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Merkel refuses to renegotiate the pact

Angela Merkel will host the new president of the French Republic "with open arms," ​​but firmly defend its rigorous design of economic policy in Europe.

The Chancellor reiterated on Monday that it intends to oppose the limits to the will of Francois Hollande to enrich the fiscal pact of measures to support growth. "The Growth Pact is not negotiable. [...] It is not possible to renegotiate everything after each election ", otherwise" Europe no longer works, "said Merkel at a news conference. "Greece could also ask to renegotiate" the austerity plan that it implements in exchange for international aid, for example, she warned. The spokesman for Angela Merkel, Steffen Seibert, also reiterated on Monday that 25 out of 27 countries had adopted the pact in the snatch a few months ago, and it was therefore "impossible" to renegotiate. Greece, Portugal and Slovenia have already ratified.

Angela Merkel, provided, opened the door to the adoption of a new Growth Pact for the euro area, which would add to fiscal pact. But it has clearly defined the limits between what is acceptable and what is not. "Germany is not a growth deficit, but growth through structural reforms", said Steffen Seibert on Monday. In line with about Mario Draghi, the chairman of the European Central Bank (ECB), German Chancellor intends to primarily boost growth in Europe through increased competitiveness, notably by reforming the labor market.  

"Working well and intensively"

For his part, Francois Hollande called for a resumption of growth through capital investment in infrastructure, new energy and industry bad credit pay day loans. The Socialist would draw upon the European Investment Bank (EIB), he wants to strengthen, and remount the EU tax on financial transactions. The contrast with Chancellor Angela Merkel would be so much more frontal Francois Hollande wanted to introduce shared Eurobonds, or reform the statutes of the ECB. The two countries should compare their respective growth strategies in the coming weeks. Chancellor, who invited the new president on Sunday in Berlin, said she was ready to "work hard and intensively" with him. According to Pierre Moscovici, former campaign manager Francois Hollande, one visit may be scheduled "shortly after May 15."

The subject should also be an informal meeting announced by the President of the European Union, Herman van Rompuy, to the end. This meeting will aim to prepare the EU summit on June 28 and 29 devoted to growth and employment. Paragon of austerity in Europe, Germany is on this point more and more isolated. Several countries have called in recent weeks to further stimulate growth in Europe, without their strategies converge systematically. In addition to Greece, whose austerity policy has been sanctioned by the urns, Italy, Belgium and Ireland, in particular, were pleased on Monday to see growth back at the heart of the European agenda.  

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The "march of steel" arrived in Paris

Blast furnaces Florange the Eiffel Tower, it took them a week and a half walk. The steelworkers ArcelorMittal steel plant in Florange (Moselle), left foot on March 28 of Lorraine, arrived Friday afternoon under the Eiffel Tower. The end point of "the march of steel" to "defend their jobs with people."

The 17 walkers, unionized or not, have traveled over 300 km and symbolically ended their march at the foot of the "Iron Lady", made of steel of Lorraine. "Guys, this is who?", They started showing the Eiffel Tower. "To us," responded in a heartfelt cry from the hundreds of employees to join the marchers.

After traveling their last stage, between the Place de la Republique and the Champ de Mars, the steelworkers came to forming a row, holding each arm, all dressed in orange windbreaker. Other employees have come from the Lorraine ovation. On a placard that read "the shadow of death of the steel industry, more than 3,000 jobs lost in Lorraine, Luxembourg and Belgium."

A concert was scheduled for early evening including Bernard Allison. According to police headquarters, from 4 to 500 people gathered at the foot of the podium. "The sides arrived," "Steel Lorraine will live", had earlier chanted the marchers Republic Square.

"Human Adventure"

One of them, Rudy Crestani, retired Florange 61 years, said "human adventure" experienced by the Steelworkers. "The idea was to fight to save our endangered plant and thousands of jobs. We had an extraordinary sympathy of wind and we realized that our struggle far beyond the borders of Florange, this jewel of the industry, "told AFP Edward Martin, CFDT delegate.

"Many French people are recognized and have had to say:" We're all ArcelorMittal power ", because although the company ( business cards design…) is competitive, it is not even enough to keep it running, since all these ayatollahs finance believe that it is always cheaper, "he said. The marchers slept in gyms, party rooms, received encouragement from anonymous.

Nicolas Sarkozy attacks

The previous visit of steelworkers in the capital in mid-March, had led to clashes with the police when they wanted to go to the campaign headquarters of Nicolas Sarkozy. Since the president candidate has blamed union leaders Florange, attacking the "permanent CFDT" who "betray the trust of employees." "The unionized workers are not full?, Edward Martin replied Friday.

For Alain Gatti (CFDT), "the movement was hyper-responsible" contrary to what was suggested Nicolas Sarkozy accusing the CGT and CFDT union officials to be "come (s) to insult and try to break (his ) campaign headquarters. "

By engaging their showdown in late February to keep maintaining the site and some 2,500 IDUs, including several hundred are now partially, the unions had promised to make Florange "the nightmare of the government" if the two high- furnaces in the steel plant, dormant for several months, were not given a prompt start.

This standby, "the death warrant of the site," they say, is only temporary and ensures ArcelorMittal due to global demand for steel at half mast. After "broken promises" of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 in neighboring Gandhinagar-industrial site finally closed in 2009 – Florange has become a political battleground, also involving trade union representatives.

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Eurozone: agreement to a firewall 800 billion

The seventeen countries of the euro reached an agreement Friday to raise 500 to 800 billion euros their "firewall" against financial crisis. Germany has dropped the ballast, but the compromise is far from meeting the expectations of the European Commission, IMF and OECD.

The envelope, which represents a theoretical capacity of loans, includes three components: 500 000 000 000 ahead for the European Stability Mechanism (SPM) which will be launched in July, 200 billion already committed by the temporary fund established in 2010 (EFSF) and 100 billion in loans already spent or pledged various EU.

This elaborate structure – and perhaps questionable because it mixes future and past – allows everyone to say it held its position. For Germany, it was essential to avoid having to raise the ceiling of the MES to avoid another vote in the Bundestag payday loan. Wolfgang Schäuble, the favorite in the race for the presidency of the Eurogroup, but agreed to keep alive a year for the EFSF, which temporarily inflate the pot.

In contrast, those that grew as the French Baroin a figure of around 1 trillion, did not get satisfaction. Discussed in Copenhagen, the project of an additional tranche of 240 billion to be used "in exceptional circumstances", has disappeared from the final declaration of the Eurogroup. Here too, Berlin has been successful. But the question remains the strength of the new firewall in the event of a major financial accident, involving, for example Spain or Italy.

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World Bank: Obama wants Dr. Jim Kim

This choice is a surprise. A native of Korea, physician training, graduate of Harvard and Brown, Jim Yong Kim is not known in international financial circles. However it is in the world of health and development, particularly for his efforts against AIDS and tuberculosis. He specifically directed the Department to Fight against AIDS of the World Health Organization.

The management of the development institution is traditionally an American, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has always been attributed to a European. The odds of Jim Yong Kim selection by the board of directors of the bank amounted to the extent that the United States, the largest shareholder of the World Bank, has the support of European countries, Japan and many countries emerging.

Hours before the announcement by President Obama, South Africa had formally proposed that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian Finance Minister, and former World Bank director, succeeds Robert Zoellick, whose term as U payday lenders.S. President the bank comes to an end in late June. As at the choice of Christine Lagarde last June to head the IMF, rich countries have promised an emerging open and transparent process of selection that results in the designation of the most qualified candidate. Despite this commitment, developing countries find that their chances to win one of them are tiny. Their inability to agree on a single candidate is indeed an enormous handicap.

Jim Yong Kim is expected in the coming days begin a journey in the great capitals of the world to present his candidacy and convince shareholders of the World Bank of the correctness of its strategy to fight poverty and underdevelopment.

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Calling the earth is receiving more and more conversions

They are every year more and more people choosing agriculture to bounce professionally. It used to be was a farmer from father to son. "Now more than a quarter of young people have just installed another workplace or have been outside the farm before returning," says Christiane Lambert, senior vice president of the FNSEA (National Federation of farmers). This is for example the case of five young people who come to create a GAEC (farming group operating in common), Radish & Co, specializing in organic farming, located in Mayenne.

They include a baker, farmer, Gwendal Bazin, two gardeners, Robert-Jan and Yannick Devinik Rouseau, a rancher, Marc Besnier, and a cheese maker, Steve Milosevic. "We chose to produce basic food with a commitment to practice for organic farming using compost from such an activity of milk to fertilize the land, farmers' seeds and collecting the runoff," they explain . While focusing on short distribution through the AMAP (Association for the maintenance of peasant agriculture).

The women won

Another example is that of Jean-Cyril, former spokesman of an international NGO fighting against poverty and injustice paydayloan. Farmer's son, he spent a patent professional farm manager with the prospect of settling in the Dordogne.

Women, too, conquered by the call of the earth. Isabelle Horses, stay at home mom for seventeen years, participated in a training assistant sommelier in 1997. It incorporates a large area and then a plant and finally a group of winemakers operators of Lons le Saunier in 2006, working as wine. "The wine and the agricultural community fascinate me. I like working outdoors and crafts, "she says. Only downside, it gets a little more than the minimum wage, "which is not very rewarding when you know the price of bottles. We must encourage young people to integrate this kind of jobs they will not regret it. "

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Greece: Europe completes a historical

After twelve hours of marathon, the countries of the euro in the early morning concluded their negotiations on a solid support in Athens, to save him once again the bankruptcy. Assistance, debt forgiveness and contributions combined, Greece will have cost twenty months more than 350 billion euros to the EU, banks and international institutions. As much as the debt that the country continues to grow as Sisyphus his rock.

EU assistance in the night discussed by finance ministers, an amount of at least 130 billion euros, displayed more modest ambitions than the first 110 billion plan presented in May 2010 as a panacea. The 2012 version covers the next eight years, but eventually it no longer guarantees for certain relief initially hoped the debt burden (120% of GDP in 2020). It does not fill a growing distrust between Greece, is said bled dry, and creditors like Germany believe that it can never do enough.

In the calendar, the distress of Athens as important as the progress of complex financial dealings with governments, private banks, the IMF and the ECB. Under penalty of default, the government should realize Papademos an agreement with its creditors before March 20, deadline by which 14.5 billion of government bonds mature. "We must conclude today, because time is running out," said the president of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Continuous monitoring of the accounts of Athens

Faced with the enormity of the amounts, the sense of urgency was far from being shared across the currency area. North, capitals such as Berlin, The Hague and Helsinki took advantage of last hours to demand concessions maximum of Athens by suggesting, as the German Wolfgang Schäuble, a Greek bankruptcy would be manageable after all. To the south, others were alarmed instead of a possible contagion of bankruptcies in Portugal, Spain and even Italy, in the midst of a European recession saving account payday loan.

In the early hours of the morning, the agreement was tied on two parallel negotiations in Brussels. First erase the unprecedented 107-billion of private debt, accepted in principle by the banks but stumbled on an extra effort required by the euro area. "It's done and we have a good agreement," confided to 4:30 French banker Jean Lemierre at Figaro. Then a bailout of at least 130 billion euros financed by creditors themselves. It is this second part, agreed by governments, the IMF, the ECB and other central banks of the euro which validated the entire plan.

To reassure investors, and despite the anger of the street, the government is preparing to slash Papademos 3.3 billion more in its budget deficits through the envelopes of health insurance, minimum wage and defense . He also accepted a permanent monitoring of the EU and the IMF on its accounts. "The Greek people have made considerable efforts, it is now for others to do the same," let go a Christine Lagarde yet mindful of the IMF funds.

Politically, Athens refuses any loud and European tutelage and just show the vitriolic exchanges with Berlin. But in practice, Greece has made a surrender of sovereignty unique setting up a budget account blocked, intended to guarantee the repayment of debt and interest payments. The mechanism, suggested as a sign of confidence by Berlin and Paris, is to serve the foreign creditors before committing a penny of national public expenditure. Athens won an unmatched support after the night, but it will probably remain the Greeks the bitter taste of a potion imposed from outside

.

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Wall Street finished sharply lower on Wednesday. At the close, the Dow Jones yields 3.18% to 11,783.59 points, the Nasdaq 3.88% to 2621.65 loose points and the S & P 500 was down 3.67% to 1229.12 points.

The rates of Italian government bonds soar

Announced the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi has clearly not been enough to reassure long-term markets. In Europe, stock markets, which had initially welcomed the news quickly made an about face. The distrust of the Italian public debt continues to grow, in fact. The Italian 10-year rate rose to over 7%, a new record level and a completely untenable for the country, given the weight of its debt. For its part, Brussels ruled that the Italian situation was "very worrying". At the same time, the spread between government bonds and German to French reached a new peak at 1.47%.

In Greece, things also accelerating.Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced his resignation but did not mention the name of his successor will not be announced until Thursday. A further meeting of party leaders was convened by the President.

On the macroeconomic front, crude oil inventories fell 1.4 million barrels to 338.1 million barrels during the week ended Nov. 4. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a rise rather 700,000 barrels.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro fell sharply against the dollar on Wednesday. The euro was worth 1.3552 dollars against 1.3836 dollars late Tuesday. Oil prices ended down more than 1% in New York tonight. On the Nymex, the December contract on West Texas Intermediate (WTI) ended on a loss of $ 1.06, or 1.1%, to 95.74 dollars a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent yielded 2.23%, or 2.56 dollars to 112.48 dollars.

Philip Hall, the new boss of Altran, promised to refocus. It does this. Friday, the board of the technology consulting group examined the future of its subsidiary, Arthur D. Little. Among the different scenarios studied, the sale of the consulting firm strategy its leaders holding the rope, according to our information. While the managers of the subsidiary offer for months to redeem, Altran, assisted by Messier Maris & Associates, contacted several consulting firms, BCG at Monitor Group through Sia, to explore alternatives.

But these tracks did not result: competitors were primarily interested in the brand Arthur D. Little, well known, at the same time alienating the teams.A complex equation, in a world of service where the value of the firm is keen to its consultants.

Altran, which publishes this morning's quarterly revenue, could take the opportunity to announce the opening of exclusive negotiations. According to the proposed scheme, the group would agree a loan managers to its subsidiary, deficit in 2010, so they fund the recovery. To secure this commitment, the brand remains the property of Altran until the loan is repaid. This will result in a depreciation in the accounts of the group. Until this summer, it hoped to sell its subsidiary to 70 million euros. The transaction amount will be much less. Altran in 2002 had bought the European operations of U.S. giant Board Arthur D. Little. This acquisition has not been successful due to lack of synergies between parent and subsidiary.In the first half, the group has cut 39 million the value of Arthur D. Little in his accounts. Contacted by Le Figaro, Altran declined to comment.

States are investing heavily in security

A camera that sees through walls, an exoskeleton that multiplies the forces, a drone the size of a bird that monitors the movements of crowds, vehicles, robots intervention in hostile environments, a tomograph – the equivalent of the scanner for human beings – which reconstructs 3D inside a bag and is able to identify explosives, a fingerprint reader that makes the difference between a real and a fake finger through its ability to "see" veins, a machine for biometric identification based on iris scanning or face … It's not the gadgets James Bond, but some of the amazing technological innovations that are presented Milipol, the first World Fair Homeland Security states, including the 2011 (from 18 to 21 October, Porte de Versailles in Paris) opens its doors this morning.

This show is held every two years alternating with Paris Doha in Qatar, is the child of September 11 and terrorist attacks in the United States. "Although he was born in 1984 but in 2003 the concept of homeland security market has emerged differing from the defense market itself," says Alain Rondepierre prefect, president of the show. Milipol also aims to provide solutions in the fight against crime, interventions in hostile environments – infected or affected by natural disasters – as well as the operations of public safety and law enforcement as well road safety, port and airport.And wider border surveillance.

A growing market

Customers come from public and private horizon: business as head of sensitive sites such as nuclear power plants, police forces (in the field, scientific) and emergency preparedness (fire, miners, rescuers …), gendarmerie, customs, airports, government agencies (FBI, Home Office …), the Ministries of Interior and Defence equipment because some applications have mixed civilian and military.

In total the global market for security at large weighs 420 billion euros (+5.5% in 2010), the survey published in the Atlas of Safely, the newspaper of record on the subject. The market is dominated by the United States with 30% of the world but Asia is gaining ground (23% against 14% of expenditures in 2001).For its part, Israel Export Institute believes that the only market "homeland security" weighs 170 billion and it increased by 7 to 8% per year.

On these growth markets, France has several champions. Morpho, the world leader in biometric identification since the purchase of American L1, used by over 100 countries and 450 organizations such as the FBI, the Israeli police and Interpol. Morpho is a specialist in such border crossing facilities at airports. "Faced with evolving threats, we must provide answers to more sophisticated, more effective are not too expensive and that thin the border crossing. For example, we went from detection to the identification of explosives, "said Didier Bernard, Executive Vice President of Morpho.Soon there will be no need to register to use the Initials successor that allows holders of biometric passports to cross the border control without queuing.

For its part, Thales relies on its leadership in information systems, to provide answers to the problems generated by "urbanization". This "requires cities smarter and therefore supported by systems that can facilitate decision-making in complex environments," said Luc Vigneron, Chairman of Thales. The group from Mexico won the first contract of its kind with its offer to secure Hypervisor this city of 22 million people, plagued by violence. In addition to large groups, SMEs, supported by some Directorate General of Armaments, engage in an orgy of creativity.Overview of some of the novelties of Milipol 2011.

Some products presented at Milipol, the first international exhibition of security

• Cobra – A range of robotic vehicles (see above)

Developed by ECA, one of three subsidiaries of the SME Gorge, the Cobra Bubble is a ground vehicle robotic intelligent. Its onboard camera is covered with a protective bubble antiéboulement that does not stop to see day and night to 360 degrees. The vehicle of 40 cm square weighs 5 kg. It can be equipped with a gun to remove the mines. He drives up to 300 m away from a touch pad or joystick. Its mission: to make tracking and filming in hostile environments or contaminated or monitoring sensitive sites such as nuclear power plants. Gorged sells 100,000 a year.

• Millicam 90 – Sees Through Walls

Wall Street resumes height

The day after a session in the red, the U.S. stock markets end up the way to higher Tuesday. In early trade, the Dow gained 0.37% to 11,446 points, the Nasdaq advance of 0.45% to 2625 points and the S & P is 0.40% to 1209 points.

The progresison remains very cautious. U.S. operators, like their counterparts in Europe and Asia, remain very concerned about the issue of sovereign debt in Europe. They fear a contagion to other countries considered fragile in the euro area.The decision of Standard & Poor's lowered by one notch to "A +" to "A" note of Italy, due to low growth prospects, has just added to the failure of the meeting this weekend of European Ministers of Finance have failed to agree on a new loan to Greece, still under the threat of default.

The question of the future of Greece will remain central today. In Athens, after an initial conference call Monday night, a new meeting between the Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and representatives of the troika of the country's creditors, European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, to be held tonight . Their verdict depends on the payment in October of $ 8 billion from the loan made last year in the euro area country and the IMF.Manna vital for the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

Pending around the Fed meeting

Hopes for recovery of the market, worried about the economic downturn hitting the United States and Europe, are now placed in the meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed) which starts today and will end tomorrow.

The fears are in fact more and more vivid on the other side of the Atlantic, where Barack Obama announced a plan to further reduce the deficit of 3000 billion Monday, financed half by an increase in taxes for the rich, did not produce any relief.

On the macroeconomic front, the U.S., housing construction has increased its decline in August, falling to its lowest level since May, according to official figures published Tuesday in Washington.

Mergers and acquisitions continue

The side of values, the French computer group Bull and American Technologies CA (0.09% to 21.24 dollars) Tuesday announced an alliance to facilitate the switching of heterogeneous enterprise IT infrastructures to the Internet and the "cloud" ( cloud computing).

The Internet giant Google (-0.10% to 546.12 dollars) bought DailyDeal, German site group purchasing established in 2009 business cards design. Google, which offers this service for U.S. consumers, seeking to expand its presence outside the United States to reach the largest number of users and compete with its rivals in the field as Groupon.The amount of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The U.S. stock market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) encourages U.S. companies to transparency regarding their income abroad, reports the Financial Times. The SEC, which has made this his new battle cry, drew particular groups such as Dow Chemical (-0.73% to 27.54 dollars) or Caterpillar (-0.28% to 84.36 dollars) share more information with investors.

After the close of Wall Street, Air Products (0.10% to 81.66 dollars) has announced a new share repurchase program of $ 1 billion.

The mergers and acquisitions also continue to multiply.According to reports the Times, Blackstone (-0.45% to 13.26 dollars) would buy with Prestige Brands of America (-0.73% to 9.46 dollars), a portfolio of non-prescription drugs worth £ 2 billion, owned by GlaxoSmithKline (0.07% to 41.54 dollars).

Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. (0.90% to 44.13 dollars) and Azur Pharma Ltd. (will merge to create Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc, a pharmaceutical company based in Ireland and listed on NASDAQ.

Also in the pharmaceutical sector, Varian Medical Systems (1.16% to 53.05 dollars) will buy Calypso Medical Technologies, a company specializing in monitoring tumors during operations radiosurgery and radiotherapy for $ 10 million and contingent payments.

However, ConAgra Foods (0.21% to 23.44 dollars) withdrew its offer of Ralcorp Holdings (-0.23% to 75.06 dollars) due to "lack of constructive dialogue with Ralcorp."

Others are preparing to pass the act as Home Properties (-5.61 to 58.70 dollars) will conduct a capital increase of 5.25 million additional shares to finance "its external growth and new real estate development projects. "

Also note, a Court of Appeal in the United States lifted a court order blocking the payment of compensation of $ 18 billion by Chevron (-0.69% to 98.03 dollars) for environmental damage in the Amazon.

In addition, three complaints were filed against IBM (+0.11% to 173.32 dollars) from the European competition authorities, including one by a French company, have been abandoned, it was reported on Tuesday the European Commission.