Dominique Strauss-Kahn under house arrest on Broadway

The former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was accused of sexual crimes, arrived Friday evening in the Manhattan building where he will reside temporarily under constant surveillance after leaving prison Rikers Island.

The arrival of former French finance minister in the building south of Broadway near Ground Zero, site of the twin towers destroyed in the attacks of Sept. 11, was confirmed to AFP by police.

"It is here," said a police official requesting anonymity, while his brothers erected metal barricades to keep away from many journalists.

"I do not really like (it is there).I find it a little scary, "said Gemma Harding, a woman dressed in his 31 which has magnetized the flashes of many photographers in front of the temporary residence of Mr. Strauss-Kahn.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from prison after a New York judge had approved all the documents establishing the conditions that accompany his parole.

Several addresses were given successively for the dwelling which reside temporarily the former boss of the International Monetary Fund, accused of sex crimes against a hotel employee.

Mr.Strauss-Kahn had to move to an apartment on 65th Street in Manhattan, but the place has been changed due to "invasion" of journalists who upset the neighborhood, said Friday his lawyer, William Taylor.

The man of 62 years will remain "a few days," Judge Michael Obus of New York Supreme Court, in this residence near Ground Zero, owned by the local press to the company Stroz Friedberg responsible for ensuring its implementation house arrest.

He can overcome this temporary residence, unless a case of force majeure.

Mr.Strauss-Kahn will then leave this apartment for another permanent which he may leave for specific reasons - hearings, appointment of lawyers, doctor visits or synagogue - if requested by at least six hours advance, "said Justice in New York.And he can not go out between 10:00 p.m. to 6:00.

Judge Michael Obus was signed earlier this afternoon, the release order of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, jailed since Monday in the Rikers Island prison after his lawyers and his guarantor court had provided the bond of one million dollars and a deposit of five million.

Former IMF chief is accused of sexual assault and attempted rape on May 14 against a housekeeper Guinea 32 years of the Sofitel Manhattan.

Justice had authorized his release Thursday if a set of conditions were met. Besides the security and the security deposit, he had to prove that he was living in a Manhattan residence under surveillance 24 hours 24.

The next meeting of Mr.Strauss-Kahn to justice was set for June 6 At that hearing, he will plead guilty or not guilty to seven counts against him.

If he pleads guilty, there will be no trial but sentenced to several years in prison, whose number will be negotiated with the judge. If he pleads not guilty, as his lawyers have suggested, a trial will take place.

In France, writer and journalist Tristane Banon, who said he was sexually assaulted in 2002 by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, decided against pursuing and will not testify against him in the United States.

She informed by his counsel, Mr. David Koubbi, it reserved "for later" his decision to press charges.But in all cases of possible criminal acts occurring in 2002 would be required in 2012.

Meanwhile, speculation continued to go well on the estate of Mr. Strauss-Kahn to head the IMF.According to European sources, the French Christine Lagarde was "almost inducted" as a candidate of the European Union and "you should already have a signal from Deauville" at the G8 summit on 26 and 27 May in the Normandy resort.

Chancellor Angela Merkel supported lip to Christine Lagarde, saying she had to "particular esteem".

The United States said they were "prepared to support" as a candidate who can create a "broad" support among members of the institution.

The IMF announced Friday that it would open Monday until June 10 nominations for the post of general manager and he stared for "objective" to appoint his number one "by 30 June."

He also denied Friday a report in the New York Times describing the relationships between employees of the institution as marked by leniency vis-à-vis sexual harassment."Harassment is not tolerated in this institution."

As for the future of the former hexagonal poll favorite, "politically, it will be Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his alone" to say "if it can or can not be a candidate in the primary PS, "said Francois Hollande, himself a candidate in the primaries, taking the foot of the Socialist-cons had already drawn a line on an application" DSK ".

Barack Obama outlines his solutions to fight against the U.S. deficit

Barack Obama has set Wednesday as a target of reducing the budget deficit of U.S. 4,000 billion dollars over 12 years or less.

His plan would reduce the deficit to 2.5% of GDP in 2015 and 2% by the end of the decade, sources said parliamentarians who read the draft before the President of the United States does not pronounce his speech.

Barack Obama told the leaders Democrats and Republicans in Congress before making his speech.Vice President Joe Biden will meet in early May the leaders of both parties to develop a definitive program for reducing the budget deficit by the end of June.

The head of the White House also wanted to begin discussions with parliamentarians Republicans and Democrats on the issue of worsening deficits budétaires.

He explained that the budget savings would be realized by combining spending cuts and increased revenue through higher taxes.

The U.S. president wants to end special tax benefits that were granted to the wealthiest classes of the time of his predecessor George W.Bush.

"I refuse to renew them again," he said.

Antiplane Ryan

It plans to achieve $ 770 billion in savings on expenditure items not related to security and $ 480 billion in savings on Medicaid and Medicare programs.An additional savings of at least 1,000 billion could be reached on these two programs by 2033.

Barack Obama said that his budget plan is to reduce the debt service of $ 1,000 billion.

He added that the Pentagon budget will be reviewed in order to eliminate unnecessary and increase efficiency.

The fiscal deficit of the United States is likely to reach 1,650 billion this year and U.S. president to a device by which budget cuts would be automatically activated if the budget targets were not achieved by 2014.

The goal is that deficits do not exceed 2.8% of GDP on average during the second half of the decade.This device is not the first, the other presidents that have implemented in the past.

A week earlier, Paul Ryan, Chairman of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives put forward a draft budget devoted a goal of deficit reduction of 4.400 billion.

Obama wanted to present a project that contrasts markedly with the Ryan plan, in that it wants to combine tax cuts with a complete overhaul of the Medicare system.

LIBYA: Diplomatic initiatives are multiplying as fighting trample

Diplomatic initiatives are multiplying to relieve the population and find a solution to the conflict in Libya, where fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday in the trampling of the country.

While NATO and U.S. differ on the risk of stalemate situation on the ground, the African Union and the European Union have taken the initiative, a few days of a meeting of the Contact Group on Libya, April 13 in Doha (Qatar).

From this weekend, a group of African leaders, the South African President Jacob Zuma and his counterparts of the Congo, Mali, Mauritania and Uganda, is expected in Libya.Stated goal of this "panel" of mediators of the African Union (AU) met Sunday with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and leaders of the insurgency in their stronghold of Benghazi (east) on Sunday and Monday to try to obtain a cease-fire.

On Tuesday, EU foreign ministers have meanwhile planned to meet with a representative of the National Transitional Council (CNT), a first for the EU as a whole. France, Qatar and Italy have already officially recognized representative body of the insurgents.

The EU is also preparing to launch a military-humanitarian mission to help the besieged people of Misrata, bombed last month and a half by the forces of Gaddafi.Germany has already expressed its readiness to participate in this mission, which has yet to be accepted by the UN.

Thursday is Turkey, the only Muslim country in NATO, which had proposed a "roadmap" for Libya which has included establishing an immediate cease-fire and the creation of "humanitarian space safe ".

One of the common concerns of these missions is to send humanitarian assistance to the Libyan people, especially Misrata where several boats carrying food and medical aid arrived in recent days.

According to a spokesman for the rebels in the third largest city, located some 210 km east of Tripoli, four people were killed, including two children, and ten injured Friday by shells and rockets fired at houses . Besides the gunfire, snipers were positioned on rooftops and target civilians, including children, by insurgents.

A Misrata, as in the east held by the insurgents, the alliance has been criticized, accused of failing to "fulfill its mission to protect civilians," said a spokesman for the rebels.But he acknowledged that "NATO planes destroyed completely barracks and battalions Gaddafi around the city."

At the other end of the country's front line stood still on Saturday as is the case for ten days at the site of Brega Petroleum (East) and the city of Ajdabiya under rebel control, about 80 km to the east.

In the morning, journalists were allowed to move closer towards the front Brega, for the first time since Wednesday. They were stopped en route by leaders of the insurgency, who refused to specify where the front."Military Secret", they explain.

No exchange of gunfire was audible in the sector, according to an AFP journalist.

On the only road connecting the two towns, the rebels were preparing to go into the trenches, charging Grad rockets and other ammunition in the back of pickup equipped with multiple rocket launchers and heavy machine guns.

Two army soldiers captured in front of Gaddafi were brought in cars. All around, fighters triumphant shout "Allah Akhbar" (God is greatest) when taking pictures of soldiers with their mobile phones.One of loyalist prisoners seems healthy, the other seems seriously injured.

The French writer Bernard-Henri Levy is expected to share in the day from Saturday to Benghazi (east), the stronghold of the rebellion which he defends the cause for a visit "independent."

During the weeklong stay, the writer could also go to Brega and Ajdabiya.

OLYMPIC GAMES: Six new disciplines in Sochi-2014

AFP - The IOC Executive Board has agreed in London on Wednesday to include six new events at the Olympics in Sochi in 2014: women's ski jumping, skiing halfpipe men and women, the figure skating team, the mixed relay in biathlon and team relay luge.

The other five candidate events, ski and snowboard slopestyle, both men and women, and the alpine ski event team will be decided later which should take place late May or early June, after further studies Feasibility sites in Sochi, said the IOC sports director Christophe Dubi.

The six new tests should represent an additional contingent of 150 athletes.

"The introduction of these new tests will be appreciated by athletes and spectators," said Jacques Rogge, IOC President. "These are exciting sport, which perfectly complement the existing program and increase the number of women participating in the Olympics."

YEMEN: The security forces opened fire on protesters in Taiz

AFP - A protestor was killed Sunday by police firing on protesters demanding the departure of the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Taiz, south of Sana'a, eyewitnesses said.

The young man was mortally wounded in the chest as he tore a portrait of the Head of State, the witnesses said.

Police opened fire and threw tear gas to disperse demonstrators who tried to march on the governor's seat in this city, told AFP several of them.

"At least 250 people were injured by gunfire or poisoned by tear-gassed by the police," said one witness.

Thousands of protesters camped since mid-February in the center of Taiz, Sana'a and demanding as in Aden (south) the fall of the regime of President Saleh, in power for 32 years.

JAPAN: The north-east of the country hit by a massive tsunami, the Pacific on alert

AFP - A powerful earthquake - a magnitude 8.9 - struck Friday northeastern Japan, a major triggering a tsunami several yards on the Pacific coast which has so far killed four people and a dozen missing.

Waves of 10 feet swept the coasts of the prefecture of Sendai, reported the media, which broadcast pictures of flooded houses and cars under water in coastal cities.

The provisional results, according to media reports, is four dead and many wounded and eight missing in a landslide.

But according to the images of television, the toll expected to rise and the Department of Defense has dispatched ships for relief.

A tsunami warning was also issued on almost all coasts of the Pacific by the U.S. Centers for tsunami evacuation order was triggered Mariana Islands.

The quake, measuring 8.9 according to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) who had previously estimated at 7.9 and 8.8, occurred at 24.4 km depth to 2:46 p.m. ( 5:46 GMT) and a hundred miles off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture.

"We have been shaken so violently that he had to cling to not fall," testified an official of the municipality of Kurihara, hardest hit in this prefecture.

"We could not get away from the building because the tremors did not stop to succeed," she told AFP by telephone.

Nuclear power plants in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures were automatically adopted, said its operator, the company Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which serves the capital.

The Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, has ensured that no radioactive leak was found.

Networks of fixed and mobile telecommunications were heavily disrupted, noted AFP.

In Tokyo, located some 380 km away, the skyscrapers built on special earthquake resistant structures, have pitched very long after the earthquake that lasted for more than two minutes.

A roof collapsed Friday on a building in central Tokyo where 600 students participated in a graduation ceremony, leaving many injured, according to firefighters and the media.

In offices and homes, objects fell from shelves, elevators have been stopped automatically, while millions of people rushed into the streets.

Ten fires were reported in the capital, and there were several casualties in the media.

In the Tokyo area, a refinery was on fire Iichihara, according to images broadcast on Japanese television.

Narita International Airport, located about fifty kilometers east of Tokyo, has suspended the traffic and decided to evacuate the buildings.

The rail and road transport were also disrupted in large parts of the archipelago.

Shinkansen express trains were stopped across the northeast and the motorways of the Tokyo area closed a few minutes after the earthquake.

According to Jiji Press, the parking lot of the Disney Resort, located on the eastern outskirts of the capital, was under the waters of the nearby ocean.

In Tokyo, four million homes were without power, according to media reports.

"I was in the office, on the tenth floor of my building. The walls began to tremble, then all the furniture. I never knew that here I was scared!" Said Horikane Saki, an employee Office of Ginza down with his colleagues a few minutes after the quake.

Thousands of residents and employees of this district of shops and business were still massed in the streets over an hour and a half after the earthquake, fearing aftershocks.

IVORY COAST: A demonstration pro-Ouattara violently dispersed in Abidjan

At least three youths were shot dead and several were wounded Saturday in Abidjan when security forces loyal to Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo out broke up a demonstration in support of Alassane Ouattara, witnesses said.

When the elements of the Defence Forces and Security (FDS) "arrived at the roundabout" of Mayor of Abobo (north, the stronghold of Mr. Ouattara), "they fired on the crowd, people 's is scattered, but they pursued people, "he told AFP capita.

"Three youths were shot dead" in the vicinity of the roundabout, he said, citing several wounded.This assessment was confirmed by two other witnesses.

The popular neighborhood of Abobo since January has been the scene of clashes which killed at least a dozen SDS.

The camp of Alassane Ouattara, Gbagbo accepted by much of the international community had called on Saturday in demonstrations in Abidjan and throughout the country, along the lines of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, from Gbagbo to power.

IRAQ: At least 30 killed in a suicide attack near the town of Samarra

AFP - At least 30 people were killed and 28 wounded Saturday by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive vest in a bus of Shiite pilgrims near Samarra north of Baghdad, security sources and medical.

A previous review of the sources had reported 27 dead.

"The bomber ran on board the bus stopped at a checkpoint a few kilometers from Samarra, and detonated his explosive vest inside the vehicle," said a police official.

"We received 30 bodies, including two women, and 28 wounded including two women," said an official at the General Hospital of the Sunni city of Samarra, 110 km north of Baghdad.

The pilgrims were returning from a ceremony of mourning for a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra and "the victims are all Iraqi.This is the bus passengers and bystanders, "said the driver of an ambulance.

The soldiers forbade journalists from approaching the site of the attack and the hospital.

Samarra which houses the mausoleum are buried the 10th and 11th imams revered by Shia Twelver Ali al-Hadi (827-868) and Hassan al-Askari (847-874) in which the faithful commemorate the death Saturday.

The destruction of the Samarra shrine bombing in February 2006 had triggered violence between Shiites and Sunnis in which tens of thousands of people had been killed.

Thursday, nine Shiite pilgrims were killed and 39 wounded by a bomb planted on a road north of Baghdad.

In January, six cars had exploded bombs in less than a week, leaving at least 57 dead and nearly 300 injured pilgrims who traveled to an annual ceremony of mourning and whipping in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south Baghdad.

Attacks in recent weeks show that the sectarian conflict in Iraq still lingers within one year of departure of the last U.S. military contingent.

The Samarra bombing is the deadliest in Iraq since Jan. 27 when a car bomb has killed 48 during a funeral in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.

The month of January was particularly bloody, with a total of 259 deaths (159 civilians, 55 policemen and 45 soldiers) according to official figures, the worst toll since 273 died in September 2010.

This upsurge of violence in contrast to the relative calm observed in November since the conclusion of an agreement to share power between different factions and the formation in December the government of Nouri al-Maliki.

Mr Maliki accused "terrorist apostates" in his vocabulary term for Al-Qaeda, which is violently anti-Shiite, of being the perpetrators of the attack Shiites.

Shiite pilgrimages have been repeatedly targeted by Sunni armed groups since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, caused by the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

EGYPT: When different generations of critics find themselves in challenging

Who leads the revolt? And who could, if the Egyptian president was leaving office, driving the transition? A week after the start of the protest movement, and while tens of thousands of protesters again gathered Tuesday in downtown Cairo to demand the departure of Hosni Mubarak, no leader has yet to embody the imposed alternative.

"Most opposition parties have very limited ability to mobilize," says Nadim Shehadi, an expert member of the think tank Chatham House in London. These events are not run by the opposition but from the street.The traditional opposition parties have never been at the forefront of this movement. "

Young online activists, spearheaded the protest

According to Nadim Shehadi, the opposition would, however, currently structured. The older generation, fragmented and repressed, joined youth groups cyberactivists who stormed the Web to shake a moribund political landscape for nearly three decades.

Among this new generation of opponents, the Movement of 6 April is one of the main actors of the protest movement, said Samir Shehata, Center for Contemporary Studies in the Arab world of Georgetown University.This movement emerged in 2008 in the wake of the revolt of cotton workers.

Samir Shehata also cites the Kifaya, or Egyptian Movement for Change, one of the spearheads of the dispute. This group, which brings together activists from various trends, emerged in July 2004, launching a campaign against Hosni Mubarak. Kifaya members were particularly far mobilized against the prospect of succession to power of Gamal Mubarak, son of the president.

Kifaya is Arabic for "Enough."A message that resonated in the streets of Cairo and other cities of Egypt such as Cairo or Alexandria, in recent days.

Mohamed el-Baradei, figurehead activists

January 27, Mohamed el-Baradei himself left Vienna, Austria, where he resides, and to return to Egypt to join the protest. The former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which suggested that the transition is a recognized and respected figure on the international scene, but credibility in the local scene is more difficult to establish .

"I think the influence of Mohamed el-Baradei is minimal, said Nadim Shehadi.Before these events, his popularity was very low and his chances of being elected very limited. "

Mohamed ElBaradei, however, an obvious figurehead for the network of activists behind the protest. His National Association for Change, a nonpartisan coalition founded a year ago, rallied all the opposition groups, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, officially banned but tolerated by the regime.

Shortly after the arrival of Mohamed ElBaradei last week, the Muslim Brotherhood said they were seeking to form a broad political committee with the former diplomat.Speaking to a crowd at Tahrir Square in Cairo on Sunday night, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and former MP, Mohammed el-Beltagui said the move "argued Mohamed el-Baradei to drive change." "We're trying to establish a democratic arena, before they can begin to play inside," he added.

The Muslim Brotherhood, a strong presence in the streets since the beginning of the dispute, have networks of charitable associations, schools and hospitals, enabling them to establish their influence in the vast lower class.

A committee of ten persons to lead the transition

Other representatives of the opposition were quick to join Mohamed el-Baradei.Among them, the liberal Wafd party, a great nationalist party founded in 1919 but which now has only a limited audience, the dissident Ayman Nour, who came in second place far behind Hosni Mubarak in the presidential election of 2005; or Osama al-Ghazali Harb, president of the Democratic Front.

According to the U.S. daily The New York Times, the new generation of online activists and opponents older held since Sunday a series of meetings to try to plan a response to a motion. Nadim Shehata says that this coalition has agreed on a list of ten names, including Mohamed ElBaradei, Ayman Nour and Osama al-Ghazali Harb.This committee would lead a unity government if President Hosni Mubarak left the office.

"Young people continue to pursue these discussions," says New York Times Ibrahim Issa, a prominent intellectual of the opposition.

If all these opponents want the departure of the Egyptian president, remains to agree on how to use. Monday, they certainly all called for "a million march" held Tuesday.

The record floods over 600 dead

AFP - The president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff declared Saturday a national mourning for three days after torrential rains that killed more than 600 dead in the mountains near Rio where desperate people are facing chaos and shortages.

According to the latest report from the Civil Defense, at least 610 people perished in this disaster, one of the worst in Brazilian history.

On the other hand, 14,000 people are homeless in this agricultural region and resort to a hundred kilometers from Rio, where peaks rising to 2,200 meters.

Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday sent a message of solidarity to the victims and families of victims posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Rio, where he said he was "appalled by the tragic consequences of heavy rains and expressed his" spiritual solidarity to the people Rio.

A seven-day mourning was also declared in the State of Rio in memory of the victims most of whom were surprised in their sleep by the rivers of mud that took everything in their path.

A Teresopolis, 100 km from Rio, where 263 deaths were counted, people buried their dead.

In the municipal cemetery "a dog, Leao, do not leave the grave of his mistress, Maria Cristina Santana, buried two days ago," said one undertaker told AFP.

Inside the morgue, "it's like a horror movie," he told AFP a voluntary worker, Michelle Tosetti.

The bodies are so decomposed that medical examiners do more photo identification for fear of scaring the families of survivors and also because the photos are not used for anything, "she said.

Now, families are asked to describe the tattoos and any particular sign. In some cases, DNA testing by saliva are made.

The rain had stopped resumed in the afternoon.The soil remains saturated with water and the risks of further landslides remains high.A dozen agricultural areas are still isolated and as relief overtook them, the death toll rise, firefighters have warned.

"I think at the end of it all, we have over a thousand bodies," said Mauricio Berlim, a municipal cemetery sexton.

The Secretary of Health, Solange Sirico, warned against "the risk of epidemics such as hepatitis and leptospirosis.

She also asked people "not to drink well water is contaminated" and it appealed for donations of medical supplies and volunteer doctors.

A Nova Friburgo where 274 people were killed, the streets of this peaceful city, founded by Swiss emigrants in the early nineteenth century and valued by Cariocas for its mild climate, back images of ruins and chaos.

The people trying to leave the city, but gasoline is rationed and the road is dangerous because the yield point in several places.

Important economic consequences ahead: it was already very difficult to find fresh vegetables in Rio, the region serrana (mountain) is the main vegetable production area of the state of Rio.

The tourism sector has already lost 30 million dollars, said the vice-president of the Brazilian Hotel, Michel Chertouh.

This tragedy has generated a wave of solidarity throughout the country. Twenty tons of food were collected by Civil Defense and Rio several hundred people gave their blood.