Syrie : les troubles arrangements de Lafarge avec l’Etat islamique

C’est l’histoire d’une dérive, une histoire de « zone grise » comme les guerres en produisent. L’histoire d’une cimenterie en Syrie, l’une des plus modernes et importantes du Proche-Orient, que sa direction a tenté de faire fonctionner coûte que coûte au milieu d’un pays à feu et à sang, au prix d’arrangements troubles et inavouables avec les groupes armés environnants, dont l’organisation Etat islamique (EI). C’est, enfin, l’histoire d’une société française, Lafarge, numéro un mondial du ciment depuis sa fusion avec le suisse Holcim et fleuron du CAC 40, qui a indirectement – et peut-être à son insu – financé les djihadistes de l’EI pendant un peu plus d’un an, entre le printemps 2013 et la fin de l’été 2014.
En savoir plus sur http://www.lemonde.fr/syrie/article/2016/06/21/syrie-les-troubles-arrangements-de-lafarge-avec-l-etat-islamique_4955023_1618247.html#JX2QacMhHH7sOw2B.99

European countries attempt to seek justice for Syria victims

France’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexis Lamek said that “in France more than 350 court proceedings in relation with Syria have been opened in the anti-terrorist courts since 2014.”

He said French judicial authorities are also looking at possible criminal charges stemming from the archive of more than 10,000 photos of bodies of imprisoned Syrian rebels and dissidents taken by a Syrian military photographer who defected and now goes by the pseudonym Caesar.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/european-countries-attempt-to-seek-justice-for-syria-victims/2016/06/21/19d29a26-3815-11e6-af02-1df55f0c77ff_story.html

Syria’s children starve as America looks o

Over the weekend, Russian and Syrian planes heavily bombed civilian areas in rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Idlib. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 500 civilians, including 105 children, had been killed in 45 consecutive days of bombing in Aleppo. The “cessation of hostilities” negotiated by Mr. Kerry in February, which was never fully observed by Russia and Syria, has been shredded. 

And the Obama administration’s response? It is still waiting patiently for the regime of Bashar al-Assad to stop dropping barrel bombs from helicopters on hospitals and allow passage to aid convoys. It is still asking politely for Russia to stop bombing Western-backed rebel units and to compel the Assad regime to follow suit. “We expect the regime to live up to its commitments,” said a State Department statement Monday. “We ask Russia to use its influence to end this inhumane policy.” As for airdrops, “that’s a very complex question,” said a spokeswoman.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/empty-stomachs-empty-words/2016/06/06/8b725182-2c06-11e6-b5db-e9bc84a2c8e4_story.html

A Schengen Zone for NATO Why the Alliance Needs Open Borders for Troops

NATO’s member states are willing to defend one another, and they have the troops and the equipment to do so. But quickly getting those troops and equipment to their destination is a different matter altogether. In some new NATO member states, bridges and railroads are simply not suitable for large troop movements. But one thing frustrates commanders even more: the arduous process of getting permission to move troops across borders.

“I was probably naïve,” admits Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. “I assumed that because these were NATO and EU countries we’d just be able to move troops. But ministries of defense are not responsible for borders.”

At their upcoming summit in Warsaw, NATO members will discuss joint responses to Russian aggression, and they are likely to agree to station four battalions—totaling about 4,000 troops—in the Baltic states and Poland. But with Russia forming two new divisions in its western military region, which borders the Baltic states, 4,000 forward-stationed troops may not be enough to deter a potential attack. (A division consists of 10,000 to 20,000 troops.)

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/2016-06-06/schengen-zone-nato

U.N. pleads with Syria to airlift aid to starving civilians

Meanwhile there is no need for authorization to the use of force to promove a civilian massacre, deliberately killing all life on the ground! So unresponsible and evil. 

The United Nations, backed by the United States, Britain and other powers, urged the Syrian government on Friday to end all sieges and allow U.N. airdrops of aid to hundreds of thousands of people trapped across conflict-torn Syria.



"Nearly 600,000 people are besieged in 19 different areas in Syria, according to the U.N., with two-thirds trapped by government forces and the rest by armed opposition groups and Islamic State militants."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-un-idUSKCN0YP1UA 

Saudi-led coalition used cluster bombs in Yemen: HRW

The group's report included a photograph of a section of casing from a CBU-58 cluster bomb, which it said showed it was manufactured in 1978 at a US ammunition plant in Tennessee.
The United States is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and supplies much of the ordnance its forces use, but it has not exported cluster bombs of the type found in Sanaa for many years.
The watchdog's report said the cluster bombs hit a residential neighborhood in Yemen's capital Sanaa and left the tell-tale pockmarks of multiple exploding bomblets on civilian buildings.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was hurt, but such bombs are indiscriminate weapons.
This is especially true of older models such as the one found in Sanaa because they often contain dud rounds that linger in the area and explode long after the strike.
"The coalition's repeated use of cluster bombs in the middle of a crowded city suggests an intent to harm civilians, which is a war crime," said Steve Goose, arms director at HRW.

http://www.france24.com/en/20160107-saudi-led-coalition-used-cluster-bombs-yemen-hrw

The Chinese renminbi joins the IMF's reserve-currency

If lots of things were priced in SDRs, the IMF’s decision would have forced companies around the world to buy yuan-denominated assets as soon as possible, to hedge their exposure. That would have prompted China’s currency to strengthen dramatically. But the Suez transit fees are a rare case; few other goods or services are priced in SDRs. Instead, admission to the currency club is significant mainly for its symbolism: the IMF is lending its imprimatur to the yuan as a reserve currency—a safe, liquid asset in which governments can park their wealth. Indeed, far from setting off a groundswell of demand for the yuan, the IMF’s decision may pave the way for the yuan’s depreciation.

The reason is that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will now find itself under more pressure to manage the yuan as central banks in most developed economies do: by letting market forces determine their prices. In bringing the yuan into the SDR, the IMF had to determine that it is “freely usable”. This is a large leap of faith in a currency which is still heavily managed, so before coming to this decision, the IMF asked China to make changes to its currency regime.http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21679341-its-new-status-might-make-weaker-yuan-chinese-renminbi-joins-imfs?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/thechineserenminbijoinstheimfsreservecurrencybasket