EURO ZONE - PORTUGAL: The aid approved by Brussels and the IMF is she a "good" plan?

Not 100, not 80, but 78 billion euros. After two weeks of negotiations, Portugal, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached an agreement Tuesday night on how the international aid plan. It will therefore ultimately less than what had been anticipated in financial markets.

Good news for the Portuguese government, which can boast of being the least helpful of the three countries have received international financial support. "It's a good plan", welcomed the Portuguese Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates.He even suggested that the terms negotiated in return for allowing his country to be better off than Ireland and Greece - the other two European states have been helped by the EU and the IMF. What is it exactly?

78 billion euros, is it thousands? The amount is released over three years, close to a few billion, forecasts the Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker. On 24 March he said on France 24 expect a plan of international aid of about 75 billion if Portugal was in demand.

This envelope corresponds to approximately euro cents, the borrowing of Portugal anticipated by the European Union."In 2011, Lisbon has to repay 26 billion in debt coming due," had told France 24, March 24, Celine Antonin, an economist at the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE). The EU therefore expects that Portugal is obliged to repay 26 billion per year until 2013.

Is it really a "good plan", as said Jose Socrates? "It [the plan] is good because the compromise shows that the EU approves the austerity measures taken by lLisbonne," said France 24 Christophe Blot, an economist at the OFCE specialist and the EU.In short: the "potion" austerity that Portugal will have to drink to its population will be less bitter than the beverage Irish and Greek.

Indeed, Jose Socrates said Wednesday that there would be no decrease in the minimum wage, abandonment of the 13th and 14th month in the civil service, privatization or the Deposit and Consignment: all measures that Ireland and Greece had to be in pain. "Make no mistake, Portugal had already adopted several of these provisions - such as reducing the minimum wage," said Christophe Blot.

Are there counterparts requested in Portugal? Nothing new under the sun. As in "cases" Greek and Irish, EU and IMF require Portugal to slash their deficits.In 2010 it was 9.1% of GDP and should be reduced to 5.9% this year to 4.5% in 2012 and 3% in 2013. "It's about the same as Ireland and Greece, which means that the plan condemned Portugal to the recession in the coming years," said Christophe Blot: "It may be a good plan, but bad news for the Portuguese. " To achieve this, there is no recipe. Lisbon will prepare yet another austerity program with cuts in social spending and a likely tax increase.

Portuguese Prime Minister has however welcomed the calendar. He had indeed set targets for deficit reduction more stringent (4.6% of GDP in 2011, 3% in 2012 and 2% in 2013)."But at the time, it was essentially announcement effect to reassure financial markets and avoid having to apply for financial assistance to the European Union," says Christophe Blot. He said the compromise reached Tuesday night just to ask essentially targets more "realistic".

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: The gods of football they save Inter Milan and Tottenham?

Surely there are fans who would like the games provided on Wednesday night in London and Gelsenkirchen are relocated to Lourdes.

Players from Tottenham Hotspur will receive a boost from the sky if they want to rule out Real Madrid, winning 4-0 in Spain to go to the Supreme European title race. And denying the passage, Europe for possible displays 100% between the Galactic and Spanish rivals FC Barcelona in the semifinals.

"We have nothing to lose and much to gain.We must be confident that we can create the exploit, though it will be very hard, "admitted the Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric, who appeared at a news conference wearing a T-shirt the likeness of Jesus. ... This means

To believe that would be a historic feat - no club has ever filled such a delay in the Champions League - Londoners will try to remember that they had the best attack of the competition before the quarter-finals. But without Peter Crouch sent off in the 15th minute in the first leg, it will be difficult to differentiate.

The people of Madrid are, themselves, on their guard. "Football can sometimes betray you. It is important not to allow him the opportunity to do so.We come to London to play seriously, "warned the coach of Real, Jose Mourinho.

"Eto'o motivated players ever"

In a state of grace, Inter Milan will try to be. The Italian club, the defending champion, travels on the lawn of Schalke 04 with a gap of three goals to close the Germans 2-5 in Lombardy having imposed last week.

But statistics suggest that there are so surprised tonight, it should instead take place in Gelsenkirchen at White Hart Lane Tottenham. In fact, 43 times in the history of the most prestigious European competition, teams were able to qualify, they had three goals down after the first leg.

And Schalke 04, it is still not the great Real. The German club recently joined for the first time this season the top 10 of his national championship and must deal with players young defense.

Opposite the club Lombard, even far from its level of last season which had seen pocketing three titles (Champions League, Championship and Italian Cup), can always count on the experience of players like Samuel Eto ' o. Already, the Cameroon striker has been a leader of men during the preparation of movement in the Ruhr. "It has motivated the players as ever," says his coach, Brazilian Leonardo. A guru, Eto'o? Surely ... especially if a miracle tonight!

NIGERIA: Three attacks threatens to disrupt the long-awaited legislative

AFP - Nigerians voted Saturday in connection with legislative and postponed twice already tainted by the deadly explosion of a bomb on Friday in a polling station at the beginning of a marathon before the presidential election on April 16.

Polling stations have opened in some areas as scheduled at 08:00 local time (0700 GMT) but in others, voting had not begun, noted journalists from AFP.

These elections take place in almost all districts of the country, had been postponed last Saturday April 4 and April 9, due to the absence of electoral materials and personnel in a large number of polling stations.The president was also postponed for a week to 16 April.

"I think today will be different. (Electoral Commission) is ready," said Fatai Awofolaju, an official election in Lagos.

In Lagos, the economic capital, Abuja, the administrative capital and Kano (North), the second city of the country, polls opened at 8:00 or shortly thereafter.In Bayelsa State which is from the President Goodluck Jonathan, they opened with 90 minutes delay.

A bombing and an armed attack put the ballot in danger

This election that is expected to test the ability of the country's most populous country with 160 million people to hold free elections, have already been disrupted by a bomb blast Friday at Suleija, some 45 km Abuja (center) in a polling station who was preparing the elections.

The initial assessment of 8 dead and 26 injured Saturday has risen to 11 killed and wounded and 38. The attack was not claimed. The vote in this constituency has been postponed.

Gunmen also attacked Friday in Shani, Borno state in north-east, a police station where election officials were responsible for the supervision of election materials, killing four people.

The previous elections in Nigeria were marred by fraud and violence.The NGO Human Rights Watch has already recorded 85 deaths in pre-election violence since November 2010.

President Goodluck Jonathan, presidential candidate, denounced a "heinous terrorist bombing" in Suleija and ordered increased security at the premises of the Electoral Commission throughout the country.

The borders were closed, traffic restrictions were imposed on vehicles and soldiers patrolled the strategic points.

The impact of the bombing was difficult to measure."What bomb?" We have no problem here, "commented Bode Oshowole Saturday, a printer 61, in a polling station in Lagos.

"They're trying to scare us but it does not," responded the head of another polling station. "Nigeria can not be turned into another Afghanistan or Iraq," said Nnamdi Ekweogu.

Dysfunctions delay the vote in 10% of precincts

In a little over 10% of precincts where the ballots could not be printed in time, the legislation will be held April 26, the date of elections of governors and assemblies of the 36 states of the federation.The postponement affects 15 out of 109 senatorial districts and 48 constituencies which elect the 360 ​​members in the House of Representatives.

"Several countries in Africa have been able to hold successful elections, and if we fail, we can not claim a leadership role or to discipline anyone for failure," he said Thursday Jonathan to a delegation of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), based in Washington, which supports democratic institutions and practices worldwide.

The NGO in Nigeria has sent more than 50 observers from more than 23 countries, working with 1700 Nigerian observers.

LIBYA: At the UN, French diplomacy against the Libyan equation

The approval by the Security Council of UN resolution 1973, Thursday, marks something of a return to the forefront of French diplomacy. On the antenna of FRANCE 24, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe reiterated that "France [works] to convince his partners" for "days, if not weeks."

The insistence of France vis-à-vis the international community has borne fruit.After the decision of the Security Council of UN, Libya announced Friday its intention to immediately comply with UN orders by putting "an end to all military operations" and observing "an immediate cease- fire ".

If this latest development is confirmed on the ground, it could be a proven success for French diplomacy.However, the positions of Paris supported for this procedure is complex to decipher.

Since the official recognition of the Libyan National Transitional Council (CNT) as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people (March 10), Paris has stepped up calls for military intervention.

Particularly, this position contrasts sharply with the attitude of French diplomacy at recent Arab uprisings - in Tunisia and Egypt.The Quai d'Orsay was then multiplied the blunders, from the point of discrediting the entire French diplomacy and deface Paris's position on these issues.

A position to assume

Reached by France24.com Eugene Rogan, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oxford, said that Paris had no other choice but to "continue its efforts" to address the problem Jamahiriya: "France has taken a very surprising recognizing a government instead of a state.It seems that from the time when President Sarkozy has legitimized the CNT, unpredictably, [...] France could not afford to be the only major countries not to recognize the regime of Gaddafi ".

Repeated calls from the Quai d'Orsay for an international consensus had finally paid off. But the question of whether early recognition of the CNT was part of an overall strategy to put pressure on the international community continue to arise.

For Eugene Rogan, it is likely that France was forced to assume its partners a hasty decision, "President Sarkozy is very unpredictable and can be very spontaneous.When he recognized the CNT, it seems he did not consult its partners in Europe and America. "

Nevertheless, "it is very difficult to know for what purpose France decided to recognize the CNT. "Maybe she had received assurances on the award of contracts in exchange for his support. If this is a tenable hypothesis, there is nothing to verify it. I do not see any other explanation, "he develops.

However, the image of French diplomacy ultra responsive, which would cleverly controlled his skid, is not unanimously shared.According to Jean Dufourcq, a researcher at the Ecole Militaire in Paris and former director of the Research Centre of the College of Defence of NATO, "France shares the idea that it must intervene when a population suffered an attack of its leader, especially if the process takes place in an area directly concerning. "

This strategic aspect, which aims to protect the Mediterranean against a threat of destabilization, is a major factor to decrypt the French position on the issue of Libya, said Jean Dufourcq, whose reasoning supports the thesis of a controlled strategy from the beginning by Paris. "Behind the scenes, it is likely that the project was on the table for a month.Since the establishment of a military process requires a lot of work beforehand. "

The hexagonal frontline diplomacy

Rest in obtaining approval of an intervention in Libya, France was left to the initiative of a major operation. For now, the Quai d'Orsay has limited interventions. The government spokesman Baroin confirmed Friday morning that military strikes would occur "within hours" and that the French military "will participate".

For Jean Dufourcq, this vagueness is part of Paris by a certain continuity: "We have just concluded the political stage of this operation. Now open the military aspect, namely the establishment of the process, says he said.If France did not rule on a specific schedule is that the UN is in a logic of 'surprise military'. If the humanitarian need is unquestionable, the strategy calls for hitting at the right time. "

As a prelude to the Council vote, Alain Juppe had evoked a quick response, saying it was "a matter of days, [...] may be a matter of hours." Since no information has filtered out about it.

Respect of staff and military means that each country involved could make available to the coalition, they have still not been disclosed.

The outgoing coalition won the legislative

REUTERS - The center-right coalition to power in Estonia, Country came in January in the euro area after a harsh recession, has largely won parliamentary elections Sunday.

After counting 97% of votes, the Reform Party of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip wins 33 seats out of 101 in the new parliament and its partner, the Union Pro Patria and Res Republica, gets 23, ensuring the coalition an absolute majority, with five more seats in the outgoing assembly.

Analysts expect that the small Baltic country of 1.3 million people stick to the austerity policy that allowed him in January to become the 17th member state of the euro-zone government debt the lowest in the EU.

The Centre Party, main opposition, has been affected by allegations that he solicited funds in Russia, great neighbor that Estonians generally viewed with suspicion. The party officials have denied those rumors.

The Social Democrats, meanwhile, had joined the government after the 2007 elections but the alliance was broken.

The government Ansip was a minority for some time, but defections on smaller parties had come to give it 51 seats in parliament.

Estonia has been facing one of the worst recessions in the EU, with its economy shrank by 14% in 2009.Only its Baltic neighbors, the
Latvia and Lithuania, have experienced worse in the EU.

The country has implemented austerity measures to redress public finances and adopt the euro.

Estonia remains one of the poorest countries of the Union, which she joined in 2004 as well as NATO. But its fiscal situation is sound. The European Commission predicts its total budget deficit of the public sector of 1.6% of GDP for 2011, which corresponds to the average of the euro area.

The state debt, projected at 9.5% of GDP this year will be by far the lowest in the euro zone where the average is in the field to 86.5% of GDP. The Government is committed to achieving a balanced budget by 2014.

"Baby Doc" under four complaints for crimes against humanity

Haitian journalist Michele Montas and three other activists Haitian human rights complaint filed on Wednesday, with the Haitian justice for crimes against humanity against Jean-Claude Duvalier, aka "Baby Doc", the ex- Haitian dictator who made a surprise return to Port-au-Prince last Sunday.

"I considered his comeback as a slap, Michele Montas told France24.com, reached by telephone in the Haitian capital.Many Haitians have been affected by the regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier ... He thought he could return to Haiti and get away with it! "

Michele Montas was a journalist at Radio Haiti-Inter in the first ten years of the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier (1971-1986). She and her husband - Jean Dominique, a prominent Haitian journalist murdered in 2000 - had to flee the country in November 1980 when they adopted a tone very critical of the government.They could not return until 1986, after the departure of Duvalier's son.

Asked about the "crime against humanity" which is the subject complaint, Ms. Montas said that "in the late 1980s, there were widespread raids activists in human rights and journalists. people were tortured, they took everything that moved. And Radio Haiti was destroyed. " Jean-Claude Duvalier became famous for the many atrocities that were committed under his regime, thousands of opponents are arbitrarily detained and tortured.Some were even murdered.

Tuesday night, "Baby Doc" has already been indicted by a Haitian court for criminal conspiracy, embezzlement and corruption in public administration.

Claude Rosiers, 11 years in prison Duvalier

Asked about the complaint by the special correspondent for FRANCE 24 in Port-au-Prince, Alexandra Fox, a lawyer Jean-Claude Duvalier has denounced "a fanciful action.Earlier, another adviser to the former dictator had explained that it would remain "forever" in Haiti, where he wanted to "play politics".

Furthermore Michele Montas, three other prominent Haitians have filed complaints against "Baby Doc" for crimes against humanity: the president of the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (NCDDR), Alix Fils-Aime, the former political prisoner Claude roses, and feminist activist Nicole Magloire.

Under the title "The Triangle of Death" (2003), Claude Rosiers has published an account of his ten years in the jails of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier, between 1966 and 1977, when he was a Party activist People's National Liberation (PPLN), a Marxist party.

The four complaints will be heard by Judge John Carver, who is shortly to convene the complainants and especially examine the documentary evidence of the charges against Jean-Claude Duvalier.

"Widespread and systematic violations of fundamental rights"

Since the return of the former dictator in Haiti, many voices were raised to demand his arrest, including Amnesty International, the National Network of Human rights (RNDDH-Haiti), or the rights of the Ecumenical Centre Rights (ECHR) of Haiti.

Yesterday, Haitian France24 Observers demanded that "he be tried for his crimes."

In a statement released Wednesday morning, Amnesty International calls on what is brought to justice "a leader whose security services [were] engaged in widespread and systematic violations of fundamental rights" and the Haitian authorities to "investigate Jean-Claude Duvalier and other persons who may have been responsible for such crimes, some of which amount to crimes against humanity. "

France24.com joined Wednesday by Amnesty International says the International Criminal Court (ICC) can not be seized of the case Duvalier, the facts alleged against him being prior to its creation in 1998.

Hu Jintao conceded that there is "much to do" on human rights

AFP - Human Rights were invited Wednesday to the state visit of Hu Jintao to Washington, which saw the president and his Chinese counterpart, Barack Obama displayed the determination to overcome the "friction" commercial on the bottom of juicy contracts.

"China recognizes, but also respects the universality of human rights but at the same time we believe that we must take into account different national circumstances in terms of human rights," saidHu during a joint press conference with Bush.

"China is a developing country with a very large population and also a developing country which is undergoing crucial reforms," he added, while admitting, after being repeatedly asked by American journalists, that " much rest (has) to China "on it and promising to improve the situation.

For his part, Obama has ensured he was "very open" to signify to Mr. Hu's American views "on the universality of certain rights, freedom of expression, religion and association."He also wanted "dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama to resolve differences while preserving the religious identity of the Tibetan people," while hundreds of activists demonstrating in front of this because the White House.

However, the name of jailed Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Liu Xiaobo was not pronounced during the press conference.

45 billion worth of contracts

Obama, who met Hu for the eighth time in two years and participated with him at a summit with leaders of major American companies, said he hoped the two countries could put behind them the "friction" of the past and "We remove the old stereotypes."

Mr.Hu, for his part promised that his country would boost its domestic demand and consumption, treating American companies duly registered in China on an equal footing, and praised the "bright future" of trade between the two countries.

Washington has also announced the signing of contracts in China valued at $ 45 billion with U.S. companies, including an order for 200 Boeing aircraft with a total value estimated at 19 billion responding to the desire to see Obama Americans enjoy more of the economic expansion of China, which could have been a double-digit growth in 2010, according to unofficial statistics.

The apple of discord currency, intellectual property, nuclear

At the press conference, Mr.Obama did not ignore the points of contention, as the undervaluation of the Chinese currency, again claiming an "adjustment". However, he praised the "flexibility of China's currency" and layout of Beijing in the fight against intellectual property theft.

But MM.Hu and Obama have also said their points of convergence, especially on nuclear issues of North Korea and Iran, saying the Chinese president also hoped for more cooperation between Chinese and American militaries.

Leaders must be found in the evening for a very formal state dinner, only the third in two years of President Obama.

Invited, on ABC, to say if the two giants of the early twenty-first century were friends or foes, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "if we are rolling out the red carpet for President Hu, is that we feel that we can better answer this question, advancing. "

"My hope is that we have a normal relationship," she added, while the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate and an ally of Mr. Obama, Harry Reid, left reflected the distrust of many Americans toward China in calling Hu a "dictator", before retracting.