JAPAN - Know grasp the outstretched hand

The inhabitants of the Tohoku [northern region of Honshu, the main island] were very brave face to the tragedies caused by the earthquake of March 11. Once safe, they calmly waited for rescue, and despite their distress, they helped those who were worse off than their own. In South Korea, until the end of April, I can say that the coolness of Japanese victims was welcomed.

However, the silence of the Japanese government to face the catastrophe of the Fukushima Daiichi plant and reconstruction plan has caused some confusion. How Japan will he be able to manage the confusion caused by the earthquake? To allow a new Japan to emerge and rebuild as quickly as possible, the government should be willing to accept help and cooperation of Asian countries, starting with South Korea.

THE WORD OF THE WEEK - KYOKAI: THE BORDER

With the earthquake of March 11, it is not only the tectonic plates that have been brutally displaced. New dividing lines, both political, social and mental, have appeared; borders have shifted, pushing the benchmarks that previously confined the universe of Japan.

• Semaine de travail - El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala, Guatemala (15/06/2011)
• six semaines de francaise - Caen, France (12/06/2011)
• La semaine en France: Week 37 (27/05/2011)
• La semaine en France: Week 36 (20/05/2011)
• La semaine en France: Weeks 34 and 35 (15/05/2011)

POLICY - Homosexuals rally for Obama

The campaign team working for re-election of Barack Obama in 2012 expects a lot of gay donors. She hopes that they will compensate for the alienation of wealthy donors disappointed by the first term of Obama. Donors gay, glad to see the White House also pledged to repeal the law "Do not ask, do not tell" (DADT) [do not ask, do not say anything], which requires the U.S.

military not to reveal their sexual orientation, have surprised the Obama campaign team by providing a broad financial support. The new strategy of fundraising took note and seems determined to take advantage of their enthusiasm. In 2008, the finance team of the election campaign of President had one gay, this year she has fifteen.

UNITED STATES - An Obama tactics against the Arab Spring

Following the reactions of President Obama deal with uprisings cascade that took place this year in the Middle East, it seems to assist the efforts of U.S. Army engineers who are racing to protect a city against flooding Mississippi [particularly strong this year]. Each week seems to be accompanied by a new challenge.

Barack Obama argued Hosni Mubarak until it is clear that the Army would let him go, then, when the Egyptian president was ousted, he manifested. He stacked sandbags to protect his friends in Bahrain while blowing up the dikes around his old enemy Libya. The leaders of Yemen and Syria refuse to follow the course of the waves as Washington shows them the fall looming in the distance.

AMALGAM - DSK: Too rich, too powerful and too Jewish ...?

It's a story to drool all anti-Semitic, to shake all Jews worried. To summarize: the French Dominique Strauss-Kahn is an extremely rich Jewish economist and international in scope, also married to a journalist and known as much for his extravagant lifestyle as for his leftist views. Housed in a sequel to 3000 dollars [$ 525 according to the IMF] in a New York hotel, he was suspected of trying to rape a brutally poor maid, a devout Muslim from Africa and vulnerable to the west, before taking a plane to Paris (first class, of course) as if nothing had happened.

PARALLEL - The bad movies DSK and Schwarzie

Oh, she wanted to, yes. They want it all, these young widows emigrants who work hard, in fear of God, and wear on household chores in a hotel in Times Square to raise their teenage daughter and take the chance offered to them by America. They expect an old satyr in rut arise, naked from the bathroom, rushed upon them, catch them and drag them across the room like a caveman.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has a reputation as a seducer, but judging from the statements of the victim - a maid of 32 year-old from West Africa - the behavior of DSK is rape. "An evil beast" The director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was he trying to undo his belt, saying to whole nations to tighten? Lawyers for the sexagenarian seem willing to reject any DNA evidence by saying he would have been mutually granted with the young woman came clean his room.

LIGHTING - The French are not necessarily wrong

Photos from DSK handcuffed, taken May 15 at the exit of a police station in Harlem, continue to debate. These pictures have caused a stir in Paris, and if the early days of the case challenging the American press French criticism, the tone is more nuanced now. Even the New York Post asks: "The French may be right, why are Americans so obsessed with the perp-walk?" The perp-walk, parade or the suspect (perpetrator walk in English) is this distinctly American tradition in which the police exhibits to the press a suspect during his transfer to prison.

SPAIN - A signal for all of democratic Europe

Globalization from below is running. The indignation with which the French writer Stéphane Hessel calls the disillusioned youth of the developed world is spreading. Today, the scene of the peaceful struggle for greater democracy, rule of law and justice is nothing other than the Kingdom of Spain. Since May 15, 2011, the "spirit of Tahrir Square" vibrates at the heart of Madrid, the legendary site of the Puerta del Sol.

SPAIN - These pamphlets that pave the way for the revolt

The appeal of this man Stéphane Hessel crossed the borders of France to sound in Spanish society, facing a crisis sistema. In Spain, his book indignation you! (¡Indignaos!, Editions Destino) is reinforced by a glowing foreword by José Luis Sampedro, also born in 1917. Without turning away from life or the struggle they have consistently pursued the two men, despite the difficulties of age, give us a lesson in strength and consistency.

UNITED STATES - Incredible European Obamamania

One of the most curious things about Obama supporters is not the disappointment they feel at present, but the fact that he still devote a fervent admiration despite disillusionment. This is particularly true for black voters. They are more optimistic than ever for America, while their fate there is little improvement.

Rates of unemployment, poverty and foreclosures have passed in vain, and further, the numbers were during the time of George W. Bush, African Americans remain the most loyal base of Obama. Victims of an unemployment rate of 16%, they continue to approve to 80% in the polls. The same contradiction in the attitude of Europeans vis-à-vis the president of the United States.

Greece, clashes between police and protesters outside parliament

The Greek police fired tear gas at demonstrators outside the parliament, where MPs are preparing for the debate over new austerity measures required by the rescue package European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The greek prime minister, George Papandreou, the Socialist, has offered his resignation to facilitate the formation of a unity government that carries out the austerity plan imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund: to this plan, Papandreou pointed out, the ' Any unitary executive will ensure full support, without groped to circumvent or modify it.

Tokyo measured the levels of radioactivity in a hundred places in the city

The Government of Tokyo and its metropolitan area has begun to measure radiation levels in a hundred places in the city, to provide detailed information about the pollution generated by the nuclear accident in the Fukushima-1. In addition, radioactivity counters provide to districts and municipalities.

The regional authorities have decided to take this step once cities some people and found levels of radioactivity higher than those recorded by the Government of the city. This makes the measurements from the roof of a building in the Shinjuku district in central Tokyo. Records will now also closer to the surface and throughout the megalopolis, NHK reported.

Portugal, Coelho's new premier

The Social Democrat Pedro Passos Coelho was appointed prime minister by the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva. This was announced by the President of the Republic of Portugal. Pedro Passos Coelho is a leader of the PSD, the center-right Social Democratic Party that 38.6 percent of the votes won the parliamentary elections on 5 June.

Passos Coelho, who will take the place of the socialist Jose Socrates, leader of the government of Lisbon, who resigned last March will start consultations to give Portugal the next government coalition: the Social Democrats, who control 105 seats in the 230 Parliament of Lisbon, will form a coalition with the ultra-conservatives of the CDS-PP, led by Paulo Portas.