Aplle and news

The flame of the Olympics in London, which will open July 27, Thursday was lit in Greece according to tradition, in ancient Olympia, site of the first games in the antiquity, before crossing the country and go to Great Britain.

The High Priestess Ino Menegaki lit the Olympic flame "to direct light from the sun" to 9:10 GMT. Then, according to the ritual prepared by choreographer Artemis Ignatiou, light sacréea been assigned to the first runner, the world champion of Greek open water swimming, Spyros Gianniotis.

It would then pass the baton to the first Loukos Alexander, British boxer of 19 years and son of a Greek immigrant.

The flame will serve a one-week trip to Greece, "visiting" big five archaeological sites including the Acropolis, to arrive on May 17 at the old Athens Olympic Stadium, home the first modern Games in 1896, where she will be given to the British delegation at the end of a nocturnal ceremony.

The British relay will begin May 19 in the southwest of England, for a journey of 70 days and 12.875 km, until the opening ceremony July 27 in London.

In Britain, the flame will travel a little less than 13,000 km across the host country, passing within 16 miles of 95 percent of the population of the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey.

The Olympic flame will be carried by torchbearers 8000 and will use many different means of transportation during the trip.  

The flame will visit one outside the United Kingdom, Ireland, because the IOC has decided to remove the international stage, four years after the incidents in several countries, including France, during the international journey of the torch of the Beijing Games in 2008.

The ceremony continues the tradition of the ancient Games in Olympia, during which a fire was still lit throughout the competition. A tradition reintroduced in 1936 for the Berlin Games.

Mali is struggling to emerge from the political crisis through which it passes. Worse, he plunges. On the night of Monday to Tuesday, May 1, the gunfire was exchanged in the capital Bamako between the former military junta in power since March 22 and "red berets" ;, members of the presidential guard loyal to ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT).

Meanwhile, the state radio and television (ORTM), the airport and the barracks of Kati, a military camp near the capital housing the headquarters of the former junta, also suffered attacks. Several people died. This outburst of violence originates, according to journalists on the spot, arrest, earlier, of Abidine Guindo, former Chief of Staff of the President ATT.

The junta "control" the situation

Late into the night, the situation seemed very confused in the capital and its surroundings, the loyalists and former coup leaders saying, each in turn, control the combat zones and ORTM & ndash ; the nerve center of power. It was not until early Tuesday morning that things were clarified. "There have been many ups and downs in the night. A reporter on the spot was first confirmed over the building by the loyalists. But in the morning, a spokesman for the former junta appeared on the air, meaning de facto control of the situation in the camp coup, "said Navy Olivesi, FRANCE 24 correspondent in Bamako.

Surrounded by some older military, representing this accused "the intruders" to be attacked in order to "destabilize the process of restoring order normal constitutional ". In the aftermath, the man promises to "actively pursue" those responsible for these acts.

Difficult transition to democracy

These fights are undermining even further the Mali at a time when diplomatic efforts to complete its transition to democracy seem bogged down. They also occur on the eve of a meeting that was scheduled in Ouagadougou, later aborted, between former coup leaders and Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré, mediator Malian crisis.

According to Marine Olivesi, it is precisely the difficult dialogue between the former junta and the new government [composed of the President Traoré Diacounda invested 12 April and Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra] that would set fire to the powder. For several days the cloth was burning between the two camps, unable to agree on terms for ending the crisis of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) .

"Chasing the junta's power"

April 26, Captain Sanogo, head of the former junta rejected the decision to send soldiers Abidjan Ecowas in his country to secure the transition Aftern s the coup of March 22. He also objected to a transition period of 12 months, until the holding of presidential and legislative elections, hoping to stick to the original deadline 40 days.

Objections that might have provoked the impatience of anti-coup, said Navy Olivesi. Not only some members of the former junta, whose captain Sanogo, reluctant to relinquish power, but the military also continue to impose their conditions posing significant uncertainties about the outcome of the transition process. "The refusal of Sanogo have cast a pall over the negotiations. Some people may have wanted to quickly drive the coup of power, "she said beforehand.

Anyway, these new power not bode well in a country prone to disintegration. Furthermore, since these internal political strife, Mali faces the Islamist threat and Tuareg. Armed groups had taken advantage of the chaos caused by the coup to strengthen their positions in the north of the country they now occupy completely.

The journalist and his colleague Ruth Elkrief Thierry Arnaud, who covers for BFM TV campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, were attacked by militants UMP at the end of the meeting of the outgoing president of Toulon, forcing the chain to stop the live for a few minutes.

Questioned by AFP, Elkrief Ruth did not want to "make a deal," saying that they were "nothing too serious." But she stated that two bottles filled with water were projected on them, one reaching M. Arnaud in the face, and a thirty activists "edgy" had insulted.

"We were treated sold, collaborators, there has been spat on, someone said + It is right and proud of it, '" she said, adding he had "not responded and not shake (her) head".

"I have no doubt that this behavior is not a reflection of the campaign but I still regret that the repeated denunciations of the press to meetings (the UMP) can cause these effects, "she said, adding that Mr. Arnaud was regularly" molested, a little at a meeting ".

Just after 7:00 p.m., while the journalist began his live from Toulon, boos recycled again and again around the board. "There is a rather unpleasant atmosphere all around us," said Ruth Elkrief to the camera, visibly tense and hunched shoulders, amid stepped gradually emptying ; little.

"Militants attack us, take us to task, they are pretty bad," she explained to viewers, posting a forced smile. His colleague Thierry Arnaud then resumed speaking but Elfrief Ruth's arm, which moves above his head, blocks his face. Paris quickly returns the antenna.

According to the journalist, the incident lasted only minutes before the intervention of the security service of the UMP. "Several activists have then assured of their sympathy and the country people came too," she added.

Hervé Béroud, editorial director of BFM TV, confirmed to AFP that the "boos and insults, indistinguishable to the antenna, a handful activists "had forced the chain to stop the direct Toulon. "The security quickly intervened, but we had to cut, before returning a few minutes later" when the incident was closed.

Greece's GDP will fall by "around 5%" in 2012, exceeding the initial estimates, after falling 6.9% in 2011, was scheduled for Tuesday the Bank of Greece in its annual report on the economy.

March 19, in its annual monetary policy, the Bank of Greece had expected GDP to fall 4.5% in 2012, the fifth consecutive year of recession.

Compared to March 19, she has maintained unchanged its forecast for higher annual unemployment rate for "over 19%" in 2012, against 17.7% in 2011, the year which 300,000 jobs were destroyed, according to the Bank. 

"The recession will be less intense than in 2011, provided that the structural measures (negotiated with the creditors of the country, Ed) are implemented without delay" warned the Bank in its report.

The institution describes other ravages of the crisis, affecting both banks have seen their total deposits drop "more than 70 billion" since the crisis began in late 2009 and February 2012, "the equivalent of one third of GDP." 

While we expect the details of how will be recapitalized commercial banks in the country, thanks to 50 billion euros of aid made by creditors including 25 countries came to the Bank of Greece last week, "2012 should be a benchmark year for the reshaping of the banking system" in Gre and this, merely states the report without giving further details.

The institution, which was ruled by the current Prime Minister Lucas Papademos before it became vice president of the European Central Bank, also provides that the inflation rate in 2012 s 'rise to around 1.2%, and it could fall "below 0.5%" in 2013

AFP - The anti-regime have called for demonstrations Friday in Syria where more than 120 civilians were killed in eight days of a cease-fire called "trè s fragile "by the spokesman of the Kofi Annan International envoy.

Moscow, an important ally of Damascus, for its part held that the truce was "overall" respected, despite "violations and provocations".

In the field, a militant was shot dead by Syrian forces in the region of Idleb (northwest) and Homs, nicknamed the "capital of the revolution" by activists, e ; silent again bombed "by reason of a mortar shell every five minutes," according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH). 

According to Seif al-Arab, a militant on the spot, the army is trying to regain control of Homs, the center still eludes him, "before entering the observers there."

In Syria for five days, the first small team dispatched by the UN to monitor the cease-fire has not yet been able to visit this city, the authority ; s advancing Syrian "security reasons".

After wavering, however, Damascus Thursday signed the protocol organizing the work, and in particular freedom of movement, observers, a sine qua non for the pursuit of their mission. 

Despite repeated commitments to Damascus in terms of international envoy Kofi Annan, his spokesman Ahmed Fawzi found that the situation on the ground "is not good," noting that the cease-fire is still "very fragile".

The Syrian National Council (CNS), the main opposition coalition, has blamed the violence which the regime has not withdrawn its troops from the cities and "continues to defy the observers in Despite the unanimous international support for the Annan Plan ".  

France, which also considers that the cease-fire is not applied, will soon file a draft resolution in the Security Council to establish a mission oservation "as strong as possible" after the UN chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended sending 300 observers in total.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs Alain Juppe said that this future force must have the means to "respect the freedom of expression".

Like every Friday since the beginning of the revolt against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, the pro-democracy activists have called on Syrians to take to the streets, this time under the slogan "We will be victorious and Assad will be defeated." 

International observers said they would not attend the demonstrations so that their "presence is used" to promote "an escalation" of violence.

In two movements of observers in the region of Damascus and that of Deraa, cradle of the protest in the south, the OSDH reported that shots had gatherings on a dead and injured s after their passage.

Considering the Annan plan "doomed" because of lack of cooperation of the regime, the Syrian Army rebels free (ASL) have called for intervention Military bypassing the Security Council of the UN, long paralyzed by the Russian and Chinese veto. 

If Western countries continue to reject any use of force outside the UN mandate, a dozen heads of Arab and Western diplomacy gathered in Paris on Thursday discussed the involvement of NATO.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the international community's "guiding vigorously towards the Security Council for a resolution under Chapter 7" of UN charter which permits the imposition, including by force, measures with respect to threats against peace.

It also revealed that Turkey was planning to invoke the NATO charter, which provides for solidarity between member states, about the bombing on its border with Syria.

Mr. Juppe said on his side in case of failure of the Annan plan, which would open "the road to civil war", "other options" would be considered, without further details.

Presidential favorite in France, Francois Hollande, has already declared that if elected and that military action was decided by the UN, France "would participate."

General Mustapha Ahmed Al-Sheikh, head of the Military Council of the ASL has expressed its wish "surgical strikes at key facilities of the regime" led by "an alliance Military Friends of the Syrian people. "

For 13 months, the Syrian regime in the blood suppresses an uprising that has militarized over the months. The violence is, according to OSDH, more than 11,100 dead.

Thirteen of the seventeen suspected Islamists arrested and placed in police custody last Friday were brought before judges and terrorism should be indicted for possession of weapons and criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise, announced Tuesday, April 3 Francois Molins, the Paris prosecutor, in a press conference.

The prosecution requested the provisional detention of nine members or sympathizers of the Salafist Group Forsane Alizza ("Riders of pride") covered by this procedure. Four others were placed under judicial control. The thirteen defendants face a sentence of 10 years in prison.

Last week, inquiries conducted by the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI) and the anti-terrorist section (SAT) of the Judicial Police in Paris led to the seizure of weapons of twenty first and fourth ; my categories, including Kalashnikovs "demilitarized" - temporarily deactivated -, said Francois Molins.

The Paris prosecutor said that the prosecution was in possession of information indicating the position of the preparation of at least one attack against one judge. A charge denied on Friday by the lawyer for Mohamed Achamlane, leading Forsane Alizza. In an interview with regional daily press-ocean, he denied "any intention terrorriste".

"I do not know any terrorists stupid"

"Some institutional targets were potentially affected, Francois Molins has developed. Thus, according to some statements made during police custody, had been discussed during a meeting held in Lyon in September 2011 a draft Remo tively of a magistrate with whom Lyon had been in trouble one of the members of the cell Lyon. "

He also said that videos posted on the Internet showed the group announcing an acting out. He cites the existence of a video posted in December on the website Forsane Alizza. Its members are threatened France with war if Paris did not withdraw its forces deployed in territories with Muslim majorities.

Philippe Missamou, one of the lawyers Achamlane, answers these charges micro FRANCE 24: "The weapons that were found at his home are inactive and therefore useless, neutralized es. How can you imagine for one moment that people who would consider removing personalities as important as a magistrate, that journalists can do their state project in public? Anyway, I do not know any terrorists stupid. "

Physical training and indoctrination

This is not the first time that the group Forsane Alizza is covered by the French authorities. Last February, the radical Islamist cell, founded in 2010 and particularly active on the web, had been dissolved by the Interior Ministry.

In early March, a judicial inquiry was opened for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.

The splinter group, which was placed under surveillance since October 2011, organized workouts in parks and forests in the Paris region, continued Francois Molins. He also explained that members and supporters Forsane Alizza were subjected to ideological indoctrination which was to lead the jihad in France.

The magistrate, also ruled out any possibility of a link between this case and Merah, the name of the author of the killings of Toulouse and Montauban shot on March 22.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn did not think his political opponents "would go so far" to stop him in the presidential race, he said in an interview published Friday by the Guardian, that the Socialist Re ; Fere to individuals "related to Nicolas Sarkozy."

"Maybe I was naive politically but I have simply not thought they would go so far (…), I did not think they could find something that can stop me ", he says the American journalist Edward Epstein who conducted the interview published by the British newspaper, and whose book on the Sofitel case appears Monday on the internet. 

The journalist said that Dominique Strauss-Kahn refers by "they" to "agents" of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn accuses enemies related to Nicolas Sarkozy for having prevented his candidacy," its headline.

According to the Guardian, the former head of the IMF does not believe that the facts that occurred at the Sofitel are a set up but believes that the consequences of the case were "orchestrated by people having a political agenda ".

In this interview, DSK, who pronounces any names, however, also says he would do his official announcement of candidacy "June 15". "I had no doubt that I would have been the candidate of the Socialist Party," he says.

Edward Epstein was relaunched in November 2011 DSK case by asserting that the New York prosecutor on hand records video of the Sofitel where we saw two employees congratulate themselves after hearing the maid Nafissatou Diallo accused of sex crimes DSK.

The maid at the Sofitel New York charges Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the constraint to have oral sex in his suite on May 14. DSK has acknowledged a relationship "inappropriate" but said that there had been "no violence, no coercion or aggression."

REUTERS - The continued operation of the Syrian army seems to compromise the implementation of the Annan plan, in which government forces deployed in urban centers should begin their withdrawal Tuesday.

The project of the Special Representative of the UN and the Arab League, including Syrian President Bashar al Assad has agreed in principle, to leave the army until midnight Syrian hours (9:00 p.m. GMT) to begin the withdrawal, they say in diplomatic circles. A cease-fire should take effect next Thursday at 0600 local (0300 GMT).

But Damascus has demanded Sunday "written assurances" from the "armed terrorist groups", doubting their promises when government forces have left the urban centers.

The deadline of April 10 "has no meaning," said Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkey, Naci Koru. Ankara has also outraged by the shooting that left five injured, two Turks, a Syrian refugee camp in its territory.

Kofi Annan is scheduled to visit on Tuesday in a camp in the same sector, before traveling to Tehran to seek the support of the Iranian authorities to his peace plan.

Beirut has also condemned the firing of Syrian military border that killed a Lebanese cameraman.

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the UN, was "alarmed" by the continuing violence and deplored the shooting in Turkey and Lebanon. 

"The Secretary-General reiterates his claim that the government of Syria immediately cease all military operations against civilians and fulfill all commitments made to Envoy Joint Special Kofi Annan. The deadline for the complete cessation of violence approved by the Security Council must be respected by all unconditionally, "said his spokesman, speaking to the press.

"A new way to save time"

China also urged the Syrian government and the opposition to meet the timetable provided by the Annan Plan. The U.S. has meanwhile rejected the Syrian demand a written guarantee from the rebels.

"It's just a new way to save time," lamented Victoria Nuland, spokesman for the U.S. State Department.

For Ashton, spokesman of European diplomacy, "it is totally unacceptable to put new conditions at this stage".

Walid al-Moualem, Syrian foreign minister, will be received Tuesday by his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

Field, bombings killed at least 30 dead, including 17 children and eight women, Al Latmana, northwest of Hama (Central), relate opponents who had reported 40 killed in the same place two days earlier. 

Insurgents have also continued their operations against the government workforce. Six members of security forces and Syrian customs have been killed in Salama, near the border crossing between Syria and Azaz Kilis in Turkey, according to Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH).

In the province of Damascus, four soldiers were killed in an attack on a road convoy. In the region of Aleppo, Syria's second city, nine members of security forces and a civilian were killed, reported the official news agency SANA.

According to the Syrian opposition, the army, supported by tanks and helicopters, trying to regain control of several areas of the province of Idlib, in North west, forcing the population to flee to Turkey, where eight camps erected in the provinces of Hatay and Gaziantep house 24,000 refugees.

Colonel Saad Kassem al Din, spokesman for the Syrian Army free (ASL), spearheaded the armed struggle against the regime, said Sunday that the battles of the past week e had a thousand lives, mostly civilians. 

In a report released Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Syrian regime of killing in cold blood a hundred civilians and opposition activists across the country since the end of the & rsquo ; last year.

According to UN figures, more than 9,000 people have been killed since the start of the crackdown on the uprising anti-Assad in March 2011. Accuses Damascus of "armed terrorist groups" have killed more than 2,500 members of the security forces.

AFP - Burma voted Sunday in elections that should allow historic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to enter parliament after 15 years of house arrest, a major test for the credit International ibility of the new regime. Voters began their civic duty as scheduled at 6:00 local (11:30 p.m. GMT Saturday). The offices were to close at 4:00 p.m.. The rural constituency of Kawhmu two hours from Rangoon, which presented the winner of Nobel Peace Prize, was invaded by foreign journalists, TV crews and security services on Saturday night Burma.

And people started to queue in the polling stations from early morning. "I'll vote for Mother Suu because I love (…) We are so glad she has come to our village," he told AFP San San Win, 43 years, a working village Wahtheinkha. Considered there are still two years as public enemy number one by the junta then in power, Suu Kyi is very heavily favored even if it faces the polls for the first time. Having ended his last move as a result of health problems Miners, Suu Kyi seems in better shape, all smiles as she sauntered Sunday in the villages of his constituency. A total of 45 seats are at stake, including 44 contested by the National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi: 37 in the lower house of parliament, six in the upper house and two in regional chambers. The government, former military reformers came to power a year ago, trying to prove that its political reforms are sincere and can justify the lifting of Western sanctions that are strangling the economy. After a process of transition and non-violent under army control, this new team proposed to Suu Kyi to integrate the political official. According to all analysts, the government itself has an interest in seeing the opponent triumph under the gaze of the international community. Suu Kyi has denounced a campaign full of irregularities. But she also claimed the need to participate - thus legitimizing - the ongoing process to change things from within. "Once in parliament, we can work for true democracy," she justified Friday.

"The elections seem to be okay for now," said to , Phnom Penh, Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN), which sent observers on site. "I was in very close contact with the teams and they evoke enthusiasm, attention, a total awareness of all parties involved, "he said. "This is a good omen for Burma". After years of hiding their support for a woman who has turned into ico ; no resistance to the junta, left his followers in recent weeks their joy. The song "Our mother is back" has become a campaign tube. Aung San Suu Kyi had triumphed in the 1990 elections, and the junta did not recognize the re results. She was still under house arrest twenty years later, in November 2010, when legislative boycotted by the NLD and qualified masquerade by the West. "The electoral process of 2010 (…) represented a missed opportunity e (…) This should not happen again while Burma is entering a new era and more open, "said the UN special envoy on human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea. NLD is a victory in the 44 constituencies where it occurs. But if the charisma and experience of its leader seem unshakable, some of his other candidates are strongly opposed to locally based leaders, particularly in ethnic areas of the country's borders. Whatever the results, the power for its part has nothing to fear from these partial. The Solidarity Party and the Union's development (USDP), created entirely by the former junta, had claimed about 80% of the seats in 2010. And one quarter of parliamentarians are, under the Constitution, of active military personnel designated on the sidelines of the electoral process.

The self-proclaimed "smallest city in the United States" has found a new owner. A Vietnamese investor, who preferred to remain anonymous, won the auction, Thursday, April 5, the town of Buford, in the State of Wyoming. For the modest sum of 900,000 dollars, the mysterious buyer becomes the new sole inhabitant of this village which includes a house with three bedrooms, a gas station, a school converted into an office, a garage and a drugstore. The new master of the house must however pay extra to get their hands on the three vehicles that are in the locality.

A dozen potential buyers had made an appointment at 2000 meters altitude in-the-goose Triffouilli American covers 40 km2 to 200 miles north of Denver, the capital of neighboring Colorado. The auction started at $ 100 000 and up grew rapidly. Furthermore the future owner Vietnamese investors Hong Kong and New York had come to their offerings.

The sale took place under the gaze of Don Sammons, a sexagenarian who has lived in Buford for 30 years. "My life here was very happy, but it is time to retire and go and live near a beach or Colorado to join my son," he said ; Thursday to CNN.

After moving there in early 1980 with his wife and son, a former resident of Los Angeles has decided to acquire Buford in 1992 in the amount remained ; secret. Since then, he worked at the gas station that serves "1000 customers per day in summer and 100 winter".

Other examples

Buford has not always enjoyed the scenic status of "smallest city in the United States." The town was founded in 1866 to accommodate a military fort and serve as conduits during construction of the railway linking the transcontinental east coast to the West Coast. At that time, the city had 2,000 souls, mostly railway workers. At the turn of the century, the transcontinental changed its route, leaving Buford and making the village much less attractive.

It is, in any case not the only micro-American city has to offer for sale these days. The owners of Pray, Montana, looking for Feb. 20 a new buyer would be willing to pay $ 1.4 million for the locality of eight people. The phenomenon has even crossed the Atlantic: in France, the hamlet of Courbefy, in Haute-Vienne, will be auctioned on May 21