company:reuters

  • A peine née, la taxe Tobin devient light en passant de 0,1% à 0,01%

    http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/banques-finance/banque/20130530trib000767470/a-peine-nee-la-taxe-tobin-devient-light-en-passant-de-01-a-001.html

    Selon Reuters, le taux effectif de cette taxe sur les transactions financières dite Tobin sera ramené de 0,1% de la valeur des transactions boursières à 0,01%.

    Les banques et les intermédiaires financiers avaient jeté toutes leurs forces dans la bataille contre un mécanisme censé les faire contribuer aux coûts de la crise financière et inspiré par la France et l’Allemagne.

    De hauts fonctionnaires européens pensaient que la taxe sur les transactions financières permettrait de lever jusqu’à 35 milliards d’euros par an. Mais ce calcul prenait pour base une taxe représentant 0,1% de la valeur des transactions boursières concernées alors que, suivant la dernière mouture du projet, elle serait ramenée à 0,01%, ont dit des responsables à Reuters.

  • L’Armée syrienne libre avait annoncé qu’elle bombarderait des populations civiles chiites au Liban, elle l’a à nouveau revendiqué ce matin, et évidemment ce soir elle dément et accuse le Hezbollah d’un plan bizarre.

    L’enchaînement est assez clair.

    1. Le 22 mai, un communiqué de l’Armée syrienne libre prétend avoir découvert un plan du Hezbollah de commettre des attentats contre des régions chiites au Liban pour se poser en victime et faire accuser les rebelles syriens. Évidemment, c’est idiot : comment peut-on « découvrir » un tel plan ? Des dirigeants du Hezbollah l’ont annoncé à leurs troupes en Syrie et ça a fuité ? Les dirigeants du Hezbollah s’échangent leurs plans machiavéliques via Facebook ? Hassan Nasrallah l’a dit en « off » à des journalistes du Guardian qui ont ensuite violé leur NDA ? Quoi ? « Nous avons découvert que… » et ça suffit ?

    Comme l’avait alors noté As‘ad Abukhalil, cette fumeuse découverte revenait en réalité pour l’Armée syrienne libre à annoncer maladroitement qu’elle prévoyait elle-même d’attaquer les civils chiites libanais et ensuite d’accuser le Hezbollah d’en être l’auteur « secret ».

    2. Dimanche matin, deux roquettes Grad tombent sur Chiyah et blessent 4 personnes. (Comme à la parade, les dépêches des agences présentent le quartier comme un « fief » du « Hezbollah chiite », alors que Chiyah est un quartier anciennement chrétien avec une municipalité maronite, avec une très forte population chiite, mais plutôt fief du parti Amal depuis les années 90. Cette façon de justifier immédiatement le bombardement d’un quartier civil de Beyrouth est déjà scandaleux, mais le faire unanimement avec un argument faux me semble particulièrement suspect.)

    Selon une source sécuritaire citée par Reuters, une roquette de 107mm, qui ne s’est pas déclenchée, visait l’aéroport de Beyrouth.

    3. Le même jour, deux roquettes du même type tirées depuis la Syrie tombent sur la région du Hermel dans le Bekaa, sans faire de victimes.

    4. Dans la semaine, un commandant rebelle d’Alep, « apparemment en route pour Qusayr », avait menacé explicitement de bombarder Dahiyeh dans une vidéo postée sur le Web :

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/26/rockets-hit-hezbollah-stronghold-beirut_n_3339486.html

    Earlier this week, a rebel commander threatened to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs in retaliation for Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria. The threat was made in a video showing Col. Abdul-Jabbar al-Aqidi, commander of the Syrian rebels’ Military Council in Aleppo, while apparently en route to Qusair.

    “We used to say before, We are coming Bashar.' Now we say, We are coming Bashar and we are coming Hassan Nasrallah,’” the commander says in the video.

    “We will strike at your strongholds in Dahiyeh,” he says, using the Lebanese name for Hezbollah’s power center in south Beirut. The video was still posted online on Youtube on Sunday.

    4. Surtout, dimanche matin, un responsable de l’Armée syrienne libre justifie l’attaque et menace explicitement le Liban. Personne ne peut lire les propos d’Ammar al-Wawi autrement que comme une revendication et une menace purement terroriste (menacer les civils pour obtenir un gain politique).

    Earlier on Sunday, FSA secretary Wawi called on President Michel Suleiman and the Lebanese government to “put an end to what Hizbullah is committing in Syria or else the fire raging in Syria will spread into Lebanon.”

    “The Syrian people will not stand idly by regarding what Hizbullah is doing in Syria,” Wawi said in an interview with LBCI television.

    “Should the Lebanese government fail to stop Hizbullah, there will be repercussions against Beirut, Tripoli and the Rafik Hariri International Airport,” Wawi said, claiming that the airport “has become a corridor for Iranian planes that are shipping weapons to Syria.”

    He added: “Our honorable people in Lebanon from all sects will not stand idly by regarding what Hizbullah is doing in Syria, and therefore there will be repercussions, such as what happened today in the rocket attack on the southern suburbs.”

    5. Évidemment (c’est une habitude après chaque attentat), après avoir explicitement menacé, puis indirectement revendiqué en menaçant à nouveau, l’Armée syrienne libre condamne les attentats « dans les termes les plus forts » :
    http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/84497-fsa-strongly-condemns-dahiyeh-rocket-attack-disavows-its-secretary-s

    “We condemn in the strongest terms the act of sabotage and terrorism that targeted Dahiyeh and reiterate our commitment to Lebanon’s security, sovereignty and stability,” Fahd al-Masri, head of FSA’s Central Media Department, said in an interview with MTV.

    In another interview with Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5), Masri strongly denied any role for the FSA in the rocket attack, describing remarks voiced by FSA secretary Ammar al-Wawi as “irresponsible.”

    6. Et revoici comme prévu la très fumeuse théorie du complot des attentats « false flag » commis par le Hezbollah :

    He described the incident as “deeply worrisome,” noting that “it confirms what we had revealed about an Iranian plot to make bombings in Shiite areas to cover up for Hizbullah’s failure in (the Syrian town of) Qusayr.”

    7. À cette heure, aucune mention de tout ceci dans aucun média occidental, malgré une rapide mention des menaces dans une dépêche Reuters :
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/26/us-lebanon-hezbollah-rockets-idUSBRE94P01M20130526

    But another Syrian rebel, Ammar al-Wawi, told Lebanon’s LBC Television the attack was a warning to authorities in Beirut to restrain Hezbollah. “In coming days we will do more than this. This is a warning to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government to keep Hezbollah’s hands off Syria,” he said.

  • Contraste intéressant : alors qu’à la lecture des dépêches AFP et Reuters, on a quasiment l’impression que seuls des combattants du Hezbollah se battent à Qusayr, et se confient volontiers aux correspondants étrangers, la dépêche d’Al Manar ne fait absolument aucune mention des combattants du parti : seule l’armée syrienne régulière est mentionnée. Il devient alors particulièrement étonnant que des combattants du parti se répandraient dans les médias alors que la chaîne officielle du parti prend bien soin de ne pas les évoquer dans cette dépêche.
    http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=94999&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=20&s1=1

    The Syrian city of al-Qusayr witnessed on Saturday the fiercest fight since the Syrian army launched the operation against the foreign-backed militants almost nearly a week ago.

    Syrian military sources told al-Manar that the Syrian army advanced on Saturday in the area of Hamidiyeh.

    The source added that the Syrian armed forces destroyed a vehicle loaded with a 23 mm cannon in the airport of Dabaa in al-Qusayr countryside.

    Note : je n’ai pas encore lu ce que Nasrallah a déclaré ce soir, je suis donc curieux de savoir comment il évoque Qusayr.

    • Nasrallah’s speech
      http://networkedblogs.com/Lzxc3

      Anyway, I felt that Nasrallah did not say really much about Syria: as if he felt obliged to speak about it but did not want to, for one reason or another. But what bothered me about the speech is that he said that the fall of Syria (by which he clearly meant the regime) would result in the “loss of Palestine” among other disasters. But Palestine is not a wallet to be lost. It will never be lost, no matter. If the cause survived the fall of the Nasser regime, it can easily survive the fall of the lousy Asad dynasty.

  • À l’instant, Angry Arab se moque de Reuters, qui prétend qu’un combattant du Hezbollah lui téléphone direcement depuis Qusayr :
    http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2013/05/hizbullah-fighters-manage-to-call-in-to.html

    A fighter from Hezbollah forces in Qusair told Reuters by telephone that advances were happening at a very slow pace.

    Voir ma remarque précédente sur l’AFP :
    http://seenthis.net/messages/141672

    C’est tellement ridicule que j’ai voulu vérifier, et j’ai découvert que c’est encore plus amusant : il existe désormais au moins trois versions de cette phrase.

    Sur ces sites :
    http://www.trust.org/item/20130525133202-frtls
    http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=1688441
    la mention « par téléphone » apparaît bien :

    A fighter from Hezbollah forces in Qusair told Reuters by telephone that advances were happening at a very slow pace.

    En revanche, sur ces sites :
    http://www.dailynewscrunch.com/middle-east/hezbollah-syria-government-forces-push-for-advance-in-qusair
    http://www.oregonherald.com/news/story.cfm?bid=6009499
    la mention du coup de bigophone a disparu :

    A fighter from Hezbollah forces in Qusair told Reuters that advances were happening at a very slow pace.

    Et la dépêche d’origine chez Reuters :
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/25/us-syria-crisis-qusair-idUSBRE94O05320130525
    ça n’est plus par téléphone, et ça n’est plus un combattant mais « un officiel proche du Hezbollah » :

    An official close to Hezbollah told Reuters that the fighters’ advances in Qusair were happening at a very slow pace.

    L’explication est confirmée par le lien « United Jerusalem » ci-dessus : la version sur ce site contient la mention du téléphone, tout en indiquant que sa source est l’article de Reuters référencé ici, lequel ne contient pas la mention du téléphone et où le « combattant » est remplacé par « un officiel ». Il est donc clair que Reuters a sucré la mention.

    Alors quoi, Reuters, tu trouves qu’écrire que tu obtiens les confidences d’un combattant du Hezbollah à Qusayr par téléphone, ça fait pingouin, donc tu changes la mention de ta source ; mais ça ne remet pas en cause l’« information » elle-même ?

  • En Alabama, 10 cas dont 2 mortels d’une maladie respiratoire non identifiée
    Health officials probe deadly respiratory illness in Alabama | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/us-usa-alabama-illness-idUSBRE94L18R20130522

    U.S. and state health authorities are investigating an unidentified respiratory illness that has killed two of 10 people hospitalized with it in Alabama since last week.

    A priori , il ne s’agit pas d’une variante de grippe (bien qu’il y ait 2 porteurs du H1N1 de la grippe aviaire). Une bactérie multirésistante est envisagée, le nouveau coronavirus ne l’est pas, aucun des patients n’ayant voyagé.

  • Admire le gloubi-boulga confessionaliste de France 24-avec-Reuters :
    http://www.france24.com/en/20130522-syria%E2%80%99-national-coalition-calls-rebels-defend-qusair-0

    Assad’s forces are intent on seizing Qusair in order to cement their hold on a belt of territory that connects the capital Damascus to Assad’s stronghold on the Mediterranean coast, home to his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that has largely supported him.

    Seizing Qusair would also allow Assad to sever links between rebel-held areas in the north and south of Syria.

    With Shi’ite Hezbollah leading the fight in Qusair, its involvement could drag Syria’s civil war - which already pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels, including radical Islamists and foreign fighters, against an Alawite-led army - into a more regional sectarian conflict.

    Rebel leaders have warned of sectarian revenge attacks against Shi’ites and Alawites on either side of the Syrian-Lebanese border if rebels lose Qusair. Fighters speak of a tacit agreement among their units to launch village by village attacks should they be defeated in the town of 30,000.

    Sabra warned that Hezbollah forces in Qusair could regionalise Sunni-Shi’ite tensions across the Middle East.

    C’est donc la faute au Hezbollah si les chefs rebelles menacent de représailles sectaires… La beauté de cette compilation d’arguments confessionnels ineptes, c’est qu’il n’est fait nulle part mention des chrétiens de Qusayr. Est-ce parce qu’ils ont disparu, chassés l’année dernière par les rebelles (ceux qui ne seraient pas confessionnels si ce n’était l’intervention du Hezbollah) : Christians Flee from Radical Rebels in Syria
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/christians-flee-from-radical-rebels-in-syria-a-846180.html

    “There were always Christians in Qusayr — there were around 10,000 before the war,” says Leila, the matriarch of the Khouri clan. Currently, 11 members of the clan are sharing two rooms. They include the grandmother, grandfather, three daughters, one husband and five children. “Despite the fact that many of our husbands had jobs in the civil service, we still got along well with the rebels during the first months of the insurgency.” The rebels left the Christians alone. The Christians, meanwhile, were keen to preserve their neutrality in the escalating power struggle. But the situation began deteriorating last summer, Leila says, murmuring a bit more before going silent.

    “We’re too frightened to talk,” her daughter Rim explained, before mustering the courage to continue. “Last summer Salafists came to Qusayr, foreigners. They stirred the local rebels against us,” she says. Soon, an outright campaign against the Christians in Qusayr took shape. “They sermonized on Fridays in the mosques that it was a sacred duty to drive us away,” she says. “We were constantly accused of working for the regime. And Christians had to pay bribes to the jihadists repeatedly in order to avoid getting killed.”

    Ou ce rapport du Vatican qui accusait les rebelles d’avoir chassé les chrétiens de Qusair : Syria opposition denies Vatican report of Christians ordered out
    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/06/syria-opposition-denies-vatican-report-of-christians-ordered-o

    Opponents of the Syrian government disputed a Vatican report that Christians had fled the town of Qusair after an “ultimatum” from the rebel leader, denouncing it as government propaganda.

    News of alleged Christian persecution in the town close to the Lebanese border had been reported Saturday by the official Vatican news agency, adding to ongoing worries that the uprising against President Bashar Assad could devolve into sectarian strife between Islamists and religious minorities.

    The Vatican agency said it wasn’t clear why Christians had been ordered out of the town. “According to some, it serves to avoid more suffering to the faithful; other sources reveal ’a continuity focused on discrimination and repression.’ Still others argue that Christians have openly expressed their loyalty to the state and for this reason the opposition army drives them away,” the news agency reported.

  • H7N9, déjà un impact de 6,5 Mds de dollars, essentiellement sur la volaille chinoise.
    (et, accessoirement, 36 morts à ce jour)

    #H7N9 bird flu outbreak costs more than $6.5 billion so far -U.N | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/21/us-birdflu-idUSBRE94K0ZQ20130521

    “The economic impacts of H7N9 have been astounding,” Juan Lubroth said during a presentation at the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

    “Over $6.5 billion has been lost in the agriculture sector because of prices, consumer confidence and trade. So poultry industry losses in China have been high,” he said.

    H7N9 Confirmed in Chicken — CRI English (avec Xinhua) http://english.cri.cn/6909/2013/05/21/2702s766066.htm
    (21/05/13)

    A poultry sample has tested positive for the H7N9 virus in Zengcheng City in the southern province of Guangdong, the country’s agriculture ministry said yesterday.

    The avian flu virus, which has so far led to the deaths of 36 people nationwide, was detected in a sample of chicken from a market in Zengcheng.

    The ministry ordered Guangdong to properly dispose of the sample and increase monitoring efforts.

  • Les pires cyberattaques sont encore à venir
    Source : Reuters via @opironet
    19/05/2013 à 14:25 / Mis à jour le 19/05/2013 à 14:30
    Myriam Rivet pour le service français, édité par Benoit Van Overstraeten

    Les spécialistes de la #cybersécurité connaissent d’innombrables moyens par lesquels des hackers peuvent semer le chaos en piratant des infrastructures essentielles ou en infiltrant les systèmes informatiques d’entreprises pour dérober des données ou procéder à de l’espionnage industriel, mais c’est ce qu’ils ignorent encore qui les inquiète le plus.

    Les experts s’interrogent en effet sur les bombes à retardement qui pourraient infecter-ou même avoir déjà contaminé- certains réseaux informatiques.

    Pour Keith Alexander, directeur de l’Agence de sécurité nationale américaine (#NSA), il ne fait aucun doute que les cyberattaques vont gagner en ampleur.

    « Les attaques à visée de perturbation ou de destruction dirigée contre (les Etats-Unis) vont empirer », a-t-il déclaré lors du sommet sur la cybersécurité organisé par Reuters cette semaine. « Retenez bien ceci : cela va aller en s’aggravant. »

    Ainsi, le vol de données ou d’argent-comme le #piratage international de distributeurs automatiques de billets ayant permis de dérober 45 millions de dollars révélé ce mois-ci- pourraient sembler dérisoires en comparaison d’attaques entraînant par exemple une panne de courant à l’échelle d’une grande ville.

    « Le ’connu inconnu’, c’est ce qui m’inquiète », a dit la secrétaire à la Sécurité intérieure Janet Napolitano.

    « Par exemple, nous ne connaissons pas l’identité de l’ensemble de nos adversaires qui tentent de commettre des crimes ou d’agir sur les réseaux informatiques. Ce que nous connaissons, nous pouvons le gérer. C’est ça le ’connu inconnu’ », a-t-elle expliqué.

    L’adaptation à l’évolution des attaques représente ainsi une lourde tâche.

    « Veiller à ne pas prendre de retard par rapport aux menaces, s’assurer que nos systèmes de défense sont à la hauteur représente probablement l’une des tâches qui monopolise le plus mon attention », a souligné le contre-amiral William Leigher, responsable de la « maîtrise de l’information » pour l’US Navy.

    Le secteur militaire figure parmi les cibles évidentes et ce haut gradé a évoqué plusieurs milliers de tentatives d’intrusion quotidiennes sur les réseaux qu’il supervise.

    Jusqu’ici, les Etats-Unis n’ont pas eu à déplorer de #cyberattaque destructrice d’ampleur comme celle qui avait affecté plus de 30.000 ordinateurs d’employés du géant pétrolier saoudien Saudi Aramco à l’été 2012. Mais les progrès incessants du potentiel de nuisance informatique de pays comme la Chine, l’Iran et la Russie préoccupent les spécialistes.

    « Cette tendance croissante voyant des Etats impliqués dans des cyberattaques conçues pour détruire des pans de l’économie américaine est très, très inquiétante », a relevé Mike Rogers, élu républicain qui préside la commission du Congrès chargée du renseignement.

    « La férocité de ces attaques augmente et c’est un aspect que nous ferions mieux de prendre en main », a-t-il ajouté.

    Pour Dmitri Alperovitch, co-fondateur de la société Crowdstrike, spécialisée dans la sécurité informatique, l’Iran représente la principale source d’inquiétude, en raison de la montée des tensions au Proche-Orient.

    Une autre menace à prendre en compte est celle qui résulte de l’essor des appareils connectés, une évolution qui élargit le champ des cibles potentielles. [#internet_des_objets]

    « Très bientôt votre cafetière et votre réfrigérateur seront eux aussi des vecteurs d’attaques parce qu’ils seront raccordés à internet », a prévenu Michael Daniel, coordinateur de la politique de cybersécurité à la Maison blanche.

    • à noter que la France se met aussi désormais officiellement, après les Etats-Unis (et les discours post-#stuxnet), à la doctrine du « il faut développer une cyber capacité offensive »… ; pour être crédible, pour offrir une panoplie d’action à (hum…) l’Etat, et pour « anticiper »…

      Bref, des discours destinés à promouvoir la #guerre et l’#armée, qui aimerait bien avoir des ressources pour faire la #cyberguerre !

      Temps Forts | La cyberguerre est déclarée
      http://www.republicain-lorrain.fr/actualite/2013/01/29/la-cyberguerre-est-declaree

      Pour dissuader d’éventuels ennemis, la France fait ainsi savoir qu’elle dispose d’une capacité offensive. « Et nous ne sommes pas mauvais dans le domaine. Mais, pas plus de précision. Sécurité défense… » , conclut Jean-Marie Bockel.

      (pour plus d’infos, chercher "bockel" sur seenthis)

  • (mauvaise manipe pour ajouter #drone sur un article précédemment posté, je remplace )

    Paris va acheter des drones américains ou israéliens-Le Drian | Reuters
    http://fr.reuters.com/article/frEuroRpt/idFRL6N0E005920130519

    PARIS, 19 mai (Reuters) - La France est en discussion avec les Etats-Unis et Israël pour l’achat en urgence de drones de surveillance, a déclaré dimanche le ministre de la Défense, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

    Selon Le Monde, Paris a obtenu vendredi l’accord du Pentagone et n’attend plus que celui du Congrès pour l’achat en urgence de deux drones américains.

    Invité du Grand rendez-vous Europe 1/i>Télé/Le Parisien, Jean-Yves Le Drian a précisé que les discussions concernaient également Israël.

    « Il nous faut aujourd’hui ces moyens à court terme. Il y a aujourd’hui deux pays au monde qui construisent des drones, les Etats-Unis et Israël », a-t-il dit.

    « Nous sommes en discussion avec les uns et les autres pour pouvoir en acquérir immédiatement », a-t-il ajouté.

    #drone

  • Scientists create human stem cells through cloning | Reuters
    http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/05/15/science-stemcells-idINDEE94E0DN20130515

    ... the achievement could also revive fears of reproductive cloning, or producing genetic copies of living (or dead) individuals.

    Even before the study was published, a British watchdog group called Human Genetics Alert protested the research.

    “Scientists have finally delivered the baby that would-be human cloners have been waiting for: a method for reliably creating cloned human embryos,” said Dr. David King, the group’s director. “This makes it imperative that we create an international legal ban on human cloning before any more research like this takes place. It is irresponsible in the extreme to have published this research.”

    Among scientists, however, the accomplishment is being hailed as “a tour de force,” as stem cell biologist George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute put it. “This represents an unparalleled achievement. They succeeded where many other groups failed, including mine.”

  • U.N. condemns Assad forces, but unease grows about rebels | Reuters
    http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/05/15/syria-crisis-un-vote-idINDEE94E0EO20130515

    The U.N. General Assembly condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and praised the opposition on Wednesday, but a decline in support for the resolution suggested growing unease about extremism among Syria’s fractious rebels.

    While the non-binding text has no legal force, resolutions of the 193-nation assembly can carry significant moral and political weight. There were 107 votes in favor, 12 against and 59 abstentions - a drop in support compared with a resolution condemning the Syrian government that passed in August with 133 votes in favor, 12 against and 31 abstentions.

    U.N. diplomats cited concerns that Syria could be headed for “regime change” engineered by foreign governments and fears about a strengthening Islamist extremist element among the rebels as reasons for the decline in support for the resolution.

  • États-Unis · Associated Press dénonce une « intrusion massive » du gouvernement américain
    http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/international/archives/2013/05/20130514-112426.html

    L’agence Associated Press a fait savoir que les autorités américaines s’étaient secrètement procurées plusieurs de ses numéros de téléphone en 2012, dans le cadre de ce que ses avocats présentent comme « une intrusion massive et sans précédent » dans ses activités.Reuters

    #fr.canoe.ca

  • Publication des prix pratiqués par les hôpitaux états-uniens

    U.S. makes data available on wide disparity in hospital charges | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/usa-healthcare-hospitals-idUSL2N0DP26R20130508

    The Obama administration revealed what over 3,000 hospitals charge for common medical procedures in an early effort to challenge healthcare costs by showing consumers how prices for the same service can vary by tens of thousands of dollars.

    Le gouvernement publie les prix pratiqués dans 3337 hôpitaux pour les 100 actes les plus courants. Les prix sont ceux déclarés à Medicare (tous les hôpitaux ne le font pas). Les données (2011) sont issues de presque 7 millions de factures, soit 60% de ce que traite Medicare.

    Le site du gouvernement http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html avec un lien vers un fichier Excel et un fichier texte (csv) (163 000 lignes).

    Les critiques font remarquer
    • que les données (brutes) sont difficiles à exploiter,
    • qu’il n’y a pas d’indication quant à la qualité des interventions
    • que la liste des interventions n’est pas pertinente

    La publication est favorablement accueillie par les associations de consommateurs et sera suivie de la publication d’autres informations.

    #santé #hôpital #open_data

  • Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate | Reuters
    http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/03/uk-usa-guantanamo-costs-idUKBRE94212320130503

    It’s been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 (£577,886) per prisoner annually.

    The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, which was set up 11 years ago to house foreign terrorism suspects. With 166 inmates currently in custody, that amounts to an annual cost of $903,614 per prisoner.

    By comparison, super-maximum security prisons in the United States spend about $60,000 to $70,000 at most to house their inmates, analysts say. And the average cost across all federal prisons is about $30,000, they say.

  • Number of names on U.S. counter-terrorism database jumps | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/03/us-usa-security-database-idUSBRE94200720130503

    Karen Greenberg, an expert in counter-terrorism policy at Fordham University, questioned whether the growth in the database’s size made it easier for officials to spot threats before they materialize.

    “What you want is more focus, not less focus. It can’t be just about quantity. It has to be about specificity,” she said.

  • #Data_Journalism L’initiative réussie de Reuters « Connected China » http://sco.lt/5ahCfR

    The site visualizes three specific sets of relationships in China: the Social Power view illustrates the person-to-person connections, or guanxi, of China’s leaders; Institutional Power demonstrates the official and de facto flow of power between China’s government, Party and military institutions; Career Comparison illustrates the structured nature of promotion in Chinese leadership.

    The project represents a new approach for Reuters News – a model to take the reporting we do every day about people, institutions, power and relationships and put it in a format that gives it sustained significance over time.

  • Abu Dhabi Plans Financial Free Zone, May Compete With Dubai » Gulf Business
    http://gulfbusiness.com/2013/04/abu-dhabi-plans-financial-free-zone-may-compete-with-dubai

    A federal decree was passed by the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in February to create the area, known as the Abu Dhabi World Financial Market, on Al Maryah island, the sources told Reuters.

    Detailed regulations covering the zone will be outlined shortly, an Abu Dhabi government source said, declining to be named under briefing rules.

    “It will have all the offerings of a financial free zone – 100 per cent foreign ownership, tax and capital repatriation, internationally accepted laws and regulations and other things,” the source said.

    The UAE’s free zones are areas in which foreign companies can operate under light regulation, and where foreign investors are allowed to take 100 per cent ownership in companies; outside the zones, they generally need to have local partners.

    One of the country’s most successful free zones is the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), established in 2004 with its own civil and commercial laws, its own courts and a financial exchange, NASDAQ Dubai.

    It has become the Gulf’s top financial centre, housing regional headquarters for many of the world’s biggest banks and finance firms. Others have tried to emulate its success; the Qatar Financial Centre was set up in 2005 in Doha, and the Bahrain Financial Harbour opened in 2009.

    • Décidémment, il ne faudrait pas qu’ils entrent trop en concurrence

      Abu Dhabi Launches New Port, May Compete With Dubai » Gulf Business
      http://gulfbusiness.com/2012/09/abu-dhabi-launches-new-port-may-compete-with-dubai

      Khalifa Port’s container terminal currently has an annual capacity of 2.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). This can be raised to 5 million TEU according to demand over the next few years. Abu Dhabi has said its long-term goal is to increase it to 15 million by 2030, depending on demand.

      The port can also handle 12 million tons of general cargo annually in the first phase, including 4 million tons from an Emirates Aluminium berth that opened in 2010.

      Khalifa Port will gradually take over all container traffic from Abu Dhabi’s existing Mina Zayed port, which has reached its capacity of 1 million TEUs.

      In shipping, the obvious challenge to its growth comes from Dubai, whose much larger Jebel Ali port is only about 40 km (25 miles) north along the coast.

      Last December DP World , the world’s third-largest port operator and owner of Jebel Ali, said it would invest $850 million over three years to boost the port’s capacity by 4 million TEU to 19 million.

  • Rappel : ça fait un bon mois qu’Israël et ses alliés font monter la sauce chimique en Syrie :
    http://seenthis.net/messages/124026

    Or, même l’Observatoire syrien des Droits de l’Homme désignait assez clairement les rebelles comme auteurs de l’attaque :
    http://news.yahoo.com/twenty-six-killed-syrian-attack-monitoring-group-124003651.html

    “Sixteen Syrian regular army soldiers were killed in Khan al-Assal,” Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters. “Ten more died in hospital but I cannot confirm if they are civilians or soldiers.”

    Le Telegraph indiquait également, selon plusieurs témoignages, qu’il s’agissait d’une bombe artisanale fabriquée par des rebelles :
    http://seenthis.net/messages/124727

    Il est assez charmant de voir la France et ses médias s’aligner, une fois de plus, avec autant de rapidité sur la dernière petite phrase du Département d’État. Vraiment charmant.

  • Analysis : Bangladesh still works for retailers, despite disasters | Reuters
    http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/04/27/bangladesh-building-retailers-idINDEE93Q02I20130427

    Un excellent article de Nivedita Bhattacharjee et Jessica Wohl pour « Reuters India » sur les conditions de travail et l’exploitation des salariés du tiers-monde par l’industrie textile et la complicité des institutions transnationales et des consommateurs.

    ...

    About 18 months before the previous big tragedy in Bangladesh - a fire in November in a textile factory that killed 112 people - shareholders at Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) had the opportunity to weigh in on the safety question. By a nearly 50-to-1 margin, they rejected a proposal to require suppliers to report annually on safety issues at their factories.

    In arguing against the proposal, Wal-Mart’s management made its reasoning clear: Having suppliers compile such reports “could ultimately lead to higher costs for Walmart and higher prices for our customers. This would not be in the best interests of Walmart’s shareholders and customers and would place Walmart at a competitive disadvantage,” the company said in proxy materials.

    Soon after the fire, Wal-Mart and Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O) admitted their goods were being made at the Tazreen Fashions workshop even though they had denied that factory authorization as a supplier.

    FAR FROM ALONE

    Bangladesh is hardly the only source of inexpensive clothes and cheap labor that has sparked concern about labor conditions. From Vietnam, to the American protectorate of Saipan, to the massive workshops in China, Western companies have found themselves entangled with places where worker health and safety conditions are often questioned.

    Disasters such as the April 24 collapse of an eight-story factory building in Bangladesh have not changed the calculation for apparel makers and retailers. Cheaper products appeal to shoppers. And the taint, if any, appears to be manageable.

    The courthouse, marketplace and stock market seem to be telling them they are right.

    Shoppers such as Mohini Raichura are making decisions that justify the retailers’ strategies. Raichura, a 30-year-old London charity worker, was shopping Friday at Primark, a discount retailer owned by Associated British Foods (ABF.L), even though she knew that some of its products were made at the factory that collapsed earlier in the week.

    “I go there because it’s cheap. That’s awful. It really makes me a bad person,” Raichura said. “But you know, I work for a charity, I’m on a limited income, and I pay rent in London -that’s how I justify it.”

    Consumers continue to purchase products from brands like Wal-Mart’s Faded Glory, found in the Tazreen rubble, and Loblaw’s Joe Fresh, found in the ruins of the factory building this week.

    ... That disaster, in which locked doors prevented workers from fleeing to safety, did not appear to have any measurable impact on sales at Wal-Mart and Sears after both acknowledged their products were made there.

    The world’s court systems have not provided a disincentive, either. For example, in 2005, a lawsuit was filed in California state court on behalf of factory workers in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and other countries accusing Wal-Mart of failing to address substandard working conditions in suppliers’ factories.

    But the case was ultimately dismissed, and according to a search of available filings on the Thomson Reuters legal database Westlaw, there have been no U.S. lawsuits filed against Wal-Mart or Sears on similar matters since the Tazreen fire.

    ...

  • L’interview du PDG de Mt Gox fait s’envoler #Bitcoin
    http://francebitcoin.com/linterview-du-ceo-de-mt-gox-fait-senvoler-le-cours-de-bitcoin

    Aujourd’hui, Reuters a publié une interview de Mark Karpeles, CEO de Mt Gox, qui a divulgué certains chiffres très intéressants :

    Le montant des entrées dans leur système est de 5 à 20 millions de dollars par jour, alors que le montant des sorties est de 300k à 1 million de dollars par jour.

    (note : juste après ça, la courbe est redescendue)

  • Heavy use of herbicide Roundup linked to health dangers-U.S. study | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/25/roundup-health-study-idUSL2N0DC22F20130425

    Heavy use of the world’s most popular herbicide, Roundup, could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson’s, infertility and cancers, according to a new study.

    The peer-reviewed report, published last week in the scientific journal Entropy, said evidence indicates that residues of “glyphosate,” the chief ingredient in Roundup weed killer, which is sprayed over millions of acres of crops, has been found in food.

    Those residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant from Arthur D. Little, Inc. Samsel is a former private environmental government contractor as well as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

    “Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body,” the study says.

    We “have hit upon something very important that needs to be taken seriously and further investigated,” Seneff said.

    Environmentalists, consumer groups and plant scientists from several countries have warned that heavy use of glyphosate is causing problems for plants, people and animals.

    The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] is conducting a standard registration review of glyphosate and has set a deadline of 2015 for determining if glyphosate use should be limited.

    Sinon une autre étude (mais non publiée semble-t-il*) corroborerait la présence de glyphosate :

    Une nouvelle étude américaine juge le maïs OGM toxique - Enviro2B | Enviro2B
    http://www.enviro2b.com/2013/04/18/une-nouvelle-etude-americaine-juge-le-mais-ogm-toxique

    Une nouvelle étude menée par la société américaine Profit Pro, pourrait relancer le débat autour du maïs génétiquement modifié. Dans un rapport, « 2012 Corn Comparison », dont les conclusions ont été reprises sur le site russe Rt.com, les auteurs ont en effet constaté que ce type de maïs contiendraient des éléments, absents de la plante au naturel, et potentiellement toxiques pour l’homme.

    * http://www.profitproag.com

    The study “2012 Nutritional Analysis – Comparison of GMO Corn versus Non-GMO Corn” was an analysis of corn itself and not the soil. The analysis was conducted by an independent, outsourced, major food company at the request of one of our growers, and the results were then provided to that grower, who, in turn, made available a copy of the analysis to ProfitPro. The food company purchased the corn from the grower at a substantial premium over market because of the quality of his non-GMO corn.

    This information was intended for our customers only.
    ProfitPro did not give permission for any other web site to use or publish the study.
    Additional side-by-side studies will be conducted this coming year.

    #Monsanto #Roundup #OGM #glyphosate

  • U.N. chief scolds envoy for implying U.S. policy sparked Boston attack | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/us-usa-explosions-un-idUSBRE93N16D20130424

    Richard Falk, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, wrote on his blog on Sunday that “the American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world.”

  • Un faux tweet sème le chaos à Wall Street - Europe1.fr - International
    http://www.europe1.fr/International/Un-faux-tweet-seme-le-chaos-a-Wall-Street-1493403

    Selon les données de Reuters, le faux tweet d’AP a entraîné 136,5 milliards de dollars de pertes sur le S&P 500, qui s’est redressé par la suite. Certains traders ont attribué ce plongeon et la reprise aux opérations automatisées. AP, dont les comptes @AP et @AP_Mobile a été suspendus, dit avoir la cible de nombreux actes de piratages informatiques avant celui de mardi. Le faux tweet a été reçu par deux millions d’abonnés.

  • Récemment, @simplicissimus évoquait G. Soros...
    http://seenthis.net/messages/129570

    ... Reuters a publié une nécro inachevée aujourd’hui dépubliée, je la recopie via le cache de Google.

    George Soros, enigmatic financier, liberal philanthropist dies at XX
    By Todd Eastham
    WASHINGTON, XXX | Thu Apr 18, 2013 5:41pm EDT
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/soros-george-b-aug-idUSL2N0CR1TF20130418

    (Reuters) - George Soros, who died XXX at age XXX, was a predatory and hugely successful financier and investor, who argued paradoxically for years against the same sort of free-wheeling capitalism that made him billions.

    He was known as “the man who broke the Bank of England” for selling short the British pound in 1992 and helping force the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, which devalued the pound and earned Soros more than $1 billion.

    And his Soros Fund Management was widely blamed for helping trigger the Asian financial crisis of 1997, by selling short the Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit.

    “Subsequently, Prime Minister Mahatir of Malaysia accused me of causing the crisis, a wholly unfounded accusation,” Soros wrote in The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered," in 1998.

    “We were not sellers of the currency during or several months before the crisis; on the contrary ... we were purchasing ringgits to realize profits on our earlier speculation.”

    Still, economist Paul Krugman, was one of many observers who accused Soros of helping trigger the crisis.

    In 1999, Krugman wrote that

    “nobody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis, but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fund and profit.”

    Still, Soros has written extensively on the folly of what he has called free market “fundamentalism,” the belief of many conservative economists that markets will correct themselves with no need for government intervention.

    In Soros’ view, markets and investors are subject to “mood” swings, or a prevailing positive or negative bias which can be exploited by savvy investors but which inevitably lead to damaging market bubbles and boom/bust cycles.

    An enigma, wrapped in intellect, contradiction and money.

    A Jew born in Hungary as the Nazis were gaining power in Germany, Soros survived World War Two and then emigrated to Great Britain, where he earned a degree from the London School of Economics in 1952, and landed his first job in the financial industry largely through pure stubborn chutzpah.

    OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE

    While at the London School, Soros studied under the economist and philosopher Karl Popper and a main vehicle for his philanthropy, the Open Society Institute, is named for Popper’s two-volume work, “The Open Society and Its Enemies.”

    In that work, Popper develops the philosophy of reflexivity, a theory first articulated by William Thomas in the 1920s that posits that individual biases enter into market transactions, coloring the perception of economic fundamentals. Soros has attributed his own financial success in part to his understanding of the reflexive effect.

    Key to understanding that effect is recognizing when markets are in a condition of near-equilibrium, or in disequilibrium. Soros has observed that when markets are rising or falling rapidly, they are typically marked by rising disequilibrium, and the dispassionate investor can capitalize on that recognition.

    While Soros has benefited enormously from this understanding (Forbes put his wealth in 2013 at $19 billion, making him the world’s 30th richest person, not counting the roughly $8 billion he has given away through various charitable entities he controls), he has argued nevertheless for strong central government regulation to correct for and counterbalance the excesses of greed, fear and the free market.

    Popper’s idea of fallibilism, which posits that anything one believes may in fact be wrong, is another key principle that has guided Soros in his career, and his philanthropy.

    Soros’ philanthropy since the 1970s, when he began funding the studies of black students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, has been marked as much by his personal journey as by the needs of the communities he has set out to serve.

    His efforts through the Open Society Institute and the Soros Foundations have been skewed toward the effort to promote democratic values in the post-Soviet economies of Central and Eastern Europe, where he witnessed the rise of communism in Hungary after World War Two.

    “The bulk of his enormous winnings (as an investor and speculator) is now devoted to encouraging transitional and emerging nations to become ’open societies,’” former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker wrote in the foreword to Soros’ “The Alchemy of Finance” (2003).

    “Open,” Volcker wrote, “not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but - more important - tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.”

    PHILANTHROPY, POLITICS

    Soros also pledged $50 million in 2006 to the Millennium Promise, led by economist Jeffrey Sachs, to provide educational, agricultural and medical aid to help poor villages in Africa. And the Open Society Institute has expanded its giving to more than 60 countries around the world, giving away roughly $600 million a year.

    Soros was an early supporter of the peaceful transformation of the Solidarity movement in Poland and Open Society Institute programs were considered by many Western observers to be a key factor in the success of the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia.

    While his philanthropy has earned him friends around the world, his political giving has earned him both friends and enemies. Former President George W. Bush, who Soros blamed for turning the United States into “the main obstacle to a stable and just world order,” was perhaps the biggest single target of his political wrath.

    “By declaring a ’war on terror’ after Sept. 11, we set the wrong agenda for the world,” Soros told Newsweek magazine in a 2006 interview. “When you wage war, you inevitably create innocent victims.”

    In a bid to stop Bush’s re-election, Soros donated $23.5 million to more than 500 liberal and progressive groups during the 2003-2004 U.S. election cycle.

    Other causes that have attracted Soros’ generosity include drug policy reform. He donated $1.4 million to promote California’s Proposition 5 in 2008, a failed initiative that would have expanded drug rehabilitation programs as alternatives to prison for non-violent drug offenders, and $400,000 to the successful 2008 Massachusetts initiative to decriminalize possession of less than an ounce (28 grams) of marijuana.

    He has also been a vocal supporter of the right to die in dignity, revealing in 1994 that he had offered to help his own mother, a member of the Hemlock Society, commit suicide.

    While Soros’ life has been marked by remarkable success in his far-flung endeavors, it has not been without defeat. His investment in France’s Societe Generale following Jacques Chirac’s aggressive program of privatization led to charges of insider trading, which he disputed, and eventual conviction and the payment of a small penalty.

    And he was a minority partner in a group that failed to acquire the Washington Nationals Major League baseball team.

    But these failings stand out in the life of this remarkably successful Hungarian-American financier, philanthropist and thinker, in contrast to his stubborn refusal to fail in virtually every other venture.