Norway: taxi passengers Prime Minister chosen from casting

 

Full campaign for parliamentary elections in Norway, the outgoing Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in trouble in the polls, had tried to exercise at least surprising. In order "to hear what people really think," the head of Labour government had turned into a taxi, the time one afternoon in the streets of the capital Oslo. The video was published Sunday, August 11 on the Internet, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Cast

But Monday, August 12, the Norwegian tabloid "Verdens Gang" (VG) has dented the feeling of spontaneity passengers revealing that five of the 14 passengers filmed Using hidden cameras were actually chosen through a street casting. "These are five ordinary people who were asked if they wanted to participate in a video for the Labour Party and who knew nothing except that we should go and get a taxi," confirmed Pia Gulbrandsen, a spokesman for the Labour Party. "Their spontaneity was real when they realized that their driver was the prime minister," she said.

Each person has even received 500 crowns (about 65 euros) "in gratitude." The passengers were exempt from the fare, as Jens Stoltenberg has no taxi license. Owner of the advertising agency that made the video, Kjetil Try, a close associate of Prime Minister, told VG the use of a cast by the need to have people available on a timely and representative of a certain diversity.

A buzz not enough

The Videoa was generally well received for its humorous side even though many commentators have noted that it focused more on the surprise of the passengers on the substantive issues that Prime Minister said he wanted to address. 

According to the same commentators, despite the critical acclaim she won, this video is not enough to help Jens Stoltenberg to make up ground against the right, largely te you approach the election on September 9. On August 5, a survey released by TV2 gave the opposition head-left coalition led by Jens Stoltenberg collecting only 41.2% of the vote.

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UNITED STATES: DSK returns to the "horrific" images of his arrest in New York

 

Two years after his arrest in New York, Dominique Strauss-Kahn returned, Tuesday, July 10, for Laz CNN on the "terrible" time, where it was pre sented before the cameras of the world handcuffed wrists when he "did not understand what was happening and why I was there."

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested by police after being accused of rape, 14 May 2011, by a woman of Guinean room at the Sofitel New York, that he had then felt the "wrath" in this interview by CNN as the first English former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since the resignation of the financial institution. 

"I was angry, I did not understand what was happening, I did not understand why I was there. I just understand that it was something that I did not understand, "said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, referring to the time, common in the United States, where a person who has ê , be arrested is brought cameras and cameras of journalists.

"It is a terrible thing, really. The problem is that this is a moment in American and European society, you are assumed innocent, you're supposed to be innocent until you are found guilty, "said the former IMF chief.

"It shows you all the world as if you were a criminal, at a time when nobody knows if it's true or not. You may be a criminal, maybe not. The proof comes after. It is not fair to put people in this position to the rest of the world when we do not know what they did, "he said.

The interview, which extract briefly recalling the case of the Sofitel was released Tuesday by CNN, will be broadcast in its entirety Wednesday. Dominique Strauss-Kahn will also talk about Europe and the banking system in Europe.

"DSK", who had to resign after accusations of rape from his post as director of the IMF, also had to abandon his presidential ambitions in France for 2012 election. The criminal proceedings were subsequently abandoned by the prosecutor of New York, who had questioned the credibility of the maid, Nafissatou Diallo.

A confidential financial agreement reached last December between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his accuser, settled the civil case.

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EGYPT: New government: the Salafist Al-Nour withdraw from negotiations

 

While hundreds of thousands of opponents Mohamed Morsi gathered Sunday in Tahrir Square in Cairo, the political transition trying to organize in Egypt, four days after the coup military has dismissed the Islamist president from power. However, the operation is difficult.

The Salafi Al-Nour party, it needed to form a government policy, withdrew Monday negotiations because of "massacre" committed, according to him, by the army against supporters Muslim Brotherhood front of a building of the Republican Guard in Cairo

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Al-Nour had already opposed the nominations of the Executive by the Presidency acting: the Nobel Peace Prize, Mohamed el-Baradei of first proposed as prime minister Saturday and Sunday the name Ziad Bahaa Eldin was suggested to ensure the vice presidency. 

Refusal to Mohamed ElBaradei and Ziad Bahaa Eldin

The choice of El-Baradei, former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as head of government, announced Saturday night by the official MENA agency and several political and military sources, s' was already encountered objections Al-Nour.

The Salafist party has also expressed reservations about the appointment of Ziad Bahaa Eldin, leader of the Front national salvation (NSF) as Prime Minister. "We have no personal objection (against Bahaa Eldin), which is an important economic figure […] we reject his candidacy because he is part of the Front national salvation," said , Younis Makhyoun on Al-Arabiya satellite channel.

Aged 48, Ziad Bahaa Eldin is a center-left technocrat, business lawyer. He has conducted several economic institutions of foreign investment or market surveillance and member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank.

Associated with the transition led mainly by secular movements, Al-Nur religious party "means a technocrat who does consensus or to be accepted by 80% to 90%" of the Egyptians, Younis explained Makhyoun in the night from Sunday to Monday, the Al-Arabiya satellite channel.

The new authorities do not want to alienate either the Salafists, because supporters of Mohamed Morsi, from the Muslim Brotherhood, maintain a strong mobilization in the streets.

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FRANCE: rejected Accounts: Sarkozy denounced "an unprecedented situation under the Fifth Republic"

 

The former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy, whose campaign accounts have been definitively rejected Thursday by the Constitutional Council, called on Friday in a message on his Facebook page, the situation of "unprecedented in the Fifth Republic" and promised to commit to ensure a "free and democratic expression in our country."

The Constitutional Council, in fact, confirmed the rejection of the account of the 2012 presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, on the grounds that he had exceeded the maximum authorized expenditures of EUR 466 118. Deprive his camp a refund from the State of approximately € 11 million on a campaign budget of about 23 million, this decision has the effect that, according to the former head of state, plunged the UMP in an acute financial crisis.

"All political parties have been reimbursed by the State with the exception of the UMP. This new situation under the Fifth Republic jeopardizes the training will prepare the alternation so necessary to socialism ", Nicolas Sarkozy denounced on Facebook.

"Ensuring the free democratic expression"

According to the former president, "a new principle" has "been implemented: one for passing, we challenged 400 000 euros or 2.1% of account country applies a penalty of 100% or 11 million. "

"Beyond the UMP alone, this fact must involve all those who are committed to pluralism," has also added former head of state.

A constation which leads him to consider a form of political action. "I have my responsibilities in hiring me for the guarantee of free expression in our democratic country. I ask you to help me by engaging you, as I do, to this end, "Mr. Sarkozy has written in this post.

The UMP calls for contribution

Number of votes within the UMP amounted to indignation against this decision. Shortly after the announcement of the new, the party chairman Jean-Francois Cope announced by the UMP "a great national subscription".

Since Thursday night, those who wish may make a donation online, the site of the party. "The voice of the UMP will not die," wrote Mr. Cope in a message accompanying the form, addressing the activists, but also French sympathizers "who do not necessarily share all of our ideas, but consider essential, even vital, a large party of the right and the center is striving to prepare for the future children of France. "

The UMP announced the launch of the subscription for July 8. But "given the number of emails and phone calls received at headquarters" from potential donors, the first opposition party has decided to put online its website on Thursday evening.

While it is true that the decision of the Elders undermines the party's finances right, the latter were already pretty bad. Since the general election of 2012 and the loss of 125 members over the previous term, the finances of the UMP are reduced to a trickle, staffing state is proportional to the number of elected officials, is from just over 33 million to just over € 20 million. With news

UNITED STATES: Facebook has received more than 9,000 requests from U.S. authorities

 

Facebook said Friday that it had received between 9,000 and 10,000 U.S. authorities requests for user data in the second half of 2012 in apparently intended to protect the benefits of a great scandal.

The requests were based on issues ranging from the death of a child or minor offenses to terrorist threats. The number of accounts referred to is between 18,000 and 19,000, said the social network without revealing the number of times he had responded to the request .

An "aggressive" data protection

Faced with a public increasingly hostile after revelations that he was one of nine companies that provided personal data to the U.S. PRISM program, Facebook assured protect " , aggressively "data users, according to a statement of the firm's general counsel, Ted Ullyot. 

"Often, we rejected such requests directly, and asked the government to substantially reduce the size, or we have given the government much less data than the hoped could. And we have never exceeded the limits of the law, "said Mr. Ullyot.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the Internet giant would have responded to 79% of queries and would provide the authorities that the persons concerned and email address as given es on the internet protocol they use, but in any case the content of their emails or their posts on the social network.

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UNITED STATES: Washington promised $ 23 million reward to locate Belmokhtar

 

The manhunt is officially open. The United States promised a reward of $ 23 million for information leading to the capture of the Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar or that the head of the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram.

The biggest reward seven million is reserved for No. 1 alleged Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, who is currently fighting the army of Nigeria in the north-east of the country .

A windfall of five million dollars is offered to anyone who will provide critical information regarding the Algerian Belmokhtar, a former head of AQIM who set up his own group in late 2012.

Given up for dead by Chad in April, he threatened ten days ago to launch new attacks in Niger after suicide attacks in late May. His group conducted a massive hostage in January in a gas plant in Algeria.

"Rewards for Justice"

Other leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are also included in the program of the State Department called "Rewards for Justice", which since 1984 money to an informant for the arrest or elimination of individuals who threaten the interests of the United States.

Five million are pledged to the head of Abu Yahya Al-Hammam, an Algerian AQIM leader accused of involvement in the killing of a French hostage in 2010 . 

Abdelkarim Abu Malik, commander of AQIM and Oumar Ould Hamahathe spokesman of the Movement for the uniqueness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), an Islamist group ousted from Mali in January, are also the target of Washington, with three million each reward.

"AQIM is increasingly active in northern and western Africa. They are part of the first groups against kidnap ransoms in the global terrorist network ", told AFP an official of the State Department.

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CYCLING: Defending champion Bradley Wiggins withdraws for the Tour de France

 

The Tour de France 2013 will start on June 29 without the defending champion, Briton Bradley Wiggins, whose plan was announced Friday by the Sky team.

"Brad will not be ready for the Tour," said the head of the British team, Dave Brailsford, explaining the delay by health problems that affected the Londoner.

Pulmonary infection, which caused his abandonment Londoner in the Giro, May 17, and especially inflammation in his left knee, only going to be cured, are factors developed by the staff of the powerful British training.

"He has not been able to train hard for the Giro and now he needs extra rest," said Brailsford. 

According to the team doctor, Richard Freeman, pulmonary infection is cured. But a knee injury that required intensive treatment requires complete rest for five days before a gradual resumption of training over a period of two to three weeks.

Wiggins: "Almost a relief"

Therefore, the winner of the 2012 Tour is not able to run or the Criterium du Dauphine (June 2 to 9) or the Tour de Suisse (June 8 to 16), the last two races World calendar before the Tour de France.

"This is a big loss, but given the circumstances, we can not keep him in the team," said Brailsford had already told officially, last month, the role leader Chris Froome, dolphin Columbia Wiggins last summer. 

"I can not train like I need to do and I will not be ready," admitted the other hand the runner in a statement released by his training. "Once you accept that, it's almost a relief not having to worry about the injury and the race against time."

"I've been there when I broke my collarbone (in July 2011). So I know how it goes. I'll set myself new goals for this season and focus on them, "said Wiggins who still mainly the Vuelta, to save a disastrous season so far.

The "baronet" to famine in 2013

Since the beginning of the season, the victor of 2012 (Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, Dauphine, Tour de France, against the clock Olympics) has increased the disappointments.

Despite progress in March (Tour of Catalonia) and April (Tour of Trentino), the "baronet", his nickname in the Italian press, has not won any race in 2013, except against the clock by teams. In the Giro, he had made his big goal of the first half of the season, the former track racer went from bad to worse and eventually throw in the towel on the morning of the 13th stage.

The package of the outgoing winner was described as "half-surprise, surprise or quarter" by Christian Prudhomme. "We felt it coming," he told AFP Tour director. "It will probably be even more motivated in the Tour in 2014, in Yorkshire."

The absence of the defending champion is far from the first time in the recent history of the Tour de France. Before him, the other seven winners (since 1983) met in this case, the latter being the Spaniard Alberto Contador in 2008.

AFP

GUATEMALA: The genocide conviction of ex-dictator Rios Montt canceled

 

It was a historic verdict: 80 years in prison for genocide 50 and 30 for war crimes. Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, 86 years old, was found liable, on May 10, the massacre of at least 1771 when e Ixil Mayan Indians , was in power in 1982 and 1983. For the first time a South American president was convicted of genocide.

But this decision, then greeted by cheers and applause from the relatives of the victims, just by retoquée justice in Guatemala. Monday, May 20, during a brief press conference, the Constitutional Court announced the cancellation of the conviction for genocide because of a defect and demanded the resumption of the trial s when it was interrupted for questions of jurisdiction, on April 19. That day, a dispute erupted between two judges about their competence on this issue. A number of calls were then appeals to the Constitutional Court for irregularities.

One was Francisco Garcia, one of the defense lawyers of Rios Montt, who had been rejected at the beginning of the trial, for having tried several times to re ,. voquer two of the three judges presidents Once allowed to continue the defense of his client, Francisco Garcia again tried to dismiss the judges, but they simply rejected his request and continued the hearing. According to the Constitutional Court, the judges would have had to suspend the trial until the attempted challenge was officially resolved.

Victims will testify again

No date has been given for the restart of the trial. Among the 130 witnesses called, all those convened after May 19 will therefore be heard again. Dozens of survivors of the massacres perpetrated by the army during the civil war in Guatemala came to tell the atrocities committed by the military will again. Faces masked by colorful fabrics, including indigenous women reported gang rapes. Another witness, Julio Velasco child at the time, ensured they saw soldiers "use the head of an old woman like balloon" in a military camp where he had e ty forcibly taken. A former member of paramilitary patrols, Bernal Herrera, explained how he had been conscripted by the army throughout the civil war as an aid to the fight against-insurgency.

Came to power in a coup in 1982 and ousted the same way the following year, the former General Rios Montt implemented the policy scorched earth against indigenous people accused of supporting leftist guerrillas during the Cold War. The civil war in Guatemala (1960-1996) was 200,000 dead and missing, according to the United Nations.

After spending two nights in jail, Efrain Rios Montt was taken to the military hospital last week for respiratory problems and prostate problems. He will soon find his house arrest where he was before the trial. The Constitutional Court, in turn, gave 24 hours to the judges who sentenced the former dictator to comply with its decision.

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Ligue 1: PSG champion night of jubilation in Paris

 

After 19 years of waiting, the Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) won the third title of champion of France's history. By winning against Lyon thanks to a goal from Jeremy Menez (53), Parisians have ensured the Ligue 1 title in two days at the end of championship.

In turn, the sporting director of the Paris Club, Leonardo welcomed each player on their arrival in the locker room after the game. Cloakroom quickly transformed into dance floor! Ibrahimovic, Beckham, Thiago Silva could all shout their joy.

Amid the festivities, the defender Mamadou Sakho has improvised emcee! The native of the Paris region for which the champion has a special flavor introduced one by one his teammates.

At the same time, hundreds of fans converged on Paris's Champs-Elysees to express their joy screaming horns. Some of them had even made an appointment at Le Bourget airport to welcome their heroes.

Twenty-one people were arrested and three placed in custody on the sidelines of the celebrations on the Champs-Elysees

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Of the three persons in custody, two were for "glass breakage and theft in a meeting", and a third for "malicious damage by fire" , according to AFP. A total of seven windows were damaged and 16 members of the security forces injured order

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Note that the official presentation of the Trophy champion France will take place on Monday at 18:30 (local time) at the Trocadero. A ceremony to go live on our site. "The players from Paris Saint-Germain then rendezvous with their supporters, from 22 pm on Paris bridges!" Said the club's management of capital. This supports the theory of a cruise PSG players on the Seine to celebrate the title

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UNITED STATES: The future looks bright for the gun lobby in the United States

 

"We are engaged in a cultural war." The first words of the new president of the pro-gun lobby NRA (Nationa Rifle Association), James Porter, hit minds, last week, while the United States is again open debate on the ownership of firearms. In his sights: U.S. President Barack Obama, at the origin of several legislative proposals to better regulate the arms trade.

This debate is back on center stage in December, after the killing of Newtown, Connecticut, during which twenty children were killed. Barack Obama has ordered the formation of a commission to propose a number of measures. Three texts were presented to the Senate. The first to ban assault rifles and automatic weapons, the second to limit the ability of shippers guns, and the third offering to impose stricter criminal record checks medical and buyers of weapons. All were retoqués by the Senate.

Several states have gone even further in the standoff with the government adopting diametrically opposed to the policy advocated by the White House legislation. South Dakota has voted in March, a bill to allow teachers to come armed in their schools. According to local officials, this new provision will come into force in July, should prevent similar to that of Newtown killings by enabling the supervisory staff to ensure the safety of children. These volunteer teachers receive the same training as that provided to the police.

Questionable logic

"Several states have the ambition to pass laws similar to what is done in the state of South Dakota, like Missouri or Oklahoma," said Stanislas de Saint-Hippolyte, corresponding FRANCE 24 in the United States. "Many cities and school districts have done, he says. In a small town in Georgia, for example, municipal authorities decided to mandate the presence of a gun in every house of the city in an emergency and in the absence a policeman, anyone can defend the security of the city if necessary. "

Questionable logic that the influential NRA – which has more than four million members – is far from foreign. "The NRA plays a huge role in how it shapes the views and the way he always push to have more weapons," said Stanislas de Saint-Hippolyte. "The logic of the NRA is to say: 'To protect our children against a villain who wants to harm them, there is nothing like a nice to have a gun at home." The weapons are part of the American universe. We must get away from the big cities to see it but when you go for example in South Dakota, it is well aware. "

The killing of Newtown caused a shock in the United States about the movement of weapons. In the aftermath of the tragedy, many citizens are in favor of tougher laws on the subject. But little by little, this public support waned. And others have turned to the NRA. Since the massacre, the association has even claimed to have saved a million more memberships. In the United States, between 30% and 50% of American households own a gun. In the country, there are 88.8 guns per 100 people. This is one of the highest rates in the world.