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Le Président français a annoncé la reprise du processus de ratification de la charte européenne des langues régionales et minoritaires par voie de Congrès. Une pirouette qui permet d’éviter le passage par référendum. 

La Direction de la mémoire, du patrimoine et des archives du ministère de la Défense, en coédition avec les éditions Pierre de Taillac, vient de publier un excellent et superbement illustré  Clémenceau au front, de Samuël Tomei.

L’ouvrage Clemenceau au front décrit les principaux déplacements (une quarantaine sur le front même) du Tigre, grâce aux témoignages du général Mordacq (le conseiller militaire du Tigre), de Poincaré, Foch, et même du jeune Churchill, qui, un jour, suivit le Tigre jusqu’à en être épuisé… Ces récits dessinent le portrait d'un attachant et moustachu vieillard qui jette toutes ses forces dans la bataille et fait plier le destin.

Clemenceau au front, de Samuel Tomei, éditions Pierre de taillac, 176 pages, 14,90 €.

 

Vice-president of SOCAR on environmental affairs Rafiga Huseynzade has met the vice-president for midstream operations for BP Craig Wiggs to discuss issues of environmental cooperation.

June 4, 2015 (KHARTOUM)- Heavy fighting in South Sudan's Unity and Upper Nile states over the last two months has displaced more than 100,000 people and blocked humanitarian aid deliveries for some 650,000 people as aid organizations were forced to withdraw, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.

Since the beginning of the year, some 60,000 South Sudanese have reportedly fled the country, mostly to Sudan (30,000), Ethiopia (15,000) and Uganda (15,000) bringing the total South Sudanese who fled the country since December 2013 to some 555,000, while some 1.5 million are internally displaced in the country.

Refugees attributed increase in fighting and worsening food insecurity as the main reasons for fleeing their homes. It's estimated that more than 3.8 million people, representing a third of South Sudan's population of 11 million, do not have sufficient food.

UNHCR offices in Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda have all reported sharp increases in arrivals during May.

Last week alone, some 6,000 South Sudanese arrived in Sudan's White Nile and South Kordofan states. The majority are in White Nile State, where 87 per cent of refugee families are headed by women and 72 per cent are children.

" The arriving refugees are currently hosted at the border and a recently opened site known as El Redis II. Given the worsening security and humanitarian situation on the South Sudanese side of the border, UNHCR and its partners are preparing for the refugee influx to grow," the agency said in a statement.

"The upcoming rainy season requires that we pre-position relief items as many of the areas where refugees are located can become inaccessible. To enable continuing humanitarian assistance, UNHCR is constructing a jetty on the White Nile River and building roads to refugee sites. Water and sanitation conditions at many of these sites need to be improved rapidly," it added.

In Ethiopia's Gambella region, more than 6,100 South Sudanese refugees were registered in May, while in April the number was 4,800. Arrivals were at less than 1,000 people a month before this. In addition, an estimated 7,000 South Sudanese are at the Pagak and Akobo entry points waiting to be registered.

UNHCR, the government counterpart and other partners are developing a new site next to the existing Pugnido refugee camp to accommodate new arrivals and as a contingency measure for future arrivals.

At the same time, during the last three weeks, more than 47,000 South Sudanese refugees who had settled in areas that flooded during last year's severe rainy season have now been relocated to a new refugee camp in Jewi near Gambella. The former refugee sites of Leitchour and Nip Nip are being rehabilitated and will be handed over to the host communities.

With the number of South Sudanese fleeing their country increasing rapidly, the refugee agency is extremely concerned that the 2015 South Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan that covers the refugee programmes in the neighbouring countries, run by UNHCR and 39 partners, is only funded at 10 percent. This leaves many lifesaving activities such as the provision of clean water, sanitation and health services, food and shelter severely underfunded.

Over a year ago, fresh conflict broke out between government and opposition supporters in the world's newest country, forcing 1.9 million people in the nation of the estimated 11 million from their homes. Over 1.5 million are displaced within South Sudan.

(ST).

Griechenland bekommt mehr Zeit zur Begleichung seiner Milliardenschulden an den Internationalen Währungsfonds: Der IWF gewährte der Regierung in Athen Aufschub für eine eigentlich am Freitag fällige Kredittranche in Höhe von 300 Millionen Euro.

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Die heftigsten Kämpfe in der Ostukraine seit dem Minsker Friedensabkommen vom Februar haben den Hoffnungen auf eine dauerhafte Beruhigung der Lage einen schweren Dämpfer versetzt. Nach Angaben der ukrainischen Armee und der prorussischen Rebellen wurden binnen 24 Stunden mindestens 26 Menschen getötet. Präsident Petro Poroschenko erhob den Vorwurf, in dem Gebiet seien mehr als 9.000 russische Soldaten im Einsatz.

Tsipras, left, with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday

The Greek government of prime minister Alexis Tsipras has long argued debt relief must be part of any new agreement to complete its current €172bn bailout. But the compromise plan drawn up by its international creditors and presented to Tsipras on Wednesday night in Brussels (obtained by the Greek daily To Vima, and posted here) contains no such promise.

So Athens is intending to present its own restructuring plan that the government claims will cut its burgeoning debt load from the current 180 per cent of gross domestic product to just 93 per cent by 2020.

The plan is touched on in the 47-page counter-proposal Athens sent to its creditors Monday night (see page 44 in the document, posted by the German daily Tagesspiegel here). But it is given a full treatment in a new seven-page document authored by the government and entitled “Ending the Greek Crisis”. Brussels Blog got a copy and posted it here.

The restructuring plan is ambitious, offering ways to reduce the amount of debt held by all four of its public-sector creditors: the European Central Bank, which holds €27bn in Greek bonds purchased starting in 2010; the International Monetary Fund, which is owed about €20bn from bailout loans; individual eurozone member states, which banded together to make €53bn bilateral loans to Athens as part of its first bailout; and the eurozone’s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, which picks up the EU’s €144bn in the current programme.

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If all the elements of the new plan are adopted, the Greek government reckons its debt will be back under 60 per cent of GDP – the eurozone’s ceiling agreed under the 1992 Maastricht Treaty – by 2030, as this chart from the document shows:

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L'Africa Progress Panel, qui consacre son dernier rapport à l'énergie, pointe le rôle joué par la mauvaise gouvernance des "utilities" dans la crise énergétique que connaît le continent.

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A credit agreement will be signed soon on the purchase of nearly 50 electric trains produced by French company Alstom Transport.

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

June 4, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – The United Nations has honoured Ethiopia for its significant contributions to UN's vast Peacekeeping operations, the Ethiopian ministry of foreign affairs said on Friday.

Ethiopian peacekeepers patrol the outskirts of the disputed Abyei town that straddles the border between Sudan and South Sudan on 16 September 2013 (Photo: Reuters/Andreea Campeanu)

At a ceremony held at UN headquarters in New York to mark International Day of UN Peacekeepers, the United Nations has awarded Ethiopia a medal in honour of its peacekeepers, who sacrificed their lives during line of duty in different peace keeping missions.

Ambassador Tekeda Alemu, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nation, received the medal awarded to Ethiopia.

The Ministry said Ethiopia has been actively participating in UN peacekeeping operations based on its firm conviction on the principle of collective security enshrined in the UN Charter since the establishment of the United Nations.

Ethiopia, with nearly 8,000 peacekeepers currently serving in UN Peacekeeping Missions around the world is Africa's top contributing nation.

The horn of Africa's nation is also world's fourth largest contributor in terms of the number of its peacekeepers deployed under the United Nations umbrella

Currently Ethiopian Peacekeepers are serving in various UN peacekeeping missions including in Abyei, Darfur and South Sudan.

In addition, more than 4 thousand Ethiopian peacekeepers are deployed in Somalia as part of the AU peace support operation in that country.

The country has for years played significant role in the success of UN peacekeeping and its participation is the most tangible contribution to restoring international peace and security.

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Trotz des Widerstands aus einigen Mitgliedsstaaten will Kommissionspräsident Jean-Claude Juncker die Vorschläge für ein faireres Verteilungssystem in der EU nicht ändern. Das gab er bei der Eröffnungsveranstaltung zu den Europäischen Entwicklungstagen bekannt. EurActiv Brüssel berichtet.

Im Rahmen der Vorschläge für eine "bessere Rechtssetzung" stellt der erste Kommissionsvizepräsident Frans Timmermans auch die Naturschutzgesetzgebung auf den Prüfstand. Umweltaktivisten warnen: Das könnte jahrzehntelange Naturschutzarbeit zerstören. EurActiv Brüssel berichtet.

The official Baku 2015 channels have added biographies of each of the 6,000-strong contingent of athletes taking part in the inaugural European Games.

Quer durch Europa verzeichnen rechts- und linkspopulistische Parteien einen starken Wählerzulauf. Bei den etablierten Parteien, denen im Gegenzug massenhaft Wähler abhanden kommen, herrscht ob dieser Entwicklung ziemliche Ratlosigkeit.

Iranian entrepreneurs and business owners gathered in Berlin Thursday for a three-day startup conference to explore opportunities in Iran’s hi-tech sector.

Près de 15 mois après l'enlèvement d'au moins 11 personnes par des troupes de la République du Congo déployées en République centrafricaine, le sort des victimes demeure inconnu, s'est inquiété vendredi le Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux droits de l'homme (HCDH).

Le Haut-Commissaire des Nations Unies aux droits de l'homme, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, a déclaré vendredi que les témoignages d'individus victimes de Boko Haram dans le nord du Nigéria faisaient état « d'une terreur absolue et de graves violations des droits de l'homme », tout en notant également des informations concernant des abus commis par les forces armées nigérianes.

La Mission d'appui des Nations Unies en Libye (MANUL) a annoncé vendredi que la prochaine série de pourparlers politiques libyens à Skhirat, au Maroc, débutera lundi 8 juin.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) announced today that the next round of Libyan political dialogue sessions in Skhirat, Morocco, will commence on Monday, 8 June.