IRELAND: Queen Elizabeth II will visit historic and highly monitored in Dublin

Queen Elizabeth II Tuesday began a historic visit to Ireland under surveillance, the first movement of a British monarch since independence in 1922 was troubled by the threat from dissident republicans.

The police are on the warpath in both London and Dublin and Belfast, fearing that Republican dissidents opposed to the peace process in Northern Ireland will build upon the movement to attempt a resounding action.

No fewer than 10,000 police and troops deployed in Ireland for a visit and several people were arrested in recent days, suspected of belonging to the dissident republican movement.

On Monday, a bomb threat from dissident Irish republicans caused a commotion of battle police in London. The "Mall" that leads to Buckingham Palace was closed for several hours after an alert, which proved unfounded.

The fear of an assassination of a dissident group was reinforced by threats brandished late April by a masked man at a rally in Londonderry, Northern Ireland."The queen is not welcome," he had started, saying speak on behalf of the Real IRA who is credited with the recent increase of attacks in Ulster, including the murder of a police officer in April.

The tumultuous relationship between Irish and British have largely subsided since the peace accords of 1998 and the first visit by a British monarch since 1911 figure is a gesture of reconciliation.But resentment still against the former colonial power.

At the time of the independence of Ireland, London has retained in her lap the province of Northern Ireland, mostly Protestant.

Sinn Féin, often accused of links with the IRA (Catholic separatists), found the visit "premature," before acknowledging that it represented a "unique opportunity" to establish "a new relationship based on equality and mutual respect ", joining the majority sentiment.81% of Irish people are friendly to visitors, according to a survey.

Tuesday, Elizabeth II is to lay a wreath at the "Garden of Remembrance (Memorial Garden), erected in honor of victims of the war of independence," a powerful symbol of reconciliation, "the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

She must decide Wednesday night a highly anticipated speech, joined for the occasion by Prime Minister David Cameron and the head of British diplomacy, William Hague. The movement will end Friday.

MOROCCO: AQIM denies his involvement in the fatal attack Marrakech

AFP - Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has denied any involvement in the fatal attack April 28 in Marrakech, Morocco, in a statement broadcast by a private agency Mauritanian information online, Nouakchott Information Agency ( ANI).

In this text, dated Friday published in Arabic, AQIM recalls the attack that killed 17 people, including 8 French and then the information released by the Moroccan authorities describing the main suspect as "an admirer of al-Qaida."

"We deny any connection with the explosion and say no way being involved in this operation," says the regional branch of the Islamist network.

This statement could not immediately be authenticated but the NIA has regularly published in the past releases or statements from members of AQIM have never been disproved.

FRANCE: The bodies of victims of the attack in Marrakesh returnees in Paris

AFP - The bodies of eight French killed in the attack in Marrakesh, which killed 16 people April 28, were repatriated Tuesday in France, where President Sarkozy paid tribute to them and promised their families that "crime" would not "go unpunished".

The plane carrying the body, chartered by the French state, landed shortly before 5:00 p.m. Tuesday at Orly.

The eight coffins draped with the tricolor flag were aligned on the tarmac.Nicolas Sarkozy, came with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, welcomed the families and relatives, then was collected before the coffins before the Republican Guard n'entonne La Marseillaise.

In a very personal speech, in which each victim, including a 10 year old girl, Camille, was mentioned by name, the Head of State promised that the "crime" of the attack would not remain "unpunished" .

"France, I say here I say it before returning the bodies of eight French with a little girl of ten years, I say to you who will now have to live with this pain but with this terrible feeling inside ourselves tonight, France will not let this crime go unpunished, "Sarkozy said.

"Terrorists, my dear compatriots, now know they will have no respite, nowhere, never.Wherever they are, wherever they are hiding they are sought after, followed the trail, flushed out by all means and they will be accountable for their crimes, "he said in an allusion to the death of Chief Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, who was killed Sunday by U.S. commandos in Pakistan.

After his speech, the President spoke about thirty minutes with families in honor of the flag of the airport.

In the morning at the Marrakech airport, shortly before the departure of the plane to Paris, the families had gathered in the intimate, attended by the Moroccan Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui, and French diplomats.

"I have a hatred of terrorists, terrorists are not the defenders of Islam", told the press the father of a victim who did not give his name.

A remote-controlled bomb blew coffee on April 28, the Argana, on the Jamaa El Fna, the Mecca of tourism in Marrakech, killing 16 dead and 21 wounded.

Besides the eight French, three Moroccans, a Briton, a Canadian, a Dutchman, one Portuguese and one Swiss were killed in the attack, the deadliest in Morocco since 2003.

The attack was not claimed, and no arrests have been announced, but the involvement of the likes of Al Qaeda in the region was discussed.

The Moroccan authorities have reiterated Monday that they favored the track Al Qaeda."We're still on the track announced that conjured up acquaintances with Al-Qaeda," he told AFP spokesman Khalid Naciri government.

The day of the attack, King Mohammed VI had ordered a prompt and transparent investigation and asked that the public is kept informed of its progress.

Among the tracks contained the sketch of a suspect to statements made by two Dutch tourists.It would be an Arab, young, clean shaven and with long hair who was seen at the Cafe Argana, minutes before the explosion.

All the French wounded in the attack have been repatriated to France, said Tuesday the embassy of France. The latter have been medicalized in two planes Tuesday morning.

AFGHANISTAN: A suicide attack against a military base kills nine soldiers

Nine soldiers, four and five Afghan Force NATO in Afghanistan (ISAF) were killed Saturday in a suicide attack claimed by Taliban insurgents in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east the country.

"Five ISAF soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan," said the NATO force said in a statement without specifying their nationality.

A spokesman for ISAF, Major Tim James, confirmed to AFP that the attack in question was the suicide bombing in the morning in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east located in the area Gambires near Jalalabad, the largest city in eastern Afghanistan.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense confirmed that "four Afghan soldiers were killed and eight people injured, four translators" during the attack.

The ministry said the attack was perpetrated by a suicide bomber who donned a military uniform.

One hundred soldiers of the ISAF, primarily responsible for advising the Afghan army, stationed at this base in the province of Laghman, according to Commander James ISAF.

One of the worst attacks against NATO since 2001

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, contacted by AFP, claimed the attack, among the deadliest for the NATO forces since their arrival in the country in late 2001.

Six NATO soldiers were killed Dec. 12 in southern Afghanistan during an attack.

The attack against the Afghan base is the tenth suicide attack in Afghanistan since early April.It is also the fifth in three days targeting Afghan security forces and international across the country.

On Friday, a suicide bomber managed to penetrate the headquarters, in principle secure, the police in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, killing the police chief of the province of the same name and two of his bodyguards.

More than 130 000 soldiers present

NATO must send Afghan forces gradually, starting in July and by late 2014, the responsibility for security throughout the territory.

Some 132,000 soldiers from the NATO support the Kabul government against the insurgency since late 2001 by the Taliban, ousted by an international coalition.

Suicide bombings and small mines placed along the road are the favorite weapons the insurgents have focused primarily on the police and Afghan army and foreign troops, but are also numerous civilian casualties.

On 14 March, at least 36 people were killed and forty wounded in a Taliban suicide attack against a military recruiting center in Kunduz, one of the major cities of northern Afghanistan.

The city of Jalalabad was the scene, February 19, one of the most deadly attacks perpetrated in the country in recent years, when many Taliban suicide bombers stormed a bank where police came to collect their wages.Thirty-eight people were killed and 70 injured.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned against a precipitous withdrawal of NATO forces and warned that spring 2011 would probably be "violent" because of Taliban efforts to resume their offensive.

NUCLEAR: Bad habits Tepco recall woes of BP in Louisiana

Tokyo Electric Power, better known under the name of TEPCO, tries to restore its image. His vice-president, Norio tsuzumi, has for the first time apologized Tuesday to the Japanese for "anxiety and noise that [this] company has caused to nearby residents of plants, those in the prefecture Fukushima and the country as a whole. "

An almost perfect timing: since Monday, efforts to contain the risk of nuclear power plant in Fukushima seem to bear fruit. Financial markets even as subscribing, 24 hours later, the action of TEPCO gained 16% to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yet the Japanese are ready to let bygones be bygones?

The stakes are high for a number of Japanese electricity.These days, TEPCO has been accused of concealing information about the magnitude of the threat and to have been negligent in the maintenance of these plants. "The media has been very critical of the company," says FRANCE 24 Evelyn Dourille-Feer, a specialist on Japan at the CEPII. Shadow of a similar fate to that of BP, media and business mired in the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, flat on Tepco.

Tokyo Electric Power symbolizes the Japanese dependence of their countries towards nuclear power.The group built its first plant in 1971 and now supplies electricity to more than 30 million Japanese, mostly in the Tokyo area. Its energy empire makes it the fourth group in the world in this sector (behind Germany's E. ON, EDF French and German RWE).

Hazardous communication

But Tepco especially behind a reputation as a liar patented. In 2002, its CEO, Nobuya Minami, had to resign following a case of falsification of reports. Between 1977 and 2002, Tokyo Electric Power had returned to the state nearly 200 falsified documents to conceal a series of incidents within its nuclear plants.

A scandal that has dented the credibility of the sustainable group."Today, the Japanese are still very wary of what TEPCO said," said Evelyne Dourille-Feer.

Political power could take the bad reputation of TEPCO to make a perfect scapegoat.The government has explained on Tuesday that the group would have to compensate all the farmers around damaged plants. The Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, also complained last week that TEPCO had been slow to inform a new fire in one of these plants.

This is not the first time the authorities are attacking Tepco. Shortly before the earthquake, the group had agreed that all necessary safety measures in case of event impérvu had not been taken within its facilities. Incidentally, the Japanese have learned that false documents had been forwarded to the Japanese Nuclear Safety Agency on February 28, less than two weeks before the earthquake.Twenty state officials are on the premises of TEPCO last week to monitor that no information escapes them this time.

For now, Tepco defends itself by arguing that his plants have withstood the earthquake and the damage caused by the tsunami. A double disaster was difficult to predict, does she know. But the best way to get out of Tepco without too much damage is "to succeed in mastering the nuclear issue as soon as possible", says Evelyn Dourille-Feer.

Photo credit: J.Morganized / Flickr

JAPAN: The toll of the earthquake and tsunami stands at more than 6,000 dead

AFP - Japan has resumed operations on Friday to try to cool the reactors at the Fukushima plant, where the situation seemed to have stabilized a week after the earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 6,400 confirmed dead.

The balance of the worst earthquake ever recorded in the islands will continue to worsen as more than 10,000 people were officially unaccounted for, police said.

Despite an unprecedented mobilization of 80,000 soldiers and rescue workers, the hopes of finding survivors have almost vanished, especially since a cold snap affecting the devastated area.

For the first time since the crisis began, experts have noted an encouraging development in the central Fukushima, four of six reactors were seriously damaged by explosions and fires.

"The situation remains very serious in the plant. But there was no significant worsening since yesterday," said Andrew Graham, Special Advisor to Director General International Atomic Energy Agency (AIAE).

The situation "has not deteriorated, which is positive.But it is still possible they are getting worse, "he said.

At midday, several tanker trucks equipped with water cannon have started to pour tens of tons of water on the reactor 3 in order to prevent the fuel rods to melt and thus prevent a major nuclear accident.

These operations started Thursday have been "a positive," said a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).

"Our priority remains the reactor 3," confirmed the government's spokesman Yukio Edano.

In this reactor whose outer structure was destroyed by an explosion of hydrogen, the storage pool of spent fuel, located outside the containment building was damaged.

The bars must be stored constantly submerged under penalty of heat and cause radioactive releases.

Operations are also designed to cool the reactors 1, 2 and 4 and the storage pool of the latter.

Tepco parallel attempts to restore, with temporary power lines, the electricity supply to the plant "to restart the reactor coolant pumps and fill swimming pools."

These systems broke down when the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the protection of the marine plant built in the 1970s.

If Japan asks, 450 military U.S. nuclear experts stand ready to intervene, said the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, who said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the developments.

France and Russia have also offered their assistance.

Meanwhile, many cities continued to organize the departure of their nationals present in the area at risk and in the huge megalopolis of Tokyo, located within 250 km of Fukushima.

Those who do not leave Japan find refuge in the south of the archipelago, especially in Osaka, the second city in the country where, for example, Germany has installed a temporary embassy.

The activity has significantly reduced since the beginning of the week in the capital, where many firms operate in slow motion and even the auctions were suspended tuna at Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world. But no panic has seized the people of Tokyo, who have stored food in case they should be confined to their homes.

The streets of the capital are usually illuminated at night in some areas plunged into darkness due to power limitations."The thriving metropolis radiating and became a city of darkness, scarcity and apprehension," lamented the daily Japan Times.

The government has assured that the operations of aid to some 440,000 victims would be improved to respond to complaints about shortages of drinking water and food.

The cold and snow fell in recent days on the north-east complicate the task of the 80,000 soldiers, police and rescue workers mobilized on the ground.

In the city of Katahama, refugees trying to withstand temperatures fell to 0 degrees in a social center where there is no electricity, no gas, no water."We have flashlights for the night and we we wind up in blankets," he testified Kikuo Nomura, 70.

These extreme conditions also undermine the health of people evacuated the most vulnerable like the elderly and children, of whom 100,000 are homeless, according to the organization Save The Children.

The G7 finance ministers have expressed their solidarity with Japan deciding to take action "concerted" on the foreign exchange market to contain soaring yen.The announcement had an immediate effect: the dollar has fallen over 80 yen in Tokyo Friday, the day after a record at 76.36 yen.

In a speech on the situation in Japan, the president Barack Obama gave the order to conduct a "comprehensive review" of nuclear safety in the United States.

TECHNOLOGY: An iPad 2 to pull the rug from under the competition

iPad return. In all likelihood, Apple prepares to unveil on Wednesday a new version of its touch pad. Although the Cupertino giant has revealed nothing about the content of his great Mass in San Francisco, nobody seems to doubt the imminent landing of a successor to his new machine profits.

Apple has thus already stopped building the first generation of its tablet pictures unofficial successor of the iPad circulating on the Web and even the characteristics of the new product in the Apple brand appear to be known by specialized websites .

However, the current version of the iPad outrageously already dominates the market shelves in the United States.She holds 84% market share and reported $ 9.6 billion in 2010 to its creator, or 12% of its turnover.

Apple typically an annual renewal

The world is there really need a new iPad? The star of Apple toy is, indeed, on sale for a year. Consumers have really had the time of his weary of their gadget?

That's not counting with an old tradition of Apple. The computer giant is indeed a great frequenter of the annual renewal of its flagship products.The iPhone 3G was announced in July 2008 when the original iPhone was introduced in January 2007.

Most importantly, this time the competition - Google's head - has responded more quickly than it did on the smartphone market. It was not until over a year and a half for the first serious contender to the iPhone - "made in Google" - is sold.

The Internet giant this time it seems ready to draw an army of Android tablets (the operating system of Google, Ed). Moreover, in 2011, a dozen competitors to the iPad should appear. RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, the IT group and HP are also ready to join the party.A slew of competitors who all claim that their product will surpass the first iPad.

And Steve Jobs in all this?

Apple should introduce a new tablet supposed to erase the imperfections that make butter competition. The iPad 2 would be well equipped with two cameras (front and back) so you can take pictures and make video-conferencing. It should also be thinner, lighter and have a processor (engine of the machine, Ed) more powerful.

Finally, the big question of this show has nothing to do with technology.Steve Jobs, now removed from his position as CEO for health reasons, he will present on stage? He had been absent due to health problems, presentation of the iPhone 3G. The market does not he had a grudge at the time since Apple's stock was up 5% after the announcement of the new iPhone. Will he be willing to forgive and forget a second time?

COTE D'IVOIRE: Fighting with heavy weapons resume in the Abobo neighborhood in Abidjan

AFP - The heavy gunfire resumed Saturday in the Abobo neighborhood in Abidjan that families fled after a week of clashes between forces loyal to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and the armed insurgents who have left Cote d'Ivoire on the verge of explosion.

According to these witnesses, the shooting resumed in early afternoon outside the sector "PK-18" in the heart of the fighting that has turned into a battlefield this northern district supports Alassane Ouattara, recognized head of state by the international community after the disputed November 28 presidential election.

Residents said the firing had almost ceased since Friday but "Baghdad", is now known as Abobo, retained traces of those days of fire and blood.

"This morning I saw bodies, apparently civilians, which no one recovered," he told AFP driver, but did not say when they were killed.

An assessment of the fighting was still impossible to establish, but several witnesses reported clashes very deadly.

"The work goes on" in Abobo, told reporters the General Philippe Mangou, Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces and Security (FDS) loyal to Gbagbo.

Meanwhile, the exodus continued."The area is empty," said a resident after a night under curfew, a measure introduced for the weekend by the Gbagbo regime in the southern half of the country under its control.

"The mini-buses could enter and are attacked" by mothers and their children, told this young woman, herself part of the family join in the Yopougon (west).

Called by the local press "commando invisible" group, including armed with rocket launchers, which attacked the SDS since January in Abobo before intensify activity in recent days, continues to generate queries.

For SDS, it is composed of elements infiltrated the "rebellion" of the Forces Nouvelles (FN) holding the north since the failed coup of 2002 and joined forces with Alassane Ouattara in the beginning of the crisis resulting from November ballot.

But the camp is Ouattara denies any involvement, saying it is people who took up arms or SDS defectors.

In the political capital Yamoussoukro theater for the first time fighting with heavy weapons on the night of Thursday to Friday, calm had returned Saturday.

The city "timidly resumed its activities, many shops are closed and there is little busy the market," he told the morning a local journalist.

In the "Great West" unstable region near Liberia, the situation was uncertain following the decision by the FN from two localities on the borders of the southern zone.FDS assured Saturday having driven the enemy.

The past week has given an almost surreal to mediation efforts led by the African Union to resolve the crisis, which has already killed at least 315 deaths according to UN and driven tens of thousands of Ivorians to flee the country.

Four Heads of State - Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (Mauritania), Jacob Zuma (South Africa), Idriss Deby (Chad) and Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania) - Ivorian rivals met earlier this week in Abidjan.

Charged initially to develop solutions "binding" on the parties by the end of February, they will consult again on March 4 in Nouakchott. "We're not out of the woods", agreed by the Mauritanian president.

BAHRAIN: The army fired on demonstrators in Manama

The Bahraini army fired on Friday a thousand people who wanted to take a sit-in in Manama, leaving many wounded, while the crown prince promised a dialogue with opponents, once peace is restored in this tiny Gulf kingdom .

Dozens of people were injured when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, according to an AFP photographer on the spot.

The protesters were trying to get to the Place de la Perle, where security forces forcibly dispersed at dawn Thursday a sit-in against the plan, sources said.

"Twenty-six wounded, some severely affected were admitted to hospital Salmaniya," he told AFP an elected official of the opposition Shiite, Ali al-Assouad, adding that the injured was "in a state of clinical death. "

"The army fired live ammunition against more than a thousand people who wanted to visit the Place de la Perle" he said.

The AFP photographer who visited the hospital, saw dozens of wounded, victims of this first event since the dispersion of the sit-in Thursday that killed four, according to the opposition and families victims.

The shooting occurred while the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, speaking on state television to promise a dialogue with the opposition once calm was restored.

"I make no distinction between a Bahraini and another and what is happening now is unacceptable," said Prince Salman.

"Bahrain has never been a police state," he said, stressing: "I'm not lying.All these people are my countrymen and the phase we are going through is difficult and requires us to be all responsible, "he said.

"It is important that our dialogue is going on in a quiet overall," he said, assuring that "no subject can not be excluded from this dialogue."

"Bahrain is currently experiencing a state of division and that is unacceptable," he hammered the prince, noting that "many countries have experienced such a state but that their elders have come to talk of everything in a calm."

King Hamad Ben Issa Al-Khalifa, then decided to instruct the Crown Prince's "dialogue with all parties without exception," including the opposition, giving him why "the powers necessary", according to state television State.

Through cooperation "sincere", "Bahrain will come out stronger," he said.

Bahrain, a small kingdom populated predominantly Shia is ruled since the 18th century by a Sunni dynasty.

While the Shiites buried Friday killed four of their suppression of a sit-in demanding democratic reforms, suppressed by force Thursday before dawn, thousands of Sunnis marched in Manama to express their support to King Hamad bin Salman Al-Khalifa.

The opposition claimed the government's resignation after the dispersion by the force of a peaceful rally, said Thursday at the AFP chief of Shiite Al-Wefaq, Sheikh Ali Salman.

The Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the king's uncle, is in the position since Bahrain's independence in 1971.

Because of continuing tensions, the opposition groups have decided to postpone until Tuesday a march originally scheduled Saturday. At the initiative of seven opposition groups, the march was to converge on the Place de la Perle.

Bahrain is of strategic importance for Washington, which has set up the headquarters of its Fifth Fleet, to monitor the maritime routes used by tankers to support operations in Afghanistan and to counter a potential Iranian threat.

KAZAKHSTAN: President Nazarbayev to call an early presidential election on April 3

AFP - The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has set Friday to advance a presidential election on April 3, after excluding a few days to extend his term by plebiscite, while promising to stay in power.

"In accordance with paragraph 3-1 of Article 41 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, an early presidential election is scheduled for April 3, 2011," is it stated in the decree signed by Mr. Nazarbayev.

Kazakh President has been elected for seven years in December 2005, winning the election with over 91% of the vote. Subsequently, a constitutional reform has reduced the presidential term to five years while lifting the ban on Mr.Nazarbayev to run again.

The head of the Kazakh state, 70, said Monday the organization of early elections at an unspecified date, rejecting the holding of a referendum to extend his term until 2020 as desired by the Parliament.

Kazakh President, in office for over twenty years and the Soviet period, however, had promised in a speech to the nation late January that he would remain in power as his health permitted.

On Wednesday, the Parliament, where all seats are controlled by the Nur Otan party, headed by the Head of State, adopted a constitutional reform allowing the president to convene a Presidential Early in this former Soviet republic in Central Asia abounding of hydrocrabures.

This revision of the Basic Law following the rejection by Nazarbayev signed an initiative by five million citizens, validated by Parliament for a referendum abolishing the 2012 presidential and 2017 to maintain the head of State in power until 2020.

Power Kazakhstan said this week that the president would be overwhelming victory at the polls early.

"I'm sure Nursultan Nazarbayev won 95.9% of the votes of the electors of Kazakhstan," said a presidential advisor Ermoukhamet Ertysbaïev, in an interview with pro-government newspaper Liter."Like last time, there will be lots of applications from dwarf (policies) that have absolutely no chance," he said.

No election in Kazakhstan has been recognized as free by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) since independence in 1991.

Mr. Nazarbayev and his counterpart in Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, is the last two leaders of former Soviet republics to have been leading their countries of Soviet times.

In 2010, Kazakh President has been given the title of Elbassy (Leader of the Nation of Kazakhstan), a status it confers lifetime, the power to decide major policy directions of the country and a lifelong immunity .

The decision of Mr.Nazarbayev did not extend his term by referendum came after sharp criticism from Western allies, the United States and the European Union.

The West generally avoids criticizing Kazakhstan, to maintain good relations with this strategic oil power flanked by Russia and China.

According to NGO human rights, opposition and independent media are repressed, while the country is de facto headed by a single party since the 2007 legislative elections, in which Nur Otan won all the seats.