Briefly noted

The principles which should guide Obama’s $700 billion infrastructure plan

Over the weekend, Barack Obama added some more detail and resolve to the plan to fix America’s infrastructure. The number could go as high as $700 billion, which, for once, is actually more than the experts have called for. The money will be doled out slowly, a mere billion dollars at a time, and that means that thousands of potential projects will be considered and lobbied for. Here are four general principles that the public and U.S. leaders should keep in mind as we make go, no-go decisions.

Cisco becomes infrastructure player on Obama tech focus

Cisco Systems Inc., General Electric, and Emcor Group may be winners as President-elect Barack Obama seeks to revive the U.S. economy by rewiring classrooms and libraries for high-speed Internet service and repairing bridges and highways. While industrial giants such as U.S. Steel Corp. and Caterpillar Inc. were called on to build 47,000 miles of roads, bridges, and tunnels under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, technology companies will be tapped under Obama to improve efficiency at hospitals and schools, ease congested traffic and make alternative fuels work, said analysts and company executives.

EU piracy mission chief calls for more surveillance equipment

The commander of the European Union’s new piracy mission called Tuesday for more ships, aircraft and surveillance equipment to help patrol vast and dangerous waters off the coast of Somalia. British Rear Admiral Phillip Jones said the EU was in talks with African, European and East Asian nations in the hope that their contributions could double the force’s size.