim was killed and 11 wounded when two mortar rounds exploded nearby, another police officer said.
Six doctors confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information to reporters.
Also Monday, four policemen were killed in the northern city of Kirkuk while trying to defuse a bomb the center of the city, according to police Col. Taha Salaheddin. Kirkuk is 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad. The city is a focus of a power struggle among several sects and the Baghdad government.
Another a policeman was killed when a bomb hit a police convoy in the town of Tuz Khormato, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad, said the provincial spokesman of Salahuddin province, Mohammed al-Asi.
Although violence has ebbed since the height of the insurgency in the past, some groups presumed to be primarily Sunni extremists are still able to launch deadly attacks nationwide against government officials or civilians.
Shiite pilgrims are one of their favorite targets. Each year, hundreds of thousands converge on the southern city of Karbala where the Imam Hussein, an important figure in Shiite Islam, is buried. Many travel on foot, and the mass gatherings are frequently attacked, despite tight security.

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Egypt arrests former Israeli soldier in Sinai

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian security officials say they have arrested a former sergeant in the Israeli army after he illegally entered from Israel into the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.
The authorities say the 24 year-old unarmed Israeli entered Egypt near the Taba crossing.
He was detained by Egyptian authorities Monday. The officials say he was trying to reach the Gaza Strip through Sinai to fight alongside Palestinians. They identified him as Andre Yaacoub.
Also known as Andre Pshenichnikov, a Jewish immigrant to Israel from Tajikistan, he made headlines earlier this year when he announced he wanted to renounce his Israeli citizenship and move to a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank.
The Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

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Israel eases ban on building materials for Gaza

 Israel has started allowing long-banned building materials into the Gaza Strip, its first key concession to the territory's Hamas rulers under a cease-fire that ended eight days of intense fighting last month, the military said Monday.
Israel offered an added incentive to the Islamic militant Hamas as well, with the military saying shipments will continue and a 5-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory may be eased even further if the border remains quiet.
"Now we're talking about a permanent easing," said military spokesman Maj. Guy Inbar. He said 20 truckloads a day could enter Gaza depending on demand and other concessions may follow.
"The longer the calm persists, the more we'll weigh additional easings of restrictions that will benefit the private sector," he said.
A Hamas official described the quantity sent so far as "cosmetic" and Gaza economists said it would take years of round-the-clock shipments to even make a dent in the gap left by the five years of blockade.
Israel imposed a wide-ranging land and naval embargo on Gaza after the Islamic militant Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007. Although it eased the land embargo in 2010, building materials such as cement, gravel and metal rods continued to be largely banned because Israel claimed militants could use them to make fortifications and weapons.
There had been limited exceptions. Israel last week authorized the entry of 60 trucks and buses for the first time since Hamas' 2007 Gaza takeover, though there are conflicting reports on whether vehicles have actually gone through.
The military said it began allowing shipments of gravel to Gaza's private sector on Sunday because the Israeli attacks on Hamas in November had stopped near-daily rocket attacks from Israel.
After the November hostilities, Israel and Hamas began indirect, Egyptian-brokered talks over new border arrangements.
Hamas still wants Israel to lift the remainder of the embargo, including a naval blockade still in place. In return, Israel demands an end to arms smuggling into Gaza.
Gazans also want another major concession from Israel, the lifting of a near-ban on exports from the impoverished territory. Exports, especially to the West Bank, the Palestinian territory on the opposite side of Israel, once formed the backbone of Gaza's economy. The West Bank and Gaza have separate, rival governments.
The army spokesman said exports might be expanded "depending on the continuation of the calm."
Critics contend the export ban punishes ordinary Gazans instead of pressuring Hamas, hurting four in five Gaza factories and contributing heavily to an unemployment rate of about one-third of the workforce. Eighty percent of Gaza's 1.6 million people rely on U.N. handouts.
Hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border gave Gazans a conduit for goods — and weapons — while the embargo remained intact.
Israel lifted its restrictions on consumer goods entering Gaza over land after a deadly Israeli naval raid on a blockade-busting flotilla in 2010 drew international attention to the Israeli blockade. But the blockade on construction materials remained in place, save for shipments used to build U.N. schools and a pilot project of shipments to the private sector a year ago.
"The Israelis promised to undertake further measures to alleviate the difficult economic situation in Gaza as a result of the calm," said Palestinian crossing official Raed Fattouh in Gaza, confirming that the Israelis had agreed to send in 20 trucks of gravel daily, five days a week. "This move had been expected as part of the deal."
Israel has not eased its naval blockade of the territory, which it says is imperative to keep weapons from being smuggled into Gaza by sea.
Egypt, which had joined the Israeli blockade, similarly eased its own restrictions on Saturday, allowing in 1,400 tons of gravel paid for by Qatar. The oil-rich emirate recently pledged $425 million to build housing, schools, a hospital and roads in Gaza as part of its attempt to build its influence in Palestinian politics and its power in the region, at the expense of regional rival Iran, Hamas' longtime patron.
Shipments from Egypt are expected to be ramped up to 4,000 tons daily, said Yassir al Shanti, Gaza's deputy minister of housing and public works. He estimated Gaza needs up to 3 million tons of gravel to build roads and that the Qatar-funded projects need more than 1 million tons.
The shipments from Egypt were launched following consultation with Israeli officials, who were in Cairo Thursday to discuss the cease-fire and other matters, an Egyptian official said last week.
Under former President Hosni Mubarak, Israel's longtime ally, Egypt had poor relations with Hamas, and teamed up with Israel to blockade Gaza. Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, comes from Hamas' parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and has vowed not to abandon the Palestinians. But he is moving cautiously, in part to avoid alienating Cairo's biggest patron, the United States.
Palestinian economist Mouin Rajab said the new shipments would go only a small way to meet the needs Gaza has accumulated throughout five and a half years of blockade, during which time Hamas and Israel warred twice.
"Gaza needs more than what Israel has allowed and what Egypt has promised to allow. We are talking about six years of blockade, no real economy and no projects in addition to what Gaza lost during two wars in 2009 and 2012," Rajab said.
A Hamas government official in Gaza said there was still a long way to go.
"This amount which has been sent by the Israelis still is cosmetic," he said. "Israel, according to the understanding, should allow more building materials into Gaza as part of the understandings reached by Cairo. We are waiting and we told the Egyptians that."
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the understandings.
Reconstruction since the 2009 fighting has been slow, in large part because of the blockades. To make up the shortage, a bustling smuggling industry through underground tunnels along the Egyptian border has sprung up. While prices for key construction goods have come down, they still remain expensive for the majority of Gaza's 1.6 million people, 80 percent of whom rely on U.N. handouts.
Israel and Hamas shun each other, so Egypt is mediating the new border arrangements. A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose confidential contacts, said a Hamas delegation arrived Sunday night in Cairo to meet with Egyptian security officials for a second round of talks on the border arrangements.

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Yemen: Al-Qaida offers bounty for US ambassador

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has offered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who kills the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa or an American soldier in the country.
An audio produced by the group's media arm, the al-Malahem Foundation, and posted on militant websites Saturday said it offered three kilograms of gold worth $160,000 for killing the ambassador, Gerald Feierstein.
The group said it will pay 5 million Yemeni riyals ($23,000) to anyone who kills an American soldier inside Yemen.
It said the offer is valid for six months.
The bounties were set to "inspire and encourage our Muslim nation for jihad," the statement said.
The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa did not respond to an Associated Press phone call asking for comment.
Washington considers al-Qaida in Yemen to be the group's most dangerous branch.
The group overran entire towns and villages last year by taking advantage of a security lapse during nationwide protests that eventually ousted the country's longtime ruler. Backed by the U.S. military experts based at a southern air base, Yemen's army was able to regain control of the southern region, but al-Qaida militants continue to launch deadly attacks on security forces that have killed hundreds.
In the capital, Sanaa, security officials said two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed two intelligence officers early Sunday as they were leaving a downtown security facility. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations, said all intelligence and security officers have been instructed to take precautionary measures outside working hours.
The government blames al-Qaida for the killing of several senior military and intelligence officials this year mainly by gunmen on motorbikes.
The officials said security authorities in Sanaa have launched a campaign against motorcyclists suspected of involvement in these attacks or other crimes, arresting about 200 for questioning for violations, including driving motorcycles without license plates.
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JelliJar – New Online Specialty Food Marketplace in Beta Release

JelliJar is pleased to announce that its online food marketplace is accessible to select food producers and customers. The full site will launch in the first week of January 2013.

Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
JelliJar is pleased to announce that its online food marketplace is accessible to select food producers and customers. The full site will launch in the first week of January 2013.
JelliJar is a marketplace where all types of food products can be discovered and purchased. The marketplace allows small producers that make products in small batches or have dedicated production facilities to be discovered by consumers with discerning tastes.
Small Food Producers, Chefs, Restaurants and Specialty Food Retailers can:

1. List their products, story, recipes, photos, videos, and contact details;

2. List retail locations where their products are sold (Shop Local);

3. Enable ecommerce transactions through PayPal;

4. Have customers subscribe to products;

5. Participate in Tasting Box subscriptions; and

6. Social Media Integration with Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter.
To learn more about JelliJar, please visit: http://www.jellijar.com
About JelliJar:
JelliJar is an online marketplace dedicated to providing food lovers with the ability to discover food that caters to their taste preferences. Its focus is on providing users with the ability to make informed choices when shopping for food for in the following categories: Gourmet and Artisan, Specialty Diets and International Cuisines.

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The sale of the NYSE and the death of stocks

T

o the general public, it's quite a "shocker," says David Weidner at MarketWatch. IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), an upstart derivatives exchange, based in Atlanta, is buying NYSE Euronext, the company that owns the iconic, 220-year-old New York Stock Exchange, in a deal worth more than $8 billion. To long-time market professionals, however, this merger merely confirms something they've known for quite some time. They've been witnessing the slow death of stocks — as the lord of the marketplace — for years, as new regulations and decimalization of trades once done using rounder fractions "effectively squeezed the margins — and the potential for graft — out of the system." Initial public offerings offered healthy profits, but even those have dried up recently, leaving the NYSE and other exchanges "searching the globe for a merger partner," hoping they could buy their way to growth. But the lucrative futures and options exchanges that seemed like natural buyers of the stock exchanges turned up their noses, asking, "Why would we need them?"

There was an exception. The newcomer to the derivatives party, the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) needed something to vault it into the conversation — even though it not only had profits, but market share and a valuation to rival any exchange in the world.

For all of its lackluster financial cosmetics, the NYSE is still the Big Board. It is the venue where the great corporations of the world are listed. The announced deal will have some opportunities for technology sharing and other efficiencies, but mostly its an $8.2 billion deal for a brand.

As if that weren't already humiliating enough for the Big Board, says Felix Salmon at Reuters, "stock trading is a complete afterthought in this deal" for ICE. "The real reason that ICE wants the company is Liffe, NYSE Euronext's London-based financial derivatives subsidiary." Derivatives exchanges, you see, are few. They compete only with each other, so they make money hand over fist. "There are lots of stock exchanges," so they compete fiercely with each other, "and none of them make much money."

You can almost hear ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher rolling his eyes and wondering why on earth he needs to hang on to what at this point is little more than a heavily-guarded tourist attraction... [But] it's actually a good thing that stock trading has become a low-margin, low-value business: that's what's meant to happen when you have lots of competition. Think of it as one of the few areas of the financial-services sector where capitalism works as advertised. 

This deal, once unthinkable, really does underscore "what a dog the stock trading business has become," say Zachary M. Seward and Matt Phillips at Quartz. There's just no denying it. But if all this gloom is driving down the value of stocks in everybody's eyes, maybe equities markets will soon be so undervalued that they'll bounce back.

If we were contrarians, all of this Death of Equities talk — reminiscent of the 1979 Businessweek cover that nearly nailed the bottom of the markets before surges of the 1980s and 1990s — might get us a little more interested in the markets.

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Koomkin.com the new b2b marketplace that connects companies throughout all the Americas

Looking to the global trends, American companies will have to look more and more south of the border for qualified suppliers. Koomkin is already helping companies do that: Enrique Suarez Romo co-founder of the Mexican portal.

Mexico City (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Ancient Mayans are not just responsible of writing prophecies about the end of the world while drinking hot chocolate; actually they were very good scientists and traders. Honoring this legacy, a group of Mexican entrepreneurs took a Mayan word, Koomkin (that means “to shorten”) to name their new online marketplace. This name was taken in order to bring together a group of new online tools for companies with the purpose of giving all registered firms better web visibility, increase competitiveness and create more business opportunities.
In Mexico, the number of Internet users has been significantly increasing every year, however, many Mexican companies are still reluctant to use the Web to promote their products or services and do business. “We want to provide them with an economic and efficient tool so they can easily show their offer to the world. It is time for Mexican and other Latin American companies to make the most of being now more competitive and cheaper related to their competitors in Asian markets”.
The portal creates an own web page with contact information, chat and pictures for those companies that register for free, as well as a program to make online quotations.
Companies that register through paid memberships can enjoy some services that provides them with competitive advantages: statistics in real time, online marketing campaigns in order to facilitate companies to be identified by search engines, and also the possibility of obtaining a quality certificate with Applus, a business group of certifiers present in more than 40 countries.
The certification gives confidence not only to the companies that offer their products and services in the Koomkin platform, but also to those who are looking for qualified suppliers, increasing exportation and competitiveness.
“We estimate we will be able to have near 37 thousand registered companies basically in Mexico and gradually in the United States (through an alliance with Free Trade Alliance, a San Antonio based organization with a renowned expertise in global trade), Spain and Latin America-, among those around 500 will have a paid membership” Enrique Suarez Romo, co-founder of the Mexican platform that started operating in September, explained. Besides Suarez, the founders of Koomkin are Pablo Garcia (who conceived the idea of the platform), Santiago Miranda and Daniel Alvarez.
Finally the co-founders of Koomkin reported that the companies that dedicate time and resources to digital media get one cost quotation per week, while by being registered at Koomkin they can get up to 300% more than they could get by their own means.

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Fox Web Creations Presents the New World Trade Center Kansas City Website

Web Design in Kansas City is a little more global today with the release of the World Trade Center Kansas City Website, chock-full of great information for international businesses.

(PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Fox Web Creations and The World Trade Center Kansas City have launched a new website - http://www.wtc-kc.com/. Designed for companies already doing business globally, as well as those considering entering the global marketplace, the site boasts resources on everything from the paperwork involved in international business to options for visiting the countries in question.
With experience and operations in Switzerland, Morocco, and France already under their belt, the Kansas City based Web Design firm Fox Web Creations was an excellent partner for this project. CEO and Lead Developer ElAmri "Red" Rida has a personal understanding of the importance of international business and worked closely with the WTC-KC staff to develop the new site. “We wanted the site to be easy to navigate, interactive and helpful to the business community. We also wanted to make sure that the staff of the WTC would be able to easily manage the content themselves, allowing them more freedom to make decisions about their content." Fox Web Creations focuses on web design in Kansas City, and on assisting small and large businesses with their internet marketing and development needs.
“The new site offers everything from help with export documentation and lead generation, to trade data, visits and education,” says Mehgan Flynn, Director of the WTC-KC. “We’re also part of the largest trade network in the world – you’ll find World Trade Centers in 330 cities and 100 countries around the planet. The new website ties into our mission to connect the KC region to the people, data, companies and government agencies that make up the fabric of global commerce.”
Some of the New Website features include:

    A comprehensive calendar of international events in the local community, including:
--    International market briefings

--     International business workshops

--     Intercultural sensitivity workshops

--     Group Trade missions

    ECertify – an easy, online app for Certificates of Origin
    SphereAccess – lead generation for buyers and suppliers.
As a member of the World Trade Center Association (WTCA), WTC-KC can also offer additional resources and services to support the business community in reaching out to international markets. The services include:

    Global market research
    Trade lead identification
    Global trade intelligence
    Intercultural communication training
    International liaison programs
    Discounted access to SphereAccess - a retail buyers and suppliers matchmaking system.
“Now that the new site is launched, we’re gearing up for a new year of WTC-KC programs and services,” says Flynn. “We’ll continue our popular ‘Doing Business In…” programs featuring various countries – China, for one. And, based on a survey of our members, will be offering a series of cultural sensitivity sessions starting this April. We’re also working with the state of Missouri on an intense, three-month export training program for local businesses. So the new year looks pretty full!”
The World Trade Center Kansas City is a partnership of the Greater Kansas City Chamber, the Kansas City Area Development Council, and KCSmartport. Fox Web Creations is a full service Kansas City Web Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO/M), and Responsive Web Design (RWD) firm, located at 4345 State Line Road, in Kansas City, MO 64111. They are dedicated to assisting all businesses, regardless of size, with their web design and development needs.

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Top Realtor in Gainesville VA, Linton Hall Realtors, Launches Interactive Web Experience

A top performing realtor in Gainesville, VA - Linton Hall Realtors - is pleased to announce the launch of an interactive live chat system to aid their website visitors, who are looking to buy or sell homes in the Gainesville, VA area. The addition of the interactive service will allow for expanded real estate client service in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Gainesville, VA (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Linton Hall Realtors, one of the highest producing realtors in Gainesville, VA, is pleased to announce the launch of an interactive system to allow real time communications with website visitors. The system will be used to help prospective home buyers search the Gainesville, VA home listings on Linton Hall Realtor's company website. By offering a live chat solution, Linton Hall Realtors expects to help sellers get information they need about listing a home, aid home buyers in finding the right home in the right area, and lead to greater levels of client satisfaction.
Finding homes for sale in Gainesville, VA can be a daunting task. From the Piedmont community in the north down the entire length of Linton Hall Road neighborhoods and communities are springing up. Even as new developments are emerging, some of the older areas are now 15 years old or more. This makes for an area where many families are upgrading and moving within the same community. This is when sellers frequently begin looking for a local agent representative.
Listing a home includes many dynamics. Listing price, marketing the home, and even staging and curb appeal are all important considerations. By implementing the live chat system on the website, people selling their home in Gainesville, VA will be able to interact with a real estate professional right at the moment they begin looking for information. "By providing this type of real time information, we can make the home selling process much easier," said Ashley Leigh, founder of Linton Hall Realtors. "The live chat feature allows us to get critical information to home sellers quickly and easily," he added. Indeed, with programs like the Guaranteed Sale Program, the Move Up to Savings program and even specialized help with short sales, there is a huge quantity of information.
Although there is so much to learn and investigate when selling your home, most sellers conduct extensive research when they are planning to buy new home. Searching for new homes in Gainesville VA is often the more exciting part of the process. That's another reason why Linton Hall Realtors implemented the live chat website feature. "The first thing a buyer/seller does is start searching for their new house. By providing them information when they first begin their search, we can make the entire process work better and smoother," Leigh said. Questions about are schools, planned expansion; home builders and community amenities are all popular questions.
When a user comes to LintonHallRealtors.com, they typically start browsing for a new home and then examining all the program information available to sellers. This process usually continues for weeks or months. When an agent is right there, available for quick questions or even more detailed phone consultations, the home buyer/seller gets exactly the information he or she needs, right at the moment in time it is needed. This leads to an overall improved client experience. "By providing excellent information with real-time technology, we can begin our work with them much earlier in the sales cycle and create a better overall client experience," said Leigh.

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Internet regulation seen at national level as treaty talks fail

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The world's major Internet companies, backed by U.S. policymakers, got much of what they wanted last week when many nations refused to sign a global telecommunications treaty that opponents feared could lead to greater government control over online content and communications.
In rejecting even mild Internet language in the updated International Telecommunications Union treaty and persuading dozens of other countries to refuse their signatures, the U.S. made a powerful statement in support of the open Internet, U.S. officials and industry leaders said.
But both technologists and politicians fear the Internet remains in imminent danger of new controls imposed by various countries, and some said the rift that only widened during the 12-day ITU conference in Dubai could wind up hastening the end of the Net as we know it.
"If the international community can't agree on what is actually quite a simple text on telecommunications, then there is a risk that the consensus that has mostly held today around Internet governance within (Web-address overseer) ICANN and the multi-stakeholder model just falls apart over time," a European delegate told Reuters. "Some countries clearly think it is time to rethink that whole system, and the fights over that could prove irresolvable."
An increasing number of nations are alarmed about Internet-based warfare, international cybercrime or internal dissidents' use of so-called "over-the-top" services such as Twitter and Facebook that are outside the control of domestic telecom authorities. Many hoped that the ITU would prove the right forum to set standards or at least exchange views on how to handle their problems.
But the United States' refusal to sign the treaty even after all mention of the Internet had been relegated to a side resolution may have convinced other countries that they have to go it alone, delegates said.
"This could lead to a balkanization of the Internet, because each country will have its own view on how to deal with over-the-top players and will regulate the Internet in a different way," said another European delegate, who would speak only on condition anonymity.
Without U.S. and European cooperation, "maybe in the future we could come to a fragmented Internet," said Andrey Mukhanov, international chief at Russia's Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.
HARD LINE IN NEGOTIATIONS
Spurred on by search giant Google and others, the Americans took a hard line against an alliance of countries that wanted the right to know more about the routing of Internet traffic or identities of Web users, including Russia, and developing countries that wanted content providers to pay at least some of the costs of transmission.
The West was able to rally more countries against the ITU having any Internet role than agency officials had expected, leaving just 89 of 144 attending nations willing to sign the treaty immediately. They also endorse a nonbinding resolution that the ITU should play a future role guiding Internet standards, along with private industry and national governments.
Some delegates charged that the Americans had planned on rejecting any treaty and so were negotiating under false pretenses. "The U.S. had a plan to try and water down as much of the treaty as it could and then not sign," the second European said.
Other allied delegates and a U.S. spokesman hotly disputed the claim. "The U.S. was consistent and unwavering in its positions," he said. "In the end—and only in the end—was it apparent that the proposed treaty would not meet that standard."
But the suspicion underscores the unease greeting the United States on the issue. Some in Russia, China and other nations suspect the U.S. of using the Net to sow discontent and launch spying and military attacks.
Ror many technology companies, and for activists who are helping dissidents, the worst-case scenario now would be a split in the structural underpinnings of the Internet. In theory, the electronic packets that make up an email or Web session could be intercepted and monitored near their origin, or traffic could be subjected to massive firewalls along national boundaries, as is the case in China.
Most technologists view the former scenario as unlikely, at least for many years: the existing Internet protocol is too deeply entrenched, said Milton Mueller, a Syracuse University professor who studies Net governance.
"People who want to `secede' from that global connectivity will have to introduce costly technical exceptions to do so," Mueller said.
A more immediate prospect is stricter national regulations requiring Internet service providers and others to help monitor, report and censor content, a trend that has already accelerated since the Arab Spring revolts.
Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet Society, also predicted more fragmentation at the application level, with countries like China encouraging controllable homegrown alternatives to the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
Zittrain, Mueller and other experts said fans of the open Net have much work to do in Dubai's wake.
They say government and industry officials should not only preach the merits of the existing system, in which various industry-led non-profit organizations organize the core Internet protocols and procedures, but strive to articulate a better way forward.
"The position we're in now isn't tenable," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity advisor to the White House based at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "For us to say 'No, it's got be an ad hoc arrangement of non-governmental entities and a nonprofit corporation ... maybe we could get away with that 10 years ago, but it's going to be increasingly hard."
Lewis said the United States needed to concede a greater role for national sovereignty and the U.N., while Mueller said the goal should be a "more globalized, transnational notion of communications governance" that will take decades to achieve.
In the meantime, activists concerned about new regulation can assist by spreading virtual private network technology, which can national controls, Zittrain said.
Backup hosting and distribution could also be key, he said. "We can devise systems for keeping content up amidst filtering or denial-of-service attacks, so that a platform like Twitter can be a genuine choice for someone in China."

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