Barack Obama begins his European tour

AFP - U.S. President Barack Obama arrived Monday morning in Ireland, the first stage of a European tour a week and land of his ancestors, has been a photographer for AFP on board the presidential plane Air Force One.

The President's plane, which is accompanied by his wife Michelle landed in Dublin about 9:30 (0830 GMT), slightly earlier than expected.

Mr.Obama, who planned to stay 24 hours in Ireland, will hold talks with President Mary McAleese and Prime Minister Enda Kenny, while Ireland is facing a serious economic crisis.

But the highlight of his visit to the island, under high security to be its displacement in the small village of Moneygall, which is from his great-great-great grandfather.

Cobbler's son, the grandfather of Obama, Falmouth Kearney, lived in this village located 130 km from Dublin up to 19 years in 1850 before emigrating to the United States, driven by famine like of thousands of his countrymen.

In this village, waiting for Obama as the prodigal son, still lives a distant cousin of the president, Henry Healy, an accountant for 26 years.

Obama is expected late in the day to speak outdoors on the steps of the Bank of Ireland, in the center of the capital which are expected tens of thousands of people.

On Tuesday, Obama is expected in London.

JUSTICE: The prosecution will request a cons Christine Lagarde in the case Tapie

The Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Jean-Louis Nadal, on Tuesday urged the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) to open an investigation against the Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde for abuse of authority in the arbitration favorably to Bernard Tapie.

Jean-Louis Nadal before the petitions committee of the RGC, said the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Within a month, it should rule on the case and determine if the complaint is admissible.

If this were the case, the Attorney General immediately seize the commission investigating the RGC, which would conduct its investigation, before a possible referral to the RGC.

A few weeks ago, Socialist deputies sent a letter to Mr.Nadal to get a referral to the RGC.

They were the choice of the Minister of Economy to resort to arbitration in settling this matter, rather than relying on traditional justice in this case the Court of Appeal of Paris.

Jean-Louis Nadal gave the Ministry of Economy, the Court of Auditors and the Finance Committee of the National Assembly until April 20 to submit additional elements relating to the award of the arbitral tribunal.

"All these pieces allowed the Attorney General pointed out many reasons to suspect the regularity or legality of settlement by arbitration dispute that may characterize the crime of abuse of authority," the prosecutor general.

In late 2007, Christine Lagarde ordered the appointment of three umpires to decide once and for all the litigation between sprawling Bernard Tapie twelve years at Credit Lyonnais in connection with the sale of Adidas.

After six months of work in July 2008, the arbitral tribunal had sentenced the Consortium de Réalisation (CDR, managing the liabilities of the bank) to pay 240 million euros in compensation to Mr Tapie, with an additional one hundred million euros in interest and 45 million for pain and suffering. This decision was then outraged many members left.

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.

COTE D'IVOIRE: The humanitarian emergency takes precedence over the political conflict

Food shortages, poor access to health care, electricity cuts, water, gas ... After four months of political degradation between Alassane Ouattara, President recognized by the international community, and Laurent Gbagbo, outgoing president, "the Ivorian humanitarian situation has become absolutely tragic to civilians," said Elisabeth Byrs on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Office Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UN.

Caught between two fires, the population is paying the brunt of this conflict post-election. It now days that separate the end of reserves of food and medicines.In Abidjan, as in Western countries, the humanitarian emergency is gradually taking precedence over the political conflict.

Humanitarians blocked by the fighting

Unfortunately, many NGOs on the ground, as Action against Hunger (ACF), are unable to work due to insecurity. Its members have to stay cooped up, "are helpless", laments Francois Danel, director of ACF posted at Man in the West. "It is extremely dangerous to go out for the moment and it is beyond question that our teams risk their lives," he says."It's outrageous they can not fulfill its humanitarian role because the two camps have not adopted a clear stand to protect civilians."

Even admission of impotence - medical this time - from Doctors Without Borders (MSF). For six days, teams of NGOs, posted in Abobo, a district north of Abidjan, are unable to get potential patients - no ambulance can circulate. "The injured are out of reach," said Lawrence Sury, Deputy Head of Emergency Operations at MSF, who reported to France24.com what his team unreachable since Monday."The Abidjan phoning our teams to come and look for injured patients, but it's impossible," he says. "The team still treats 30 to 40 casualties per day, but these are mainly people in the vicinity or brought in carts by residents."

For civilians, holed up at home and frightened by continued firing, the situation became unbearable. Jean-Paul, a resident of the neighborhood of Abobo, tells the hell of everyday life. "We survive," he says. "All the shops are closed, there are more markets, I can not buy food.I did not reserve a few days and I have nothing to eat. "For security reasons, he separated from his wife and daughter, have fled to Ghana. As for him, he decided to stay in Abidjan to "protect his house against looters."

West hit by mass exodus

Like John Paul, "many Ivorians fleeing the fighting and send their families in Liberia and Ghana," said Francois Danel. The latter is also concerned about the movements (mass) population that also affect Western countries - especially Duékoué strategic city and gateway to the main area of ​​cocoa production. Today the town is deserted by its inhabitants.Some 20,000 of them took refuge in the precincts of the Catholic Mission after the massacre of 800 people on 29 March. An exodus "among many others," blows the Director of ACF. "Between Man and Duékoué, whole villages were emptied of their population," he laments. Since the conflict began, more than a million civilians have been displaced by fighting between forces loyal to both candidates in the presidential election of November 2010, reports the UN agency for refugees (UNHCR).

"These outflows are always synonymous with extreme insecurity," worries the director of ACF.Because if they do not leave the country, these people - consisting mainly of women and children - crowded into refugee camps where the seats are missing. Some were accommodated in shelters. "At Duekoue, living conditions are extremely difficult and by far the most disturbing, access to water is increasingly problematic and food becomes scarce," said Francois Danel after spending a few days.

Moreover, MSF is concerned about the number of newly arriving wounded to medical facilities in the region. "Between March 28 and April 3, 146 wounded arrived at Bangolo and Duékoué 285" lists Lawrence Sury.And continuing: "New wounded continue to arrive, despite the end of the offensive zone. This indicates that the violence continues. If this is indeed the case, the humanitarian disaster will quickly turn into disaster."

LIBYA: The insurgents forced back towards the town of Ben Jawad

Syria: The government has submitted his resignation to President Bashar al-Assad, who accepted it. Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri, who headed the government since 2003, has been charged with handling current business. The composition of the new government should be known by the end of the week. Bashar al-Assad will address the nation Wednesday for the first time since the start of the contest. Libya: The insurgents were repulsed by Ben Jawad, east of Sirte, the hometown of Muammar Gaddafi, the cons-offensive by the armed forces. The latter are accused of killing at least 142 people in their offensive in Misrata, according to a doctor at the hospital in the city.Two loud explosions also rocked Tripoli in the area of ​​residence of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and seven others were heard in Tajura, a suburb east of the capital, according to an AFP reporter and witnesses. United Kingdom: A forty countries and organizations met in London in the wake of military strikes in Libya have shown their unity to build the country's political future around an almost unanimous conclusion: "Gaddafi has to leave."
Among them, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, but several Arab countries, including Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey and the UAE.

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SYRIA: Impatiens, the Syrian youth trying to break the silence

The wall of silence is cracking. "Deraa is Syria," "We sacrifice ourselves for Deraa," "God, Syria, and freedom is everything" ... The slogans continue to resonate in Dera in the region Harouan (South) where the dispute appears to show no signs of weakness despite the violent repression of the Syrian authorities that killed more than 100 deaths in one week.

Believing themselves immune from any challenge, the regime in Damascus is seen now faced with the uprising of youth galvanized by the revolutionary wave that swept the Arab world. March 18, protesters defied the military and much feared secret services (the "Mukhabarat") by setting fire to public buildings Deraa, city yet acquired the ruling Baath Party.Since then the movement has spread to Hama, Damascus, Latakia, Banias or Hassakeh. A month ago, yet the head of state Bashar al-Assad assured in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that his country is guarded against any form of rebellion. "We're out of it, certified it by speaking of the revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt. The Syrians do not rebel. It's a matter of ideology." A sealed system to challenge ideology Actually, people had resigned to decades of silence imposed an iron hand by the Baath party in power since 1963 which has made Syria one of States most of the locked region."The Syrian system does not accept the challenge, said Thursday on France Info radio waves Gilles Kepel, head of the chair Middle East-Mediterranean Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Paris. It has to one side a president who is young, friendly, loves to talk with intellectuals and academics, and, on the other, the resilience of a system of power inherited from the father [Hafez al-Assad] is absolutely ruthless. " The last Syrian rebellion began in 1982 in Hama, the fourth largest city. The then president, Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, had ordered the army to crush the uprising, killing between 10,000 and 25,000 dead.During the 1980s, nearly 70,000 people were missing. Since the establishment of a state of emergency in 1963, protests are banned, intellectuals and political opponents routinely jailed. Nearly 4,500 political prisoners are currently in Syrian jails, according to the Foundation for Defense of Human Rights in Syria. "Young people are expecting a 180 degree turn" Faced with pressure from the street, President Al-Assad, who has not yet announced publicly, was shown on Thursday, more inclined to make concessions.Through the voice of his advisor Boussaïna Shaaban, the strong man of Damascus announced consider canceling the state of emergency and set up mechanisms "effective" to fight against corruption. Inadequate gestures of openness, according Ajlani Mohammed, director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Paris and an expert on Syria. "Youth has waited too long, says he told FRANCE 24. She wanted the president to go further, faster in the reforms, he dismisses all the caciques who enriched themselves at the time of his father. It has been ten years since the public expects.Young people were expecting a 180 degree turn. "Arrived at the head of the country to the death of his father in 2000, Bashar al-Assad succeeded in imposing on the nomenklatura political-military importance of economic reforms, opening up Syria the market economy. But this rapid liberalization has mainly had the effect of widening social inequalities and enhancing the close of the al-Assad. Syria has "not yet slipped into the red zone," said Mohammed Ajlani, but time is short. "If al-Assad is taking bold economic and social decisions, a way out of crisis then offer himself to him who will go through compromise and negotiation.If the power of new represses any movement in the blood, it will not work much longer. "

SOMALIA: Allied forces take over a position insurgents Shebab

The pro-government forces resumed Saturday Somali control of a border town with Kenya as part of a major offensive against insurgents Shebab has caused many deaths in the ranks of the African Union force in Mogadishu .

Saturday morning, a coalition of allied forces in TFG troops chased the insurgent town of Bulo Hawo, located on the border with Kenya and Ethiopia, according to several sources.

"We have total control" of the city, told the press Khalif Abdi Mohamed, head of the local district.

Shebab a commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the withdrawal of insurgent fighters in the city Saturday, but added that it was a strategic withdrawal.

"We will resume Bulo Hawo.Shebab troops who have withdrawn for military reasons are not far away, "he said.

The Shebab, who profess allegiance to Al Qaeda, control most of southern and central Somalia and vowed the loss of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) backed by the international community.

The pro-government troops who retook the city are made up of militiamen led by local warlord Barre Shire Hirale and members of the armed group Jamaa wal Sunnah Sufi Ahlu, supported, according to several security sources interviewed by AFP, by elements of the Ethiopian army who carried out artillery fire during the fighting.

Bulo Hawo, which adjoins the Kenyan town of Mandera, had already been taken to Shebab in October 2010 before being abandoned a few weeks later by pro-government forces on substantive disagreements with the TFG.

The recent fighting in Bulo Hawo were triggered at the same time as the offensive by government forces and African Union force (AMISOM) in Mogadishu from 19 February.

The simultaneous opening of these fronts - a third was opened in Beledweyne (center-west) - is it seems to stretch the lines Shebab and prevent them from concentrating all their troops in Mogadishu.

After controlling a network of trenches and tunnels in Mogadishu, used by insurgents for their supply and infiltration operations, the TFG forces and the Burundian contingent of AMISOM had delivered Feb. 23 to resume a bloody battle strategic positions in the north of the city.

According to military sources corroborating Amisom recorded in this offensive the biggest losses since its deployment in March 2007, well beyond the eight deaths officially accepted by the force.

"The official date given is completely false.In fact, 43 soldiers of the Burundian contingent of AMISOM were killed, four others were missing and 110 were wounded during the latest offensive joint Somali government in Mogadishu-Amisom, "he told AFP a military source Mogadishu, who requested anonymity, contacted by telephone.

A senior Amisom and the commander of the force refused Saturday to Nairobi to reveal the exact number of casualties in their ranks, preferring to emphasize the importance of the positions listed the insurgents, including the building of the former Ministry of Defence, which dominates the north of the capital, and the former dairy plant.

"The positions we have conquered the past two weeks break the grip of militant extremists in Mogadishu," has provided to the press Wafula Wamunyinyi, deputy representative for Somalia of the Committee of the African Union.

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.

Release of twenty Cuban dissidents, including cyberjournalist Guillermo Farinas

AFP - Police on Thursday released the Cuban opponent Guillermo Farinas, 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament and a score of dissidents in custody after seven hours in Santa Clara in the center of the island , said Mr. Farinas told AFP.

"We are free. They had us arrested for coming to the aid of a family they wanted to remove.The opposition should devote themselves to peaceful protests of citizens such as we have done, "said the opponent by telephone from Santa Clara, 280 km east of Havana.

This cyberjournalist psychologist and 48 years, who had observed a hunger strike for 135 days last year, was renewed by the police at his home around midnight and ensure they were not mistreated.

"The police wanted us to sign a recognition of pre-criminal social dangerousness + +, but we did not.After three such, they can introduce you to court, "Farinas said.

The police justified the arrest by the "scandal" that opponents led by haranguing the authorities, while trying to evict a family who illegally occupied housing, he said.

Farinas had stopped eating to demand the release of political prisoners after the death of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, 23 February 2010, after 85 days of hunger strike to protest against his conditions of detention.

He had ended his fast after 135 days when the government of Raul Castro, had begun an unexpected dialogue with the Church and allowed the release of 52 of the 75 dissidents arrested in 2003.

Forty-one of them have since been released. Forty agreed to leave the country and went to Madrid and one remained in Cuba.The eleven remaining refuse to emigrate to Spain and are held in prison.

The Cuban government accuses Farinas behavior "antisocial" and considers it, like other dissidents as "mercenaries" of the United States.

Farinas was represented by an empty chair at the Sakharov prize last December 15 in Strasbourg (north-eastern France), permission to travel having been refused.

Military training, a native of Santa Clara and son of two ardent revolutionary, he had distanced himself from the regime in 1989, opposing the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa, accused of drug trafficking.

Became an opposition activist has been imprisoned three times before police custody on Wednesday and said he observed 23 hunger strikes since 1990.