Even as evidence mounts that the Great Recession has finally released its chokehold on the American economy, experts worry that the recovery may be weak, stymied by consumers' reluctance to spend. Given that consumer spending has in recent years accounted for 70 percent of the nation's economic activity, a marginal shrinking could significantly depress demand for goods and services, discouraging businesses from hiring more workers. Millions of Americans spent years tapping credit cards, stock portfolios and once-rising home values to spend in excess of their incomes and now lack the wherewithal to carry on. Those who still have the means feel pressure to conserve, fearful about layoffs, the stock market and real estate prices....Yet even people with high incomes appear reluctant to spend. "The only time you do a lot of business is when you throw a sale," said Pat Bennett, a salesman at a Macy's in north Austin...."People are very interested in shoring up against losing their jobs," he said.

Obama follows Bush's footsteps by upholding a controversial law that allows the government to examine the contents of digital devices travelers carry, crossing the US border. According to the law that was first devised by the former US president George W. Bush, government authorities can search and even seize travelers' laptops, iPods, cameras and other digital devices, something that civil liberty advocates oppose. ... "It's a disappointing ratification of the suspicionless search policy put in place by the Bush administration," said Catherine Crump, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "It provides a lot of procedural safeguards, but it doesn't deal with the fundamental problem, which is that under the policy, government officials are free to search people's laptops and cell phones for any reason whatsoever."

Addressing a long-standing debate over Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, former US president Jimmy Carter calls for the removal of all settlements from the occupied land. "This is not Israel," said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, pointing to a building settlement during his Thursday visit to the separation wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in. "This is Palestine and settlements must be removed from Palestinian land so that justice will be restored in the area," he urged. Carter described a freeze on the Israeli settlement expansion on confiscated Palestinian land as the first step to lasting peace in the region, echoing Washington's favored two-state solution which envisages the creation of a Palestinian homeland next to Israel. Keeping his company on his West Bank listening tour was Archbishop Desmond Tutu who encouraged the Palestinians' weekly Friday gatherings to protest the construction of the Israeli 'apartheid wall'. "The lesson that Israel must learn from the Holocaust is that it can never get security through fences, walls and guns," he noted. "In South Africa, they tried to get security from the barrel of a gun. They never got it." On their Bil'in visit, Carter and Tutu were accompanied by their colleagues from the 'Elders' delegation, including a number of former world leaders, renowned human rights activists and businessmen.

Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) wraps up its extraordinary summit in Argentina amongst angry protests aimed at the US-Colombia military pact.... UNASUR's Friday declaration, signed by the Member States including Colombia, reiterates the bloc's commitment "to strengthen the fight and cooperation against terrorism and transnational organized crime and its related crimes," including "the trafficking of small and light guns." The signed document requires the UNASUR countries to refrain from posing any military threats against other nations, specifying that "military cooperation agreements must be directed by the unconditional respect to the principles and aims of the UN Charter and the fundamental principles of the UNASUR Constitutive treaty." The move appears to be directed at Colombia where President Alvaro Uribe has allowed US military to use seven army bases in the country. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters took to the streets around the summit venue, demanding the expulsion of hundreds of US troops to be stationed in bases across South America. UNASUR, launched in 2008 to strengthen regional ties and fight drug trafficking and corruption, comprises of 12 South American nations including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.

A three-day top-class meeting of the United Nations will be held in the mountain village Alpbach of Tyrolean, a western Austrian state, beginning on Sunday, focusing on the protection of civilians. The meeting will be hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger with the participation of high- ranking representatives of UN, representatives of aid organizations and ambassadors from 26 countries, Austrian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.