CASE DSK: Christine Lagarde, but disputed favorite to succeed DSK

She did not even nominated, but more and more European leaders want to make their champion Christine Lagarde to the estate of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as Director of the IMF. If she decides to take the plunge, the French Minister of Economy is not alone in eyeing the prestigious chair and several other personalities, including from countries known as "emerging", he will want to challenge the status as favorite.

The battle for the position was officially opened on Monday with the possibility to file applications with the International Monetary Fund.The institution was given until June 30 to adopt a new director.

Christine Lagarde has received this weekend the support of his British counterpart, George Osborne and the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. The influential German economic daily, the Handelsblatt, was even knighted in its Saturday edition, the French minister as "the candidate of Germany."

In France, the patron saint of Bercy has also received support Sunday, Martine Aubry. The national secretary of the Socialist Party said that his appointment would be "a very good thing for our country and for Europe."

Christine Lagarde had called last Thursday in a bid "to bring all together" Europeans.A vow that seems on track to be heard. His accession to the throne of the IMF is not granted, provided. Other candidates are on track. For now, three are already known and some countries like China have promised to present an alternative to Christine Lagarde:

Didier Reynders, the European outsider. Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Finance said it was "obviously" interested in the job. He has emphasized that his French counterpart was "a very real favorite" but his probable candidacy crack the united front that Europe is trying to present.

In fact Didier Reynders has hinted he would make a good candidate for replacement.One way to emphasize that domestic pots, as the case Tapie and the role it would play Christine Lagarde, French Minister could prevent the arise. To its credit, the Belgian politician recalls the Minister of Finance since 1999 and he knows well the IMF, where he served for over 10 years at the Monetary and Financial Committee.

Grigory Marchenko, the underdog came from the steppes. Russia wants the governor of the central bank of Kazakhstan replaces Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Grigory Marchenko's bid, submitted last Thursday, is the first issue of one of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Little known, Grigory Marchenko was at the head of the Kazakh Central Bank between 1999 and 2004 before becoming deputy prime minister.He returned to the central bank in 2009.
His candidacy has created a chill among the Bric countries since it was announced without consultation and contrasts with the European single possible candidacy.

Augustin Carstens, the outsider from the inside. Mexico announced Sunday its intention to file the nomination of the Director of its central bank. The legitimacy of Augustin Carstens is due primarily to its past in the IMF he was deputy director for three years (2003-2006). He also represented the countries of South America to the Board of Directors of the IMF from 1999 to 2000.But Mexico is unlikely to put one of their own to head the International Monetary Fund as the country already holds the reins of the OECD since 2006.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban attack kills 36 people

The Taliban have killed Thursday 36 employees - Afghans and a Pakistani - a construction company in an attack against buildings that lasted several hours, at night, in eastern Afghanistan, announced the company.

The attack was the deadliest since the assault, by a commando Taliban against a bank of Jalalabad (east) where the police came to collect their salaries, which had killed 38 on February 20.

"Thirty-six of our employees have been killed and many were wounded," said the director of road construction company Galaxy Sky Noorullah Bidar AFP.

Guards, engineers and workers among the victims, he said."A Pakistani is among the killed and another was wounded," he added.

The complex was located near a road construction site in the province of Paktia.

According Rohullah Samoon, spokesman for the governor of Paktia, the attack was conducted to 02:00 (21:30 GMT) with a "large group of Taliban."

Fighting between the company guards and the attackers lasted several hours, he said.

The director of Galaxy Sky said he did not know the reasons for the attack. In 2009, a suicide bomber in the same area had killed 16 of its employees working on the same road project, he said."They do this to prevent us from rebuilding Afghanistan," he said.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed the attack saying the assailants had killed 40 employees. He did not reveal any losses in the ranks of the attackers nor the reasons for the attack.

According to the spokesman for the governor of Paktia, eight Taliban were killed in the crossfire.

He could not provide further details on the attack immediately.

Paktia province has borders North Waziristan, in Pakistan's tribal areas, regarded as a rear base for Taliban.

Such as neighboring Paktika and Khost, Paktia is one of the bastions of Haqqani network, a key Taliban rebel movements.

FOOTBALL: Bayern will go through the preliminary round of the Champions League next

AFP - Bayern Munich has reached its minimum goal, finishing 3rd in the German championship on Saturday, but he has definitely moved on Van Gaal as he survives the trap of the third preliminary round of the Champions League in August.

Scarcely had the last game of a disappointing season ended, Uli Hoeness has settled its accounts with Louis van Gaal, sacked in April.

"We would probably have acted sooner (...) I learned this season that we could win things, but if there was no pleasure, it was no use," dropped the Bavarian leader about the Dutch, thanks to lack of results and adequacy in respect of its leaders.

Hoeness knows that the shadow of Van Gaal will continue to hover over the most successful club in German football, at least until August.

After a season where he has never been ranked higher than third, Bayern must go through the repechage to compete for the Champions League 2012, whose final will take place in the stadium.

And the third preliminary round of the C1 can be quite a blow to the throat with possible opponents of the English Manchester City, the Italians Lazio or Juventus.

Bavarian players and managers are eager to take their revenge.

"I look forward to the new season begins, I look forward to working with Jupp Heynckes.We want to be at the outset Bayern Munich that everybody knows, "he told Hoeness as a warning to the competition.

Poisoned

Van Gaal after injury, Bayern has chosen to revive Heynckes, a personal friend of Hoeness and connoisseur of the Bavarian institution to have already resulted in twice.

"We need to lead this club to understand, listen to everyone and does not believe as a coach too important," summarized the dean of coaches in the Bundesliga (65).

To settle the inheritance Van Gaal who had to make any appointment last summer, Bayern will not stingy: the arrival of goalkeeper Neuer Germany team for 25 million Euro is just a formality.

It should be accompanied by the Dane Petersen (Cottus), Completion of Gomez in attack, top scorer in the Bundesliga that Van Gaal wanted to sell early in the season.

The defense, recurrent weakness will be strengthened, perhaps with German international Jerome Boateng (Manchester City), and the Chilean Arturo Vidal could beef up the midfield.

Heynckes has yet to manage one last poisoned chalice left by Van Gaal: since the departure of Van Bommel in January, the Bayern has more leadership despite the aspirations of Schweinsteiger and the captain gave Lahm.

It is even the cacophony in the locker room where Bavarian Robben seriously annoys many of his teammates.

Bayern will probably forget to succeed Van Gaal, but not necessarily its sulfur nickname "FC Hollywood".

Cubans will again travel abroad

AFP - The Cuban government will allow, for the first time in more than 50 years, tourism trips abroad for Cubans, according to a reform plan released Monday by the authorities.

The government will "consider the provisions that allow Cubans to travel outside as tourists," said one of the 313 economic reform measures adopted in April by a historic congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.

The document released Monday gives no details on how to leave these trips abroad, but formalizes the decision to allow Cubans to travel as part of economic reforms launched by President Raul Castro.

Permission to travel is a key demand of the Cuban population. It is not forbidden to travel, but restrictions are so numerous that very few Cubans are able to do so.

Cubans must obtain such an invitation from the outside and ask for permission, which can be rejected without justification.All steps bureaucratic cost also very expensive for an average salary of around 15 euros per month.

The Cuban government does not publish statistics on travel by Cubans abroad.

JAPAN: Prime Minister calls for closing a nuclear plant near Tokyo

AFP - Two months after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (northeast) following the earthquake, Prime Minister of Japan has demanded the closure of another station in the center of the group subjected to high seismic risk.

"I ordered that (...) Chubu Electric Power stops the operation of all reactors in the Hamaoka nuclear power plant," Naoto Kan said Friday during a press conference in Tokyo.

"This decision was taken for the safety of people," he said."We also took into account the enormous impact that a serious accident at the Hamaoka plant might have on Japanese society as a whole," he added.

The region will suffer a power shortage

This plant is located within 200 km southwest of Tokyo and a hundred kilometers from the city of Nagoya, the heart of an industrial region.

Specifically, this decision is to close the reactors 4 and 5 and does not restart the reactor 3, currently stopped for checking. Units 1 and 2 of the plant to five reactors had been finally stopped.

Mr.Kan warned that this decision might cause a power shortage in the region as a first step.

"The competent authorities including the Ministry of Science, estimated at 87% chance that an earthquake of magnitude 8 struck the region over the next 30 years," said Japanese Prime Minister.

"It is necessary to introduce measures in the medium and long terms, particularly the construction of protective walls facing the sea, who could resist" to a giant tsunami, he said, without elaborating on the calendar.

According to Kyodo, Chubu Electric has agreed to suspend operations.

"This can not be the last", says Greenpeace

Located at the junction of four tectonic plates, Japan is undergoing one of the strongest earthquakes recorded on Earth.On 11 March, a magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a giant tsunami devastated the northeast of the archipelago and left over 25,000 dead and missing, and in 1995, an earthquake in Kobe (center-west) made more than 6,400 dead.

The Japanese anti-nuclear activists rejoiced.

"Greenpeace welcomes the decision of the Prime Minister to close Hamaoka, one of the most dangerous nuclear plants in Japan," said Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan executive director.

"For the first time a sitting prime minister has directly sought a nuclear plant is closed in Japan.However, this can not be the last, "he added.

"Fukushima is a stark reminder of the consequences of nuclear energy, and there are still many other dangerous reactors in operation," he said.

Japan is facing two months since the worst nuclear accident in its history after cessation of cooling Fukushima Daiichi plant, caused by the disaster of 11 March.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), operator of the plant located 250 km northeast of Tokyo, believes it can reach the reactor cooling by January 2012.

Japan had about fifty nuclear reactors in operation before the earthquake.Nuclear power provides slightly less than 30% of the electricity consumed in the country.

FRANCE: Villepin retrial on appeal in the Clearstream affair

Sixteen months after being acquitted in the Clearstream affair, Dominique de Villepin appear again in court on Monday on the occasion of his trial before the Court of Appeal of Paris, which promises to be more peaceful because of the defection the Head of State.

"I fear nothing and no one fears nothing when you're innocent," said Sunday the former Prime Minister, saying "perfectly calm this time."

In this case, is accused Dominique de Villepin, Imad Lahoud and the mathematician and the former head of EADS, Jean-Louis Gergorin of falsifying bank listings from the Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream, to to believe that several personalities, including Nicolas Sarkozy, held secret accounts abroad.

The case came to light in the summer of 2004, but not until January 2006, while the statement trampled, that Nicolas Sarkozy had a civil party, promising to hang the culprits to "a hook block.The investigation was then conducted with great fanfare by means judges Henri Pons and Jean-Marie d'Huy.

Convinced that Dominique de Villepin was the instigator of the plot, they had returned to Corrections late 2008 to include "complicity in slanderous denunciation".

After a month of trial, Dominique de Villepin had been acquitted, January 28, 2010, by the Paris Criminal Court, as the journalist Denis Robert.

The auditor Florian Bourges, who presented the Clearstream customer lists to Imad Lahoud, was sentenced to four months suspended sentence. Jean-Louis Gergorin had been sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment and 40,000 euros fine and Imad Lahoud eighteen months in prison and 40,000 euros fine.

These last two have appealed their conviction. Regarding the former minister, the prosecutor who undertook to appeal.

Twenty plaintiffs also challenged the trial decision.The most notable absentee will be Nicolas Sarkozy who has renounced his continuing Dominique de Villepin appealed.

During the four weeks of trial - the hearings will conclude on May 26 and the decision will be taken under advisement for several months - nine witnesses will inform the court of appeal, presided over by Christiane Beauquis. Among them, General Philippe Rondot, who investigated the time listings, the former head of the DST, Pierre Bousquet de Florian, or the magistrate Renaud van Ruymbeke.

A princely marriage which is perfect for the royal family

The royal marriage celebrated Abbey Westiminster cosntitue the happy ending of a drama begun in the same place in 1997: the funeral of Diana, the "people's princess", in the words of Tony Blair. That day, the world has eyes only for the two young princes, William and Harry, weeping.

The British quarrel with their queen who failed to show that this tragedy touched beyond the grief of her grandchildren. Elizabeth II has always believed that Diana was no longer part of the family.Error! The people's anger and the wrath of the press - not just the tabloids - are so violent that the question of the future of the monarchy is asked.

Seen in the wonderful film by Stephen Frears "The Queen", the queen does not respond to heart-cons (clinging to its motto: "Never explain, never complain") and under pressure from his Prime Minister Tony Blair, who himself had felt perfectly well that something big was going on in the hearts of voters and British subjects. Queen hated. His revenge in 2011: Tony Blair (and his wife considered intimate enemy of the queen) is not even invited to the wedding.

Prince William has the profile that must be

Fourteen years later, the queen of the coast is rising at its highest.Why? The petulant princess has beautiful eyes, but there are especially the personality of William. He inherited his mother's natural charm, aristocratic simplicity that is not feigned. The taste of others without his side a little "nian nian," tearful and this weakness for public outpourings. William is modern, but it is a true Windsor. He did not weave the father, Prince Charles, but fled the press like the plague (he considers responsible for the death of his mother). This is not a revolutionary, far away. In her circle of friends, there are only blue blood - almost.

We hear the objection: he marries a commoner not? A college girlfriend Moreover, as so many kids his age? That is the genius of the thing.Because here is finally what was missing for rehabilitating the Windsor and closer to the people: some new blood in this family where impeccable aristocratic alliances have neither prevented nor misfortune scandals.

But there is a deeper explanation. This revival of the monarchy is a wave of conservatism that is not suspected at the time of Diana's death. Stephen Frears (again) shot "My Beautiful Laundrette", a film about the difficulties of assimilation of a Pakistani family (we said at the time Asia) to the model british.Today, brothers or son of the characters are called Muslims and it never ceases to wonder why some of them, although born subjects of His Majesty, educated in the best schools in the Kingdom, went to plant bombs in the subway train or parties in 2007 with Al-Qaeda to learn to kill British "white".

A UK more "British" than ever

The identity of "British" does she want to say something? Not only London has become a world city, but across the Channel, we willingly considers Scottish, Welsh or English - and less and less British.Strengthening the regional autonomy laws passed by New Labour may have been desired and needed, but the people disillusioned and begins to regret a golden age that the British crown is almost alone now to embody in all its sometimes cumbersome and his conservatism, just ...

For all these reasons, William embodies the hope of regeneration of the institution.
Unlike his father, he does not feel guilty about the fate of those who are not British long line.He enjoys hunting, Balmoral, the Anglican church, the army and the label without qualms, which distinguishes him from his mother's influence and sign the education of his grandparents who played a large role in their grief and that of Harry. It is consistent with this uneasy nostalgia that has gripped part of the British.

And everywhere the monarchy shows that embodies stability. Example? In Spain, when the Catalans grow to excess their particularism. In Belgium, where the crown is all that remains when there is no government long ago. In Arab countries, see how the monarchies better take the blow that all these dictators who wanted their son succeeding them.In short, monarchy, with a minimum of pomp, continues to intrigue its ability to overcome the trials anachronism.
And then the whole world envies not necessarily Angela Merkel who is shopping at the supermarket!