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Construit par le chantier Bath Iron Works, le destroyer USS Zumwalt a été livré le 20 mai à la flotte américaine. Premier d’une série de trois bâtiments furtifs conçus pour l’action littoral, le DDG 1000 avait vu sa construction débuter en 2009. Il sera mis en service officiellement au mois d’octobre avant de rejoindre sa base de San Diego. 

 

• Lire la suite de L’USS Zumwalt livré à la marine américaine

Ce n'est qu'une étape mais l'annonce de plusieurs candidatures (six ou huit) - dont deux candidats pour l'ensemble du réseau (sept établissements en France dont ceux de Lorient, Brest et Saint-Quay Portrieux) - à la reprise des hôtels et restaurants des Gens de mer entretient l'espoir d'un nouveau départ. « On sent une grande solidarité autour de nous. Il ne se passe pas un jour sans que l'on nous demande si on va s'en sortir », soupire Marianne Gosse, qui gère l'établissement lorientais depuis quatorze ans.

• Lire la suite de Hôtels des gens de mer : Plusieurs candidats à la reprise

Jelentősen megkönnyítenék a tagállamok a már meglévő és a csak ezután elfogadandó vízummentességi megállapodások felfüggesztésének lehetőségét, kiterjesztve azt többek között az együttműködés megtagadására a visszafogadás terén. A belügyminiszteri tanács pénteken fogadta el közös álláspontját, amiről kész tárgyalni az Európai Parlamenttel.

Kosovo: EU-Staatsanwalt verklagt 20 Menschen wegen Handel mit Schengen-Visa 05 Feb 14 ebenso verhaftet: Kosovo Ex-President Ibrahim Rugova’s Son Arrested Uke Rugova, the son of Kosovo’s late president Ibrahim Rugova, was detained in a police operation against an alleged gang suspected of organised crime and fraud. Uke Rugova, der eine so kriminelle Karriere hat, das praktisch sein Vater Ibrahim Rugova starb, als man (UNMIK Ermittler) im die Dosjes vorlegte, über die kriminelle Karriere seines Sohnes. UKE RUGOVA wurde als Mafia Boss in Phristina verhaftet Posted 5.2.2014 in 2010 Die Ratte „UKE“ Rugova, geht eine Koaliation mit der Kosovo Verbrecher Partei AAK, des Kriegs Verbrechers Ramuz Haradinja ein. „Uke“ Rugova, war […]

En Tunisie, Ennahda, le parti islamiste modéré, veut devenir un "parti civil". Son congrès, qui débute ce vendredi, devrait entériner cette modification de taille. Les experts restent sceptiques quant aux intentions du parti.

L’armée de Terre déplore la disparition, le 19 mai 2016, de l’élève officier tchadien Seitchi MAHAMAT, passager du vol MS 804 d’Egypt Air. En formation en deuxième année à l’Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, particulièrement travailleur et méritant, très apprécié de ses camarades et de son encadrement et très bien intégré au sein de son environnement français, il se trouvait à bord de cet aéronef alors qu’il bénéficiait d’une permission qu’il devait passer au Tchad.

Written by Loïc Burton

The Kurds are often hailed as the West’s most reliable partner in the fight against the Islamic State. From its victories in the border town of Kobani in Syria and in Sinjar in northern Iraq, the Kurds have taken advantage of the chaos in the region to get closer to achieving their dream of statehood.

On March 17, after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—under the umbrella of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD)—managed a streak of military victories, Kurdish leadership declared a federal region across much of northern Syria called Rojava. This in an attempt to formalize the semiautonomous zone controlled by Kurdish forces after five years of war, while falling short of complete independence from Damascus.

As a key ally in the coalition against ISIS, Syrian Kurds are in a much stronger position to bargain for their political autonomy. However this is anathema to both the Syrian and Turkish governments. The former—reinvigorated thanks to the Russian intervention—now believes that it could regain control over all of the country while the latter fears that increased Kurdish self-governance might increase tensions with its own Kurdish restive minority.

In Iraq, Masoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, has announced his intentions of holding a referendum on independence by the end of the year—a first step toward achieving full-fledged statehood. However, some believe the referendum will be used to distract the population from more pressing problems such as the region’s flailing economy.

In February 2014, as a result of a dispute with Baghdad, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was cut off from its share of the federal budget. In June, with the emergence of ISIS, security spending skyrocketed while an influx of 2 million refugees and internally displaced persons added pressure to its infrastructure and service delivery. The final blow occurred in mid-2014 with the global drop in oil prices hitting the region particularly hard—oil revenues account for as much as 80–90% of the KRG’s budget.

In addition to these recent developments, the KRG struggles with perennial issues. In a population of 5.2 million, 1.4 million are on the government payroll Moreover the practice of “ghost-employees”—arms of the government claim more staff than they actually have to inflate their budgets—is widespread. All these factors combined create an unsustainable economic situation and threaten to stall the momentum gained against ISIS: security services are currently only paid every four months.

Looking beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq, Turkey is the most concerned about the Kurds for the reasons aforementioned. As its fight against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party—to which the PYD has close ties—in Turkey’s southeast intensifies, Ankara has bombed Kurdish fighters in Syria and allegedly tacitly helped ISIS to prevent Syrian Kurds from forming a contiguous entity along its southern border.

Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet in November 2015 has put Ankara and Moscow at odds with each other. Since then, Russia has been much more inclined to support Syrian Kurds and the PYD, allowing the Rojava administration to establish its first overseas representative office in Moscow in February 2016.

Finally, the U.S. relation with the Kurds is complex: although the Kurds are reliable allies, Kurdish aspirations for autonomy complicate America’s strategic interests. Indeed, in addition to the risk of seeing the fragmentation of Iraq, American support for Syrian Kurds has increased tensions between the U.S. and Turkey—which allows the U.S. to use its military bases to conduct operations in the region.

Kurds are independent political actors whose interests are not always aligned with Washington. The coming months are essential for the future of their polity and the region as a whole.

Recommended Readings

Anne Barnard, “Syrian Kurds Hope to Establish a Federal Region in the Country’s North,” The New York Times (Mar. 16, 2016).

Zach Beauchamp, “America’s Kurdish problem: today’s allies against ISIS are tomorrow’s headache,” Vox (Apr. 8, 2016).

“Why Iraqi Kurdistan Is Struggling to Pay Its Bills,” Stratfor (Jan. 28, 2016).

The post The Future of Kurdistan: Great Decisions Spring Updates appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

Októbertől jöhetnek vízum nélkül a török turisták, de csak akkor, ha Ankara elég EU-ba igyekvő bevándorlót tart vissza.

ÄNDERUNGSANTRÄGE 1 - 270 - Entwurf eines Berichts Beziehungen der EU zu Tunesien im gegenwärtigen regionalen Kontext
Ausschuss für auswärtige Angelegenheiten

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2016 - EP

Dès fin février 1916, à l’image de nombreuses unités de l’armée de Terre, le 3e régiment du génie (3e RG) est engagé sur Verdun et ses environs. Régiment décoré de la Croix de guerre 1914-1918, il s’est particulièrement illustré fin mai 1916 en contribuant à la reprise du fort de Douaumont. Retour sur les actions de l’un des nombreux régiments ayant œuvré lors de la Grande Guerre.

A protester demonstrating against Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa during a rally in downtown Hanoi on May 1, 2016. (HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Last week, Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR), called on the Vietnamese leadership to respect the right of freedom of assembly, after security officials stifled city-wide protests over an environmental disaster engulfing the country.

In a press briefing note released by UNCHR on May 13, the agency said it is “concerned about the increasing levels of violence perpetrated against Vietnamese protesters expressing their anger over the mysterious mass deaths of fish along the country’s central coast.”  

In recent weeks, Vietnamese citizens have rallied in the cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Vung Tau and Da Nang over reports that at least 100 tons of fish have died along a 200-kilometer stretch of coastland in central Vietnam since April.  Many of the protesters are angry over the slow response of the new leadership to pin the blame on a unit of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics, which operates a $10.6 billion coastal steel plant in Ha Tinh province.

Vietnamese fishermen, whose income has been severely depleted by the pollution, led authorities to an illegal pipeline thought to be responsible for the poisoning of the fish, which was traced to the steel plant.  Formosa management claims to have safely treated the discharge, and initial government findings sought to deflect the blame from Formosa to a red tide caused by an algae bloom.  Newly-elected Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has promised a thorough investigation, vowing “We will not shield anyone found causing the pollution.”

Yet Vietnamese citizens are losing their patience, and the urge to demonstrate has been building momentum, alarming authorities. Vietnamese security apparatus allowed the first two protests on consecutive Sundays to attract hundreds of demonstrators.

Security officials cracked down on demonstrators the second week, however, using tear gas was used to disperse the crowd, and reportedly beating around  300 people and arresting others, according to the UNCHR report.  Videos and pictures circulating on Facebook also showed punches thrown and protesters being dragged off into buses.

In response to reports of demonstrators being beaten and arrested, the UNCHR issued the following statement: “We call on the Government of Viet Nam to respect the right to freedom of assembly in line with its international human rights obligations.”  This statement drew a harsh response from the permanent Vietnamese representative to the UNCHR,  Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh, who called the statement “inaccurate, unobjective and unverified.”  

While Article 25 of the 2013 Vietnamese Constitution ensures freedom of assembly and speech for its citizens, stating “The citizen shall enjoy the right to freedom of opinion and speech, freedom of the press, to access to information, to assemble, form associations and hold demonstrations,”  Ambassador Thanh noted that freedom of assembly must be exercised without detriment to public order “to ensure traffic order, security and safety for the people, especially the elderly, women and children.”

This past Sunday, Vietnam’s state television, and several other major state-run channels, warned potential demonstrators to ignore calls by “reactionary forces” who intend to disrupt public order, saying “their intention to abuse and disturb was revealed when many subjects called for using knives and petrol bombs to attack the functional forces and to overthrow the authorities.”   

Authorities were also quick to blame the demonstrations on an anti-government plot by a terrorist organization named ‘Viet Tan’ (Vietnam Reform). Viet Tan’s website claims it “engages in actions that empower the Vietnamese people”, with its mission to “overcome dictatorship, build the foundation for a sustainable democracy, and demand justice and human rights for the Vietnamese.”

While it is arguable whether the safety and security of the people were endangered by the demonstrations (or by Viet Tan), the state television broadcast, a shutdown of Facebook, and a heavy security presence in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were enough to quell any significant gathering of protesters on the third Sunday of protest.  No more than 100 protesters gathered in Ho Chi Minh City, most of whom were quickly dispersed or detained.  

U.S. President Barack Obama was originally scheduled to arrive in Vietnam on May 22, a Sunday in which protests could flare again, and also the day in which Vietnam holds its election of the nation’s lawmaking National Assembly.  His trip has now been moved to the 23rd, and although his itinerary is still under discussion, events on the ground in recent weeks may give the issue of human rights more prominence.  

The post UN Calls on Vietnam to Respect Freedom of Assembly appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

By Mehreen Khan in London

The International Monetary Fund’s latest recommendations on Greek debt relief have leaked.

Yesterday, ahead of the latest meeting of eurozone finance ministers on May 24, the IMF repeated it would take part in Greece’s €86bn bailout only if its European partners could prove “the numbers add up”.

A key part of this calculation is for the fund to be fully assured that Greece’s debt mountain is finally placed on a sustainable downward trajectory.

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Après plusieurs fausses affirmations et démentis, les premiers débris du vol MS804 qui s'est crashé alors qu'il reliait Paris au Caire ont été retrouvés à 290km au large des côtes égyptiennes, au nord d'Alexandrie. C'est ce qu'a affirmé l'armée égyptienne vendredi 20 mai.

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Die Innenminister der EU haben sich auf eine Verschärfung der Visaregelungen verständigt. Geplant ist, die Visumfreiheit bei Bedarf auszusetzen, um…

More than 700 billion rubles ($10.5 billion) was transferred illegally from Russia into offshore accounts in 2015, the Russian Interior Ministry announced Friday, the TASS news agency reported.

Les aéronefs français déployés sur la Base aérienne projetée (BAP) en Jordanie ont participé entre le 13 et 19 mai 2016 à la libération de la ville de Rutbah, située dans la province d’Al-Anbar au sud-ouest de l’Irak.

Ukrainian nationalists have leaked a second list of the personal details of journalists working in the Donbass and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

Selon la tradition républicaine, la défense est l’affaire de tout citoyen. Auparavant assuré par le service militaire, ce lien perdure par différentes actions au profit des jeunes, comme la journée défense et citoyenneté (JDC) ou encore les rallyes citoyens. Esprit de cohésion, solidarité, dépassement de soi… Des centaines de jeunes de toute la France ont vécu une journée en immersion auprès des militaires français.