EUROPEAN UNION: EU finance ministers commit the rescue of Portugal

The EU finance ministers gave the green light Monday to a rescue plan for Portugal, which provides 78 billion euros in joint loans with the IMF in exchange for austerity.

"The ministers agreed unanimously to grant financial assistance in response to the request of the Portuguese authorities," they announced in a joint statement issued at a meeting in Brussels.

The conditions of the assistance plan had been established at the beginning of the month: the country must receive the Europeans and the International Monetary Fund, amounting to two thirds / one third, 78 billion euros in loans over three years.

In exchange, he must take further austerity measures, restructure and strengthen the capital of its banks, to privatize and reform the health system in particular and the administration, with the goal of clean and replenish public finances.

According to the forecasts so far by the Portuguese government, the public deficit should thus be reduced by 5.9% this year to 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013.

The program is "ambitious" but "preserves the most vulnerable groups of society," stressed the EU finance ministers on Monday.

He "will tackle the challenges with determination budgetary, financial and structural facing the Portuguese economy" and "will also help restore confidence and protect the financial stability of the euro area," they insist, calling on "all Political Parties (Portuguese) to ensure a rigorous application and fast program.

After resisting for several months of pressure from financial markets, Portugal in April became the third country in the euro area to seek external financial assistance.

Before him, he had to put up last year of rescue for Greece (110 billion) and Ireland (85 billion).

Green light finance ministers seemed acquired after the announcement last week from the support of Finland, hitherto uncertain.

The True Finns, a right wing nationalist who won 19% of the votes in the elections of April 17, had in fact repeatedly stated their opposition to assistance to Portugal.But they finally decided to join the government.

Finland is one of six countries in the euro area receiving the highest possible credit rating on its ability to repay its debts (AAA), making it a crucial partner for the bailouts in Europe.

The Joint Ministerial Statement also includes a condition imposed by the Helsinki agreement, namely that "the Portuguese authorities will seek to encourage private investors to maintain their exposure" in the country, "based on voluntary ".

Even before the implementation of internationally austerity measures taken so far by Lisbon to try to calm the markets, lower wages and increase in VAT in particular, have made the plunge into recession Portugal where he was released in late 2009 .

The Portuguese GDP shrank by 0.7% in the first quarter, having already fallen 0.6% the previous quarter, according to statistics released last week.

The Portuguese Minister of Finance had said in early May that the new measures related to international aid plan could lead to economic contraction of 2% in 2011 and 2012, an upturn is expected only in 2013.

CHINA: A wave of shock after the arrest of Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei

Main photo taken from the blog of Ai Weiwei (blog.aiweiwei.com /)

Since his arrest Sunday morning in broad daylight, at the international airport in Beijing, Ai Weiwei has given more news. This internationally renowned artist, troublemaker Chinese policy was to go to Hong Kong and Taiwan to discuss the organization of an exhibition. His wife was interviewed Sunday night by local police and then released, but said he could not collect any information about her husband. The eight assistants from studios headed by Ai Weiwei, the district Caochangdi, north-west of Beijing, were also released on Monday afternoon, reports the website on Ai Weiwei.The studio has been excavated and is still under police surveillance, several computers and hard disks were confiscated, and Internet access was cut in the neighborhood.

The absence of new Ai Weiwei, more than a day after his arrest, is not a good sign. The Wall Street Journal points out that Chinese law provides that the relatives of a detainee must be alerted within 24 hours. Neither his lawyer nor his wife could not contact him.

"The time of open dissent is over"

Concern about the fate of Ai Weiwei is all the greater because it follows "the arrest of dozens of people in recent months," the statement from Amnesty International.The authorities have reacted to the appearance on the Internet encouraging messages at rallies in China regularly on Sunday to protest against inflation, corruption and the gap between rich and poor.

By these waves of arrests, the Chinese government wants to "send the message that the time of open dissent is over," understands the organization of human rights based in London."If the Chinese authorities have the audacity to question a world-renowned artist in broad daylight at the Beijing airport, one can only worry at the thought of how treaties are likely to be other dissidents least known, "says the NGO.

"What I find most disturbing is the fact that these activists have" disappeared "and that the government refuses to take responsibility for their detention. It has been almost over a month they are unreachable.There is serious risk of torture and abuse ", reports the China specialist at Human Rights Watch based in Hong Kong, Nicholas Bequelin, interviewed by Le Monde.

Very popular on the blogosphere

The arrest of Ai Weiwei is an important step in this "wave of repression, the largest since more than ten years," said Agnes Gaudu, head of the section China, Singapore and Taiwan International Mail. "For the first time since the criminal detention of twenty people - activists, lawyers, activists, bloggers, known to a limited circle - someone who is extremely popular in China has been arrested," decrypt- she said.Ai Weiwei had made known to the general public during his survey of public buildings that collapsed during the earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008. "It also has built a solid reputation for his impertinence and his political jokes," recalls Agnes Gaudu.

His subversive photos on Tiananmen Square have been around the Chinese web, and his blog on the consumer website Sina.com has been a big success, before being censored two years ago. So much so that he had been elected by Chinese netizens "Artist of the Year" in a poll conducted by Sina.com earlier this year. The website had finally had to back off and hold a new vote.Ai Weiwei's works are currently exhibited at the Tate Modern Gallery in London. They should have been the subject of a first major exhibition in Beijing, before the Belgian gallery UCCA will withdraw in February.

EGYPT: The system can hardly contain an outbreak of violence Tahrir Square

Egyptians armed with knives attacked Wednesday hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo, reported state television.

"Hundreds of men armed with knives entered (...) on Tahrir Square," said the presenter, while the images were of stone-throwing demonstrators and hundreds driven from this place that was the epicenter the dispute having ousted President Mubarak in February.

The clashes took place while the new government met the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which ruled the country since the departure of Mr.Mubarak, in order to propose a law criminalizing incitement to hatred, which could make them liable to the death penalty, said the TV station.

The country's military rulers are trying to restore order on several fronts in the aftermath of deadly clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians in the poor neighborhood of Moqattam, in eastern Cairo, which have ten dead and 110 wounded, according Department of Health.

Egypt is undergoing a period of high insecurity after the police had disappeared from the streets as the protest movement against the regime was in full swing.

Wednesday, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition movement in Egypt, accused of holding up the former Egyptian president Mubarak of inciting violence, a view widely shared by the population.

CHINA: Fearing a wave of revolt, Beijing promised to fight against inflation

Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday that his government's priority was to fight against inflation and a recognized public discontent, while setting a growth target of 8% for 2011, in a speech to parliament.

"We have to consider price stability as the priority of our macro-economic control," said the head of government before the nearly 3,000 delegates to the NPC, met for ten days in the Chinese capital, according to the translation his official speech in French.

He described the price rise and inflation expectations "problems which are closely the standard of living of the population, the overall situation and stability of the country."

The aim of rising consumer prices, which reached 4.9% in January over one year was set at "4%" for 2011, against 3% last year, while the objective of growth of gross domestic product (GDP) was maintained at 8%.

China's GDP in 2010 became the world's second largest behind the United States, surpassing that of Japan.

This year, the Chinese government "will continue to pursue a policy of recovery", but by reducing the budget deficit will be contained in "about 2% of GDP."

Priority spending will be devoted to "rural development", "to improve the level of the population and develop the social sectors," according to this discourse that determines the main directions for the country's official year.

"Some issues are subject to strong reactions among the population have not been completely resolved," admitted the Prime Minister.

"The educational resources and lack of quality medical and their distribution is uneven," he detailed.

"The property prices have experienced an excessive increase in some cities," continued Mr.Wen wants to boost the construction of social housing.

He further stressed that "social contradictions raised by the illegal requisition of land and demolition of illegal houses have multiplied," that "food security is poor" and that "some sectors are vulnerable to corruption."

China also wants to continue to "improve the formation mechanism of RMB exchange rate," considered undervalued by its major trading partners, but without making any specific commitments.

Always fight against inflation, it wants to implement "a prudent monetary policy" by limiting to 16% increase in money supply M2 (broad money comprising currency in circulation, deposit accounts and accounts of savings).

The National Popular Assembly (ANP) is the largest parliament in the world. She just basically endorse Communist Party projects and the government.

This body meets only once a year in plenary session for ten days in March.

IRAQ: At least 10 policemen killed in a suicide bombing in Samarra

AFP - A suicide car bombing against police left 10 dead and 16 injured Monday morning in the Iraqi city of Samarra (center), announced a lieutenant-colonel of the police.

A policeman on guard outside the door, fired on the bomber but he managed to bring his white van filled with explosives into the compound of the Rapid Response Unit, arrived in the south two weeks ago to protect the ceremonies marking the death of an imam revered by Shiites, said the senior officer who wished to remain anonymous.

February 12, near the Sunni town located 110 km north of Baghdad, at least 30 people were killed and 28 wounded by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive vest in a bus of Shiite pilgrims.

Samarra which houses the mausoleum are buried the 10th and 11th imams revered by Shia Twelver Ali al-Hadi (827-868) and Hassan al-Askari (847-874) in which the faithful commemorate the death Saturday.

The destruction of the Samarra shrine bombing in February 2006 had triggered violence between Shiites and Sunnis in which tens of thousands of people had been killed.

FOOTBALL: "Ronaldo has voluntarily placed his health after his performance"

In his book "Doping in football, the law of silence" (Editions Jean-Claude Gawsewitch), Jean-Pierre Mondenard explains that multiple injuries are mainly caused by Ronaldo taken doping products, especially early in his career. This sports doctor said the actions of a player who scored the game forever, the first day of retirement of the "Fenomeno". Maintenance.

France24.com: In your book, you advance the idea of a causal link between multiple injuries and Ronaldo enhancing drugs - including anabolic steroids - he would have eaten. The player pays he now mistakes of yesterday?

Jean-Pierre Mondenard: This is not the man that I criticize in my book, but the system that allowed him to continue playing football while his body could not keep up.I have examples of players known to the readers better identify the phenomenon, but it is this system which, on one side, advocates zero tolerance and the other, who cares, I condemn .

If Ronaldo is special because, at age 17, when arrived at PSV Eindhoven, he was already a star. At the time, a Brazilian doctor suspected of having the player on steroids to gain weight. But if his muscles have grown in thickness, the resistance of the tendons, it does not increase.However, it was an explosive player who made the difference in the first three meters, a type of displacement in which the tendons are very busy ...

In addition, young players regularly suffer from Osgood Schlatter's disease [wear area of the patellar tendon attaches to the upper end of tibia, Ed]. In the case of Ronaldo, it is possible that taking the anabolic has increased, which led the player to undergo three operations of the patellar tendon.

You insist on the fact that it is the medical profession who pushed Ronaldo to take medication to ease his pain. You give the example of including the 1998 World Cup where he was seized with convulsions before playing the final.A doctor would have done infiltration, just minutes before the match. Is this symptomatic of football?

J.-PM: No doubt. Even the referees are taking doping agents to take over games ... There is also a drift in the medical profession in the sporting world. For a product to be considered doping, it must meet three criteria. First, the substance used to increase the performance of one who takes it. Second, it is dangerous to health and, thirdly, it is contrary to medical ethics.Thus, an injection to cure his problems for Ronaldo tendon few minutes before a game is decidedly unethical: only the rest can cure this problem. Like most young football players that I meet, Ronaldo has voluntarily placed his health after his performance. They always end up regretting it.

Ronaldo said he suffered for several years with hypothyroidism, a disorder of the thyroid. How do you explain it?

J.-PM: It is standard for athletes to use thyroid hormone to lose weight. Ronaldo, who was nicknamed "the big," he surely had to use such products which do not appear on the list of doping products and is very common in gyms.Taking any hormone destabilizes the hormonal system. It is therefore possible that taking too many hormones during a period, Ronaldo had led her thyroid gland to stop secreting the one that stabilizes the weight.

MEXICO: The Mexican justice dismissed the cassation appeal of Florence Break

AFP - A Mexican court of three judges on Thursday rejected the appeal in cassation Break of Florence, the French woman sentenced to 60 years in prison in Mexico for kidnapping and imprisoned for over five years.

"Justice of the Union does not challenge the final decision of the court of appeal against Florence Break", now aged 36 years, according to the ruling made public before the forty journalists.

The three judges of the Supreme Court made their decision after less than two hours of meeting.

The French, who has always protested his innocence, has no recourse to justice in Mexico, but it can still enter international organizations, said the second counselor of the Embassy of France in Mexico, Florian Blazy.

"We need to revise the ruling. There are other international remedies," said the French diplomat. The situations envisaged by the embassy even before the trial were those of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights or the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

"I do not know how is Florence, but I can imagine," said Mr.Blazy.

Cassez, arrested in December 2005 during a mock inquiry held for television, was sentenced to 96 years in prison in the first instance, a sentence reduced on appeal to 60 years in prison in March 2009.

The arrest of Florence Break, along with his former partner Israel Vallarta, had been a television broadcast made at dawn on December 9, 2005 as a live broadcast in a "rancho", a house countryside on the outskirts of Mexico City.

The French had claimed she was arrested yesterday and held incommunicado until dawn.The police had then acknowledged having made a "recovery".

For advocates of the young woman, the cassation appeal (amparo) filed in August 2010 was to demonstrate that all the charges "built on sand" on "false evidence" in the words of counsel French Break Florence, Frank Berton.

At the beginning of the case, the opinion was unanimous Mexican Cassez been hostile to media and the verdict was no appeal against the "evil French".

But in five years, the activities of lawyers and press-depth investigations, including from French journalists on the spot on a record of more than 10,000 pages, had sown doubt in circles wider and wider in Mexico.

In November 2010, the French had received two notable supporters: that the Catholic Church of Mexico and a former federal Attorney-General, the equivalent of the Minister of Justice, who claimed to believe in his innocence.

The church had found a "total violation" of human Cassez and his "absolute innocence".

Former Minister Ignacio Morales Lechuga said for his part that the procedure "has not respected the rules of the Mexican criminal law, violated the rights of the condemned" and "led to freedom by letting the real perpetrators of crime" .

Break The case also became a contentious diplomatic row between France and Mexico, especially since the visit of Nicolas Sarkozy in Mexico in March 2009.

Three months later, in June 2009, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has ruled out personally in a speech for radio and television, the solution advocated by French President to transfer Cassez France.

This decision of the Supreme Court comes as Mexican has been officially launched, a few days ago, the year of France in Mexico.