International News

Thursday milestone for the general construction equipment from France in optical fiber, the network of the future which must provide high-speed Internet to homes and replace the old telephone network today. France Telecom offers to all competitors who wish to offer access to its future fiber optic network in sparsely populated areas, with the possibility of co-financing. He has published Tuesday offers a very detailed in this direction. And it seems to do so fair play as Free immediately signed a co-financing rates ruling "economically reasonable".

After roaming agreement on 3G mobile, the partnership of the fiber is the second major agreement signed between France Telecom and Free in the space of a few months. But the incumbent would also be discussion of the fiber with SFR and Bouygues Telecom.This agreement will give a boost to fiber deployment in France, whose government is a priority. "What are the different actors as their strength together and avoid a dispersion of investment is really a giant step, which launches the real start of the top fiber," said Pierre Louette, secretary general of France Telecom.

If the number of Internet subscribers high-speed barely reaches 150 000 in late June, Nicolas Sarkozy has set a target coverage of 100% of the country with broadband by 2020. In the heart of major cities, very densely populated areas and therefore profitable, Orange, SFR and Free deploy each with its own fiber network. But the issue is acute in areas less dense. France Telecom's offer and provide an initial response to the many local officials who want high-speed on their territory.

Sixty cities

In concrete terms, with the agreement signed between France Telecom and Free the cities of Dijon, Brest, Reims, Le Havre, the community of loops of the Seine around Chatou near Paris, some sixty in total, representing 1,300 Public and 5 million homes will be equipped from 2011 to 2012. France Telecom will deploy its network and will own in the end. But competitors can participate in the financing and get strong trading network usage. "It's very flexible. Our competitors can buy access rights for every 5%. They are true indefeasible rights of use, kind of very long-term concessions, renewable, and can assimilate into their investment accounts, "said Yves Parfait, program director at France Telecom fiber.Since France Telecom agrees to work with its competitors, exit the idea of ​​a centralized national structure "Fibre France" imagined by some. "This fantasy of a national operator vanishes," said Pierre Louette.

The agreement validates the framework established by the regulator (Arcep) and meet in Brussels considered it too little binding. "The framework adopted in France is good, since it works, that France Telecom did what was expected of her and it avoids wasting public money," says Pierre Louette.

In total, France Telecom will invest 2 billion euros by 2015 in deploying fiber. It has covered 3600 and communes, 3440 outside the areas dense. It aims to cover 10 million households in 2015 and 15 million in 2020, nearly 60% of French households.

While falling the first quantitative estimates on the losses caused by the bacterium E. coli (EHEC) on the French market garden industry, the doubts expressed Friday by Bruno Le Maire, who feared a "very negative impact" on the French production of vegetables, proved correct. So much so that the French Minister of Agriculture will visit Brussels on Monday to ask European authorities to release the compensation for French fruit and vegetables. That's what he said last night during a trip to Washington as part of the preparation of a G20 meeting.

The bill could climb quickly, especially if other European countries adopted the same position. Only in France, in a week, the losses for the chain of cucumber and tomato were almost 5 million.In Spain, they reach for the entire industry around 200 million euros, according to the Spanish Federation of Producers and exporters of fruits and vegetables (FEPEX), 75 million euros for the single chain of cucumber.

Germany will not pay

Ultimately, who pays for that damage? The issue remains unresolved, some arguing that Germany, by criminalizing the original Spanish cucumbers in the spread of the disease, is mainly responsible for the current situation and the financial losses suffered by producers. Since then, the vegetable has been exonerated, no evidence has been presented that is causing the infection. For some, Germany should pay the compensation sought. A scenario has completely rejected on Saturday a Reinhard Schäfers Europe, the German ambassador in France no fax payday advance."I can not imagine it will financially compensate," he said, justifying the information given by a need for transparency. "When we did, we had found something on some cucumbers Spanish. When you have information to one point, you must tell the public, "he added.

"We are victims of an epidemic," he said. That is what concerns us for now. There are mechanisms at European level to deal with it ", confirming the position of Bruno Le Maire.

Expected meeting June 17 in Luxembourg

In addition, the Minister recalled Friday absolute necessity "not to lower our guard for food safety," tackles and the attempts by some European countries to "re-nationalize agricultural policies."Having considered excessive embargo imposed by Russia on European imports of fresh vegetables (594 million euros in 2010), the Minister has however called for a "total safety" at the intra-European and its boundaries, based on traceability and controls. There remains the question of the cost of such tests. A question that Bruno Le Maire has not evaded, but without giving numerical estimates. This position closes, the minister should defend it on June 17. A meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg should indeed be confirmed within 48 hours to study the responses to health crises, but also to improve their prevention.

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British phlegm is not what it was. Exasperated by American diplomats who refuse to pay the London congestion charge ", the congestion charge in place since 2005 to move or to park in the capital, the conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has decided to directly attack the President Barack Obama.

Taking advantage of his official visit this week in Britain, he decided – not happy with him claiming some 8.7 million euros in arrears – all cars of the procession would pay tax like everyone else. Starting with the Cadillac of Chief of the U.S. state, nicknamed "the Beast" by the Secret Service because of his size and armor that are, according to experts, a real tank on wheels cheap payday advance.Transport for London, the agency responsible for managing the toll, which depends on the mayor, is trying to calculate the bill at the rate of 11.50 euros per day per vehicle.

The Pope, himself, had nothing to pay in September 2010 but says Boris Johnson in the Evening Standard, the roads were closed to other traffic, while this time, they were not . And beware of other heads of state who want to go to London! All diplomatic missions should in fact the tune of 59 million.

What partly explain the irritation of the elect, who has seen the end of March a half-million English between Westminster and Hyde Park to protest against cuts in the government.

In Greece, the good news is rare lately. The most indebted country in Europe would be out of recession in the first quarter of 2011, thanks to a rebound in activity of 0.8%, according to Eurostat and the Greek Authority statistics. A surprise, after a dip of 2.8% over the last three months of 2010, a figure significantly revised downward from earlier estimates of -1.6%.

"The resumption of growth in Greece is surprising: we expected the continuation of the recession," says Thibault Mercier, economist at BNP Paribas. "But that blip, probably driven by external trade, does not fundamentally change the situation: the austerity program has a strong impact on household consumption.Businesses can not borrow at very high rates and banks, whose health depends on the state of public finances, have limited access to liquidity. "Clearly, they can very easily give credit to their customers.

"The recession is it defeated?" Asks BNP Paribas. "Not really: the figures published so far do not provide details on the components of growth and numbers are often revised significantly after the first publication." These factors explain the downward revision by the European Commission's forecast Greek economy to the same Friday. It now expects a fall of 3.5% of the activity, against a fall of 3% previously envisaged. Accordingly, the government deficit is forecast at 9.5% of GDP, against 7.4% previously estimated.

The recovery is strengthening in the euro zone

Moreover, growth in the euro zone has more than doubled in the first quarter at +0.8% against +0.3% end of 2010, according to a first figure published by Eurostat.

It is true that several countries are still experiencing difficulties. Portugal has thus fallen into recession, with a contraction of 0.7% of GDP and the Italian economy has stagnated (+0.1%). Spain has recorded its share to a timid growth of 0.3%.

The average growth in the euro area was driven by the dynamism of its largest economies: France reported a surprise increase of its activity by 1%. Growth of 1.5% was even made by Germany!

A supervisory board was held Friday night at Areva, with the menu preparation of the general assembly of the nuclear group, on 27 April. While some members of the supervisory board mandate coming to the end, these included establishing the list of those whose names will be submitted to shareholder vote.

Unsurprisingly, Jean-Cyril Spinetta is part of the list. The current president will be renewed during Supervisory Board provided at the end of the GA. However, Rene Ricol, author of an audit on behalf of the government leaves office, as he wished. Anne Lauvergeon, Chairman of the Board whose term ends June 30, reappointment of Jean-Cyril Spinetta is a good thing: he wants his support.

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Occur again and again, to meet global demand for oil as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEA) has revised upwards, to the tune of 89.3 million barrels per day (bpd) for 2011. To cope, the majors are concentrating their efforts on exploration and production, which represents on average 70% of their investments. "This is an area ultracapitalistique, which also means taking risks," said Pierre Terzian, editor of the weekly special Pétrostratégies. Some new sources turn out to be less promising than expected.

In 2010, capital expenditure of ExxonMobil, the world leader in the industry (with annual revenues exceeding $ 105 billion), reached a record $ 32.2 billion."As resources are increasingly difficult to access, large companies have limited resources to become leaders in other segments energy," insists a study by consulting firm Strategy Sia Council. The particular demands of offshore exploration technologies increasingly sophisticated. As for heavy oils, in areas often extreme climate, their production is profitable from $ 90 a barrel.

They limit spending on alternative energy

In the early 2000s, the giants of black gold loudly asserted their determination to focus on alternative energy. A few years later, this policy sketched above dashed. Sia Council recalls in particular that in 2009, Shell decided to freeze its investments in wind, solar and hydrogen.Its new priority, biofuels, is actually quite close with his heart craft. Ditto for ExxonMobil, which has pledged up to $ 600 million along with Synthetic Genomics to develop a new generation of biofuels from algae low rates payday advance. In general, large companies invest only timidly in green industries: a few hundred million dollars, compared with several billion in profits."Today, they rely on partnerships to actively monitor the various alternative technologies while limiting investment amounts and risk," says Sia Council.

For Pierre Terzian, even if the majors are still facing the post-oil era, we must go beyond these minimal efforts made to promote renewable energies, "Tankers are on the lookout for a jump technology that will allow for example for solar to become competitive.Now the search is not always greedy investment: it took less than 100 million dollars to develop this energy revolution that is the production of shale gas. "

They remain wary of big acquisitions

According to most experts, the time of mega-mergers, with operations whose ticket is trading at very high levels, is over.

The faults of BP in terms of security would be due to growing much too fast. "Before the race for size, the majors are asking the question of the effectiveness of integration, even if the example of ExxonMobil, three times larger than Total, is compelling," said Pierre Terzian.

They serve shareholders still hungry

The company repeated it in chorus when the benefits are significant, it is natural that their shareholders benefit greatly.In 2009, for example, ExxonMobil has distributed some $ 26 billion. And the annual loss endured by BP in 2010 because of the oil spill did not stop to announce a dividend.

Objective: to distance vis-à-vis the City. While the controversy bounces across the Channel on lavish bonuses bankers, the government of David Cameron has chosen to burden of 800 million pounds (942 million) the new tax basis on the balance sheets of banks. London is well draw now £ 2.5 billion, when its previous estimates had forecast 1.7 billion. The levy, which applies to UK banks and UK subsidiaries of foreign firms, will bring another 2.5 billion in 2012 and 2.6 billion thereafter.

At first, George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had planned a gradual rise of the levy, the successor to the windfall tax on the bonuses that had generated 3.5 billion pounds of revenue in 2010.The idea was to allow banks to replenish their equity perspective of European regulations Basel 3. But the good results of HSBC and Barclays more – 24 billion pounds expected by UK credit institutions – have changed the situation. This tax is "a fair contribution to reducing the budget deficit," said George Osborne.

Waiting for the Merlin Project

Downing Street hardens tone vis-à-vis banks just before the season officially starts do bonuses. Some see a sign that the government has little hope of obtaining commitments of moderation in this respect, as he hoped.Already, information published in newspapers across the Channel on the 9 million pound bonus Advance Bob Diamond, Barclays' chief executive, and Stuart Gulliver, head of HSBC, revived the controversy on recurrent variable remuneration.

To reconcile the financial sector in general with the public, banks and government have been trying for weeks to complete an ambitious, dubbed Project Merlin. Among its requirements, Downing Street wanted the large banking institutions limit bonuses. With an expected budget of 6 billion pounds of variable remuneration provided, the City does not seem to have listened to the dictates of moderation."It would have been better, when we save the banks, to secure something in return," coward George Osborne: "Unfortunately, I was not the chancellor at that time" …

Westminster also asked HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS in banking to provide SMEs about 190 billion pounds of loans, just like what the Elysee had negotiated with the French banks to finance the economy. In addition, the British bankers are asked to develop a £ 1 billion fund to build capital for small businesses.

"The discussions are not completed," admits George Osborne, who hopes to increase "substantial and significant" loans to businesses.And say: "I am always confident about the fact that we can reach an agreement with banks expected to increase loans to small businesses and lower bonuses."

Relaxed, listening, taking time to look at him and try to farm products, the president visited for three quarters of an hour on a farm in Lower Rhine Mittelhausen located at 23 km northwest of Strasbourg. "I know I'm late," he said on leaving Goehry Matthew, a young 31 year old farmer, whose farm was chosen for the presidential visit. A modern operating from 75 dairy cows, production of hops and sugar beets. Here you are looking to the future and modernity, "said the head of state before going vows to rural France not far away in the ballroom Truchtersheim arch-height, 15 km west of the capital of Alsace. He was barely 13 hours and the head of state, who apologized to his audience, more than 1,500 people, had almost an hour behind the official program."I will continue in 2011, structural measures to upgrade the income of our farmers and ensure they can live decent price. This calls for strengthening the competitiveness of agro-food by better economic organization at national level, "he said in the introduction.

Do not fall under the yoke of commercial diktats

To achieve this goal, he wants to pursue three axes. The first is contracting, which will apply in the chain of fruit and vegetables from March 1 and in the dairy industry one month later. This also applies to meat producers. "I do not accept that their average annual income ceiling to 12,400 euros. We must fight the fight against the volatility of the cost of feed is now dangerous for farmers.Is it normal that 40% of grain produced on our territory are sold to farmers without any price guarantee, where countries such as Mexico with a guaranteed purchase price for several months, imports of corn? "Asked Nicolas Sarkozy . A contractual relationship which also allows the world farmer to assert his independence. "Agriculture has not lost its old masters, two centuries ago, that globalization gives him new ones. The French peasantry did not burn a thousand years of feudal rights to fall under the yoke of commercial diktats, "he denounced.

The CAP must support food production

Second axis for the growth of farmers' income, that of sustainable development."A new tariff will be implemented in the coming weeks to purchase gas and electricity produced by anaerobic digestion to ensure better utilization of waste from farms and rural communities," said President of the Republic. While also indicating that the decree authorizing the transport up to 44 tonnes was released Tuesday morning. An old demand of the agricultural world which will carry at least 10% of expenses and be more in harmony with European neighbors.

Finally, the third axis passes through the maintenance of the CAP budget, and some 10 billion aid to French farmers. "The budget of the CAP must be maintained at that of 2013. We are opposed to a re-nationalization of the CAP. I want the CAP support food production, "insisted the tenant of the Elysee.Not to mention his role in the G20 where he wants to support the regulation of agricultural markets to reduce price volatility. He also asked Bruno Le Maire, at her side and that has not stopped making special praise for his speeches, "meet in the first half of the agriculture ministers of the G20 to improve transparency in agricultural markets. " What solicit even more a Minister of Agriculture to become the head of the UMP presidential draft 2012 and which also tackle the challenges of rural life! What a program to regain popularity with farmers who in 2010 turned their backs on the presidential party at the regional. We'll see at the cantonal next March if the presidential greetings were well received!

Apple will once again have to operate without the presence of Steve Jobs on a daily basis. On Monday, the founder and CEO of Computer announced he was returning on sick leave for health reasons which were not specified. "At my request, the board gave me a medical leave so I can focus on my health," he wrote in a letter to its employees. "I remain CEO and involved in strategic decisions are most important to the company," says he. But it is the COO Tim Cook who will ensure the smooth running of daily business.

This is the third time that Steve Jobs was forced to distance itself with the direction Apple for several months. He was absent for the first time in 2004 to treat pancreatic cancer.Then it became very thin during the various presentations of new Apple and had to take a leave of six months in early 2009, to undergo a liver transplant. The lack of transparency from Apple, which had first suggested a "hormonal imbalance" Benin, was then criticized by the press and certain minority shareholders, to trigger an investigation Exchange Commission following the publication of information deemed too reassuring.

A destiny linked to Apple

The fate of Apple is intimately linked to the personality of its charismatic leader, now aged 55, who came to embody fully the company he founded in 1976 in his parents' garage in Cupertino , California payday loan lenders.Presented as a visionary of the personal computer after the launch of the Macintosh in 1984, Steve Jobs saved Apple from bankruptcy when he returned to command in 1997. For ten years, he has a lot of success with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Under his leadership, Apple has become the third largest stock exchange in the world. She now weighs 320 billion dollars, ahead of Microsoft and Google.

Shortly after announcing the withdrawal, the Apple stock plunged more than 7% in Frankfurt, while the NYSE was closed for the holiday in the United States. In his letter, Steve Jobs says it is certain that Tim Cook and his team "will work great for putting into practice the very exciting plans we have for 2011." One way to understand that the road is already paved for the next few months, while the output of an iPad 2 and 5 are specified an iPhone."I hope to be back as soon as possible. But in the meantime, my family and I greatly appreciate that our privacy be respected, "he concludes.

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