JUSTICE: Extradited to Lomé, Le Floch-Prigent revives the legal troubles

 

"Stubborn as a Breton," says the proverb. Again, Camp Le Floch-Prigent, a native of Brest (Finistère), shouts to the plot at a time when the former leader of the former oil company franç , ais Elf finds himself in the hands of justice in Lome Togo. If you believe his lawyer Patrick Klugman, told FRANCE 24, the fraud case in which it is pursued in Togo "do [him] not apply."

"Whether we return to Mr. Le Floch-Prigent its rightful place in this case is probably that of a witness. Definitely not the place of a person subject to a warrant, "he says about his client's extradition to Lomé, 24 hours after his arrest on Friday 14 September, , Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

Le Floch-Prigent is indeed the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the Togolese authorities. This mandate follows a complaint by a businessman from the United Arab Emirates, Abass al-Youssef, who said that the former CEO and two Togolese have mounted a scam that would have cost more than $ 36 million. The French businessman says about the UAE but denies attempted to defraud.

Several stays in jail

A conspiracy, that's what Le Floch-Prigent had already denounced in 2003. At that time, he was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement in the Elf affair, a corruption scandal in which the investigation was entrusted to a some Eva Joly, then judge. It offended then the only oil company boss prosecuted in this case.

After 19 months of detention, Le Floch-Prigent regained his freedom, but claimed ruined and regretted that all his friends have turned their backs. "I live mostly on income from my wife. What little I had was seized and officers scrutinize accounts permanently empty. It will not let me live, "he said in 2006 the weekly" Le Nouvel Observateur ".

The following years have not been so much brighter. In 2010, an engineer by training performs additional six months in prison for failing to comply with the terms of his parole. Who could have imagined such troubles 25 years ago?

CEO, Consultant … and writer

In the 1980s, under the presidency of François Mitterrand, Le Floch-Prigent was a leader of the leading companies who occupied the head of several large hexagonal. During the wave of nationalization, officer near the left becomes number one Rhone-Poulenc (1982-1986), he recovers accounts, Elf-Aquitaine (1989-1993), GDF (1993 -1995) and SNCF (1995-1996) before being caught by the Elf affair.

Today, he claims to have turned the page. "I no longer think it is completely behind me," he said in an interview with AFP late August. At 69 years old soon, however, he returned to the energy sector as done today consultancies in oil. "Fifteen days per month in Brazzaville, Abidjan, Addis Ababa and Dubai, the other 15 days in Paris with trips to Italy and in the countries of Eastern Europe," he explained.

But especially fishing enthusiast tries to spend most of his free time Trébeurden in his native Brittany. There he devoted himself to pleasure found in prison writing. The action of his fourth book, the novel "Granite rosse" (ed. Coop Breizh), is also on its cherished land.

In this detective story, the PDG-novelist depicts a Parisian who does not understand the intricacies of local life and stick to the designated culprit … As a nod to his own legal problems. Today, Le Floch-Prigent seems to be trying to clear his name in the Elf affair. Stubborn as a Breton, say …

(FRANCE 24 with dispatches)

Syria: Aleppo insurgent neighborhoods plagued by relentless fighting

 

AFP-The Syrian army and the rebels delivered Wednesday a fierce battle for control of Aleppo, the second largest city and a crucial challenge for the rest of the rebellion that shook from Syria sixteen months.

Backed by tanks and armored forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched before dawn a major ground offensive and entered the main area of ​​dissent ' Aleppo Salaheddin.

The offensive came a day after the promise of President Bashar al-Assad to "purge" the country "terrorists", a term used to describe his regime rebels.

At midday, the arméea claimed to have taken control of this neighborhood landmark, that the insurgents were immediately denied. 

"Our armed forces have taken full control of Salaheddin, inflicting heavy losses on terrorist groups," said an official source quoted by SANA.

The source said "dozens of terrorists were arrested, others went into giving up their weapons" and "large quantities of weapons used by the terrorists to terrify the people and commit murder against the police were seized. "

Colonel Abdel Jabar dissenting Oqeïdi confirmed "a barbaric and savage attack of the neighborhood," adding "it is wrong to say that the military regime took full control of the district" . 

The fighting "focus primarily Salaheddine since the neighborhood is of great symbolic value for us and the army of the regime," said the head of the Military Council for the region of Aleppo .

By mid afternoon, the Syrian rebels said they recovered some lost ground a few hours earlier after having been reinforced by 700 fighters from Sukkari (south), al Bustane -Qasr (center), and Hanano Chaar (is).

Cons-offensive

"We launched an offensive against-back and lost three of five streets," said Wassel Ayoub, the brigade commander Nur al-Haq Army Syrian free (ASL rebels).

Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH), has said the army had destroyed two schools as the basis for the rebels. 

"These are the fiercest fighting around the neighborhood" since the conflict started in Aleppo on July 20, according to OSDH.

The arméea sent 20,000 troops to carry out this crucial battle for the regime, facing mid-March 2011 in a revolt that has militarized over time against repression brutal. Nearly 17 months of conflict were 21,000 dead according to OSDH.

Amnesty International has denounced the violence of the shelling of the last days based on satellite images that show more than 600 craters formed by the impact of shrapnel in Aleppo and in the nearby town of Anadane.

Elsewhere in the country, the army continues to bomb the province of Homs (center), the town of Deir Ezzor (is), and Kurdish villages in the province of Latakia (northwest), according to OSDH that counts at least 82 people killed Wednesday (41 civilians, 15 rebels and 26 soldiers), including 34 in Aleppo.

According to this NGO based in Britain, who works with a network of activists and witnesses through Syria, 225 people were killed Tuesday on the whole territory. 

Meeting Thursday in Tehran

"The Syrian people and its government are determined to purge the country of terrorists," promised Tuesday Bashar al-Assad receives a messenger from his Iranian ally.

The envoy, Saeed Jalili, told him that "Iran will never allow the destruction of the axis of resistance which Syria is a key pillar".

Iran hosts a meeting Thursday with a dozen countries have "a realistic" about the crisis, according to Tehran.

Lebanon has already said he would not participate in its observance of "neutrality" in the conflict. No more than Kofi Annan, the mediator has resigned from the UN and the Arab League.

On its 48 nationals abducted on Saturday by the Syrian Army free (ASL) in the region of Damascus, Tehran called "cooperation" of the Secretary General General of the UN Ban Ki-moon to secure their release.

While the kidnappers accused the Iranians of being Revolutionary Guards, the elite corps of the Islamic regime, Tehran, which in turn ensures they are pilgrims, nevertheless stated that a number of them were "retired Revolutionary Guards and the army".

HEALTH: France remains cautious about the effectiveness of preventive anti-AIDS Truvada

 

Reinforced by the recommendation of a committee of experts, the FDA, the agency that monitors food and medicine in the United States, has authorized the marketing of Truvada on the ground improve ; Rican. Taking a daily basis, the blue pill is intended to reduce the risk of transmission of the AIDS virus in healthy subjects but the risk of contamination is important. Gilead Sciences, the U.S. laboratory that develops the anti-retroviral, indicates that this prophylactic treatment is part of a general prevention device that does not detract from the condom use and other preventive measures. In Europe, we welcome the arrival of this new preventive tool with great care.

"This is a pure history of money!"

If the majority of French associations to fight against AIDS is concerned about the rapid commercialization of such medication, Act Up, she makes no secret of his hostility. Interviewed by FRANCE 24, Hugh Fischer, prevention coordinator within the organization, denounced a race to the money for the benefit of U.S. laboratories. "Gilead Sciences wished at all costs be the first to market the drug for short take its competitors despite all the negative studies published on this subject. This is a story of pure cash! It should have more depth the experimental protocol before launching it on the market. "

Coincidence or coincidence, the marketing authorization comes at one week of the International Conference on AIDS held in Washington from July 22 to 27. A boon for the pharmaceutical company that will touch on this occasion and makers of the European market.

The possibility of loosening preventive practices

Beyond the financial windfall that the marketing of this drug is, associations are concerned about AIDS prevention so unanimous risk of loosening of use the male condom. While the latest figures for its use show a steady decline in its use among young people, it is feared that taking Truvada Stavros Dimas this trend.

For Sandrine Fournier, project manager for preventing gay association Sidaction, "everything is a matter of compliance," she says FRANCE 24. In theory, preventive treatment of Truvada is 90% effective. But the compliance and dosages the patient is paramount in successful treatment. Clinical trials conducted between 2007 and 2009 from healthy homosexual couples had resulted in a success rate of 44%. According to Hugh Fischer, "nobody is able to fully take medication. I'm positive, I take the Truvada combination therapy for my long time and it is very difficult to follow the treatment every day. "

Not until mid-2013 in France

Still in the trial in France, treatment is unlikely to be sold any time soon on this side of the Atlantic. It must first laboratory Gilead files an application for authorization to market with French drug agencies (MSNA) and European (EMA). According to Professor Jean-Francois Delfraissy, director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (IMMI), the drug should not make its appearance in the Hexagon before the end of the second half of 2013.

There remains the problem of financial support. The amount of Truvada in treatment for a patient varies from 12 000 to 14 000 dollars per year. According to Sandrine Fournier, "the case is also political. What French community will fund the cost of such treatment? "Prevention is expensive as Truvada may finally increase a little sick of the injustices of the under-die ; oped which are still not, at present, triple therapy for all.

SPAIN: The famous bullfights of Pamplona began

 

AFP – Dressed in white, red scarf around his neck, thousands of fans screamed and jumped for joy by sprinkling wine on the town hall square of Pamplona on Friday to mark the occasion of sending of San Fermin, most famous bullfighting festivals in Spain.

"It's crazy, amazing, I love it!", Enthused, hair and clothes dripping wine, Louise Haley, 28, from Australia to attend This medieval fair, that fascinated Ernest Hemingway in his time.

With cries of "Viva San Fermin!" And "Gora San Fermin" in Basque, followed by the "chupinazo", run it from the balcony of the mayor of a rocket, fireworks, new day celebrations punctuated by the very famous bull runs were officially opened at noon. 

Waving their red scarves in a charged atmosphere, thousands of revelers from around the world were sprayed with wine, transforming the immaculate white of their traditional clothing in an original pink gradient. Dancing, singing, they went to enormous balloons, others, many, watching from the balconies overlooking the square.

Early in the morning, already, some had begun the festivities, drinking beer and sangria sitting in class or while walking and singing through the narrow cobbled streets of the city, their huge plastic glasses containing as much as one liter of beverage.

Punctuated by religious processions, traditional dances, concerts, watered by streams of drinking in bars allowed to open until dawn, the holidays are primarily famou ; members for their running of the bulls. 

Every morning at eight o'clock, hundreds of intrepid riders will engage with six fighting bulls of half a ton each, trying to avoid their horns over a distance of 850 meters leading to the arena of the city.

The bravest, or perhaps the most reckless, will run as close to the horns, hoping not to be injured during the four minutes that lasts the race through the heart historic city.

The first release, one that traditionally attracts the most people, will be held Saturday.

"It's a great feeling, your heart starts to beat faster," Anderson testifies Goyoaga, unemployed plumber of 34 years came from Bilbao.

He has already participated in the bull runs and getting ready to try again experience. 

"Every time I tell myself that this is the last but I can not help but go back," he admits.

In 2011, 20,500 runners participated in the eight bull runs, mostly men 18 to 35 years with nearly half were from overseas, especially U.S., d Australia and the United Kingdom, according to the mayor of Pamplona.

This curious mediaeval tradition could have inspired the butchers, to run before the animals brought to the campaign for the festival of San Fermin.

Each year, dozens of runners are injured, often because of the rush that sometimes falls under the legs of bulls.

The race sometimes turns into tragedy. The most recent death date three years ago, when a bull gored a Spaniard was 27 years.

To avoid injury, the organizers are trying to ban drunken revelers to participate in the release and have sprayed the road of a chemical to prevent slipping.

Pamplona, ​​which has 200,000 inhabitants, is expecting a half million visitors this year and hope the holidays bring him in about 70 million euros.

"I saw the images on television and I had no choice but I had to come," enthuses David Higgins, a British man 25 years came with three friends.

"This is probably the craziest party in the world!"

LEGISLATIVE FRENCH: The French press derides the tweet Valérie Trierweiler

 

Support of Valérie Trierweiler the dissident socialist opponent Segolene Royal in La Rochelle is regarded by newspaper editors Wednesday as a "settling of accounts" between Women and "the first quack of the Presidency normal" Francois Hollande.

"With Cecilia and Carla Sarkozy, the Elysee we had known bling. With Valérie Trierweiler, that fill the Elysee-pif, "writes Patrick Fluckiger in Alsace.  

He said the skirmish between the new president and partner of its predecessor "destroyed in a few lines, months of effort by Francois Hollande to appear strong, calm and reassuring" ;.

For Bruno Bécard of The New Republic of the Midwest account Tweeter is not "the fresh and innocent light chirping of a sparrow in the spring. This is a Scud sent by Valerie Trierweiler for Royal ".

Scud has a "looks like a settling of accounts", said Daniel Ruiz in The Mountain, which is "an illustration of the zero level of politics and causes great harm to one who aspires to simplicity ".  

Patrice Chabanet the Journal de la Haute-Marne believes that the position of the companion of the president takes "the gall of personal enmity between women in the political cauldron", weakening " ; necessarily Francois Hollande on again a heavy doubt on its ability to control the situation. "

The tweet in support of dissident Olivier Falorni has this "depressing it gets back to some mistakes of Sarkozyism" says Paul Quinio in Libération for whom "the mix of genres between life private and public life comes through the window. "

Dive in for Bruno Southwest, this is "a vaudeville, first president of the normal quack". "We thought it had finished mixing between sulfur and privacy policy after the beginning of the Sarkozy presidency, and here we go again!" Exclaims it.

Rémi Godeau in eastern Holland Republican said that Francis claimed to "overcome the practices of his predecessor" and that are caught "red handed crossing public-private line ".

"A strange picture we are given a President sandwiched between two strong women," says Philippe Waucampt in The Republican Lorrain. A "public rivalry," according to the editorial, which appears to accredit "the reputation of blur" that Martine Aubry wanted to "pin on the lapel of Francois Hollande at of primary socialist ".

Describing this tweet of "venom", Hervé Chabaud in The Union / The Ardennes provides that the companion of François Hollande, by attacking the mother of the children of the head of the State guarantees "the dense buzz of cynicism and irony."

MALI: The former junta claims to have foiled a coup against in Bamako

 

The former ruling junta in Mali said Tuesday at dawn "control the situation" in Bamako and its surroundings after several hours of clashes with forces loyal to former pre ; President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT), reversed on March 22, which left several people dead.

Tuesday, shortly after 3:30 (GMT), a representative of the former junta, unidentified, appeared on television to "reassure" the public, saying that the situation was "secure" in Bamako after the "attacks" aimed, he says, to "destabilize the process of restoring constitutional order". 

Accusing him of "ill-intentioned people" supported by "foreign elements" of having "attacked the airport, ORTM (radio-TV ; vision Mali) and the barracks of Kati (headquarters of the former junta) ", he assured that these three strategic areas were now" secure " ;.

Surrounded by a handful of soldiers, the representative of the junta has reported "arrests", and promised that all those involved "will be actively sought and prosecuted ". 

Some time before this televised statement the head of the former junta, Captain Amadou Sanogo Haya, had said in a written message broadcast by television, "control the situation" in Bamako, which seemed extremely confused.

Corroborating sources and witnesses testified in the late evening that the Board of Radio and Television of Mali (ORTM), but also the Bamako airport, had passed under the control of the presidential guard, the "red berets", loyal to former President ATT. 

In the evening, a private radio station, Radio Kayira, had broadcast several times a statement attributed to Captain Sanogo, denouncing the presence of "mercenaries" and " ; foreign soldiers "alongside the" red berets ".

The intervention of the supporters of the former junta on television seems to confirm that the fighting against loyalist forces have turned in favor of former coup leaders.

By all accounts, the fighting seemed to have concentrated in the middle of the night around the military camp of the garrison town of Kati, headquarters of the former ruling junta located 15 km from the capital. 

The road between Bamako and Kati camp was closed to traffic by elements of the loyalist forces, which diplomatic sources said regional surrounded the city.

Disturbances erupted in Bamako when the "Red Berets" were opposed to the arrest of Abidine Guindo, former Chief of Staff of the President by ATT elements of the former junta.

Witnesses said the gunfire was then exchanged by the seat of ORTM, occupied by supporters of Captain Sanogo since the coup.

Employees of television told AFP he saw "dead" without being able to specify the number or the camp. 

These disorders occur on the eve of a meeting in Ouagadougou between former coup leaders and Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré, mediator in the crisis in Mali that was canceled.

Captain Sanogo, who had accepted April 6 to return power by signing an agreement with the ECOWAS (Economic Community of African States West), Saturday had finally rejected the decisions taken on April 26 in Abidjan during a summit of heads of state in West Africa, particularly the sending of troops to his country to secure the transition after the coup of March 22.

He also rejected the decision of ECOWAS to set the transition period to twelve months, until the holding of presidential and legislative elections. 

Analysts said the former coup leaders refuse to be marginalized by the organs of the transition, led by Dioncounda Traore and his prime minister, Cheick Modibo Diarra, who formed a government consisting of three soldiers near the former -junta.

March 22, the coup leaders had justified their coup by "incompetence" of the regime ATT in the fight against armed groups Toureg, Islamists and criminals in northern Mali.

These groups have used the coup to strengthen their positions in the north they now occupy completely.

Hugo Chavez restarts treat his cancer in Havana

 

AFP – President Hugo Chavez has left Venezuela on Saturday night to Havana to undergo radiotherapy and treat cancer for which he had been reoperated in Cuba there is almost a months.

Returning on 17 March in Venezuela after suffering a second operation in Cuba, Hugo Chavez said, without specifying a date, he should return to Havana to attend se ; ancestral radiotherapy. He had confirmed early March that the "injury" which he had been operated in Havana was a "cancer recurrence" of 2011 in the pelvic area.

"I am announcing tonight that I will be en route to Havana, there to begin radiation treatment Monday on the recommendations of my medical team," stated the President in a message broadcast on radio and television.

Mr. Chavez, who left the Caracas International Airport surrounded by his guard of honor to 9:15 p.m. (1:45 GMT Sunday), had made the announcement in the middle of a Cabinet meeting at Miraflores Palace in specifying his colleagues that he would remain active in government.

"I'll call, I will sign, will read," he said.

"The complementary therapy to the operation I suffered will last four or five weeks and will be administered to the same place where my cancer was de tected, "said Chavez, referring to the Research Centre of medical and surgical Havana, without giving further details.

The Venezuelan head of state, however, said he would return to Venezuela "within days". 

Venezuelan President further stated that he "had withdrawn yesterday (Friday) the last stitches from his operation four weeks ago and everything was Well, he ate and was moving without any complications. "

Venezuelan authorities have never specified the nature of cancer and Hugo Chavez denied that it is transmitted to other organs.

Aged 57, Chavez underwent surgery on February 26 in Havana of a second cancerous tumor in the same area as that which had been withdrawn in June 2011.

In power since 1999, Mr. Chavez aspires to a new six-year term after the next presidential election on October 7, where he will face opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, governor of Miranda State rich. Chavez has ruled out any possibility of a replacement candidate.

Egypt: The Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III has died at age 88

The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, Patriarch Shenouda III, died Saturday at age 88, leaving behind a worried face community the thrust in the Islamic country after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Egyptian state media announced the death of the head of the largest Christian church in the East. According to news agency MENA, he suffered from liver and lung tumors.

He had to cancel his sermon last week.

Born in August 1923, Pope Shenouda III had many years of health problems and had been a neat time in the United States.

The news of his death is likely to cause consternation among the faithful of the Coptic Orthodox church he led for nearly four decades. The Copts are estimated between 6 and 10% of some 82 million Egyptians, the Coptic Church while talking about 10 million followers.

Thousands of worshipers were heading into Saturday night the great cathedral in Cairo, after the announcement of his death for which the leaders of the Muslim community in Egypt have expressed their sadness.

His death is "a serious calamity that afflicts the whole of Egypt and its noble people, Muslims and Christians," lamented the Mufti Ali Gomaa said in a statement.

The Party for Freedom and Justice, from the Muslim Brotherhood, has extended condolences to the Copts saluting the "big role" Shenouda III of Egypt. 

Shenouda III, whose community is one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches do not recognize the primacy of the papacy Catholic nor the Orthodox Patriarchate of the East, was at the Te you World Council of Churches and the Council of Churches of the Middle East.

His death will open within the hierarchy of this church a complex process of nominating his successor, for which no name has emerged in recent years.

Elected primate of the church in 1971, and the 117th successor to the founder and evangelist St. Mark, he drove an iron hand his community from confrontation to conciliation with power in Egypt, a country won by Islamism. 

Very conservative, he was particularly opposed strongly to any relaxation of rules banning divorce his followers.

In recent years he has faced an increase in violence against Copts-attacks or deadly clashes.

And the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in the early post-legislative Mubarak, as well as the breakthrough of ultra-conservative Salafist parties have caused renewed concern among the Copts. Although the Muslim Brotherhood have multiplied reassuring statements about it.

In December 2011, Shenouda III had said that "Egypt is going through a critical transitional period but we are sure we will do so in peace." He also praised the role of the armed forces, "who have made sacrifices for the good of Egypt and its people".

Yet, two months earlier by the military repression of a demonstration by Coptic activists in Cairo had killed 25 people, mostly Christians, reinforcing the sense of insecurity and widespread discrimination in this community.

And early 2011, when the mass of the Coptic New Year, an attack against a church of Alexandria (north) had a score of deaths among the faithful.

Many anti-Coptic violence have taken place since the fall of M. Mubarak.

Shenouda III was deposed and placed under house arrest by President Anwar Sadat, he criticized the rapprochement with Israel and opening towards the Islamists, before becoming a president's support Mubarak.

The uprising in January-February 2011 takes off guard while many of his followers are in the streets demanding the resignation of President.

CONGO – BRAZZAVILLE: Emotion and meditation at the funeral of the victims of the explosion in Brazzaville

 

AFP – Thousands of people attended in the emotion and meditation Sunday in Brazzaville at the funeral of 145 of the 223 victims of the explosion of a munitions dump, exactly one week after the drama that is also more than 2,300 injured and 14,000 homeless.

The master of ceremony, Medard Milandou, said in a speech that 223 bodies were stored in the morgues of the city, of which 159 have e tee identified so far. A previous review reported nearly 200 deaths.

The funeral of 145 victims identiées were held Sunday, those of the other 14 will be held later at the request of families.

The 145 Congolese flag draped coffins of green-yellow-red and a wreath of the same colors, arrived late morning on the esplanade of the Palais de Congress in the capital of Congo on trailers with a dozen trucks.

Four soldiers, wearing a black beret and a scarf, stood on each of the trailers.

Relatives of victims, some weeping, gathered under white tents six, officials face the least of which Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso. 

Some parents ran pictures of the dead and crosses on which were inscribed the date of birth and date of death, March 4, 2012.

On the other side of the boulevard between the esplanade of the Foreign Ministries, several thousand people, most dressed in black and white, took place behind barriers.

After an ecumenical (Catholic, Protestant and African church kibanguiste), President Sassou Nguesso has laid a wreath of flowers and condolences to the relatives of victims.

The funeral procession of tractor-trailer then headed to the downtown cemetery for the burial of victims, followed by a bus with thirty families, AFP noted. 

Vaults were specially dug in recent days on land adjoining the site of the cemetery where lie the 48 Congolese victims of the attack against a DC 10 of the French airline UTA September 19, 1989.

This day of tribute marks the end of national mourning declared by the authorities since Tuesday.

The series of explosions in an ammunition dump in a barracks of a regiment of tanks that blew a neighborhood of Brazzaville on March 4 between 10:45 a.m. 8:00 a.m. ET, has 223 dead, over 2,300 injured and 14,000 homeless people whose homes were destroyed.

This is the deadliest such accident, in deposits of arms and ammunition, for 10 years in the world. 

Stock could rise even more bodies likely located near the ammunition depot, including demining has not yet started and where the Cross Red could not go that far.

The accident was due to a short circuit that would have caused a fire, according to the government opened an investigation.

The main city hospitals, under equipped and overwhelmed by the influx of refugees after the accident, received the following days a substantial assistance from foreign countries and NGOs, mainly medical staff and medicines. 

The Congolese Observatory for Human Rights (COHR) has criticized the management of the crisis by the authorities "at all levels", including deploring the lack of accompanying measures for damaged s in the host cities and called for an "international investigation".

The 14,000 homeless are welcomed into the gardens of two churches, a covered market and stages of the city they live in difficult conditions. The government sought the support of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to manage sites.

EURO ZONE: The Greeks are they paying their rich due to rigor?

 

"The rich also have to pay." The Greeks who marched in Athens on the night of Sunday to Monday, when Parliament passed the latest austerity measures proposed by the government, that had not the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the neighbors of the European Union (EU) in their sights. They also expressed a sense of injustice against Greek upper classes who would not pay, they say, the same tribute to the austerity that the poorest .

One felt a priori justified. The key measure of the new austerity plan adopted by the country is the drastic reduction of 22% of the minimum wage. Hence the incredulity of some Greeks who wonder why some categories, as preferred, are passed through all the austerity measures implemented since the first international bailout agreed in Spring 2010.

The powerful Orthodox Church is regularly singled out. With estimated revenues – and never confirmed by the Church – to 700 milion euros and a tax official paid 2.5 million euros in 2010, it would have acquitted ; a tax of 0.35%. Some professions, such as the famous Greek shipowners, but also lawyers, doctors and pharmacists enjoy a very favorable tax regime which has not been challenged.

But these cases should not obscure the fact that the austerity measures in Greece, according to a study of the European Commission published in November 2011, reduced the inequalities. A fact confirmed by the work of economist Matsaganis Manos Greek who calculated, in December 2011, the richest Greeks have contributed 35% to the efforts of austerity against about 6% for the poorest. "Compared to 2009, those who pay more taxes lost 4344 euros (-18%) per annum, while the poorest earn 313 euros (-2%) in less than a year" he wrote in December in an analytical note addressed to the European Commission.

To this economist, the price paid by wealthy Greeks were primarily due to the choice of government priority to increase taxes on income that is "the most progressive tax" and then typing more richer. He also noted that all measures that have targeted the public service (pension reform, wage cuts, etc.). "Involves a category of the population, officials, which belongs to the upper middle class ; SUPERIORCOURT and easy in Greece ".

Of major EU countries that have taken austerity measures to try to reduce their deficits, only Portugal has experienced an increase in inequality due to the rigor, according to European Commission. Ironically, in these recommendations to Greece for its new austerity plan, the IMF advocated, last week, Athens and Lisbon take example to improve business competitiveness …