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The romance between romance novels and digital media should not go unnoticed at the book fair opens its doors today. Special emphasis will indeed be given to the digital revolution, a growing market on which the various places novels in rose water have already made a place in the sun. The editors observe indeed a craze for romance in digital format. The books displayed feelings of record sales in electronic format. On the platform Numilog, the main French eDiffuseur digital books, two books of romance publisher Harlequin France top the list of the four best sellers.

Stéphane Aznar, the Chief Harlequin France asserts that "digital is a significant part of our business and our sales figures for e-books are well above the national average." The subsidiary equally owned by Hachette Livre and the Canadian publisher Harlequin expects to achieve 15% of its business in the digital within two years, where sales of e-books now represents 2-3% of national market value, according to Livres Hebdo. And a number of romance novels who observes an exponential growth in sales in digital format looks forward to continuing its development. The group that is "very early stage in an ambitious way on digital," said Stéphane Aznar, now offers downloadable titles in 1000 and is expected to multiply by three by the end of the year.

Attractive prices

Besides an abundant supply, the editor explains the success of its sales of e-books by lower prices of around 30% of his books to those papers. Now readers of romance novels are very large consumers: "Our readers read 15 to 30 novels a year," said Stephane Aznar. The price factor has a significant impact.

Even finding the United States and England where the market for e-book is much more developed than in France. Susan Edwards, Director of Operations at the U.S. publisher Ellora's Cave (house specializing in erotic novels) and evokes the "voracious appetite" for its readers to the digital format, although more discreet than the paper version. "E-books take up much less space, cost less. And no need either to move into a bookstore to get them, "she says.

The Reader mask coverage

The discomfort that many enthusiasts are having to buy songs or read stories of love also disappears in public with electronic media. Indeed, in transit, the book covers too "flaming" are hidden behind the hulls iPhone or digital reading lights. Gillian Green, editorial director of Ebury, told the Guardian that "there is such a snob vis-à-vis the genre that readers do not assume their tastes. With shelves and reading lights, they no longer have to hide. "

Everything leads us to believe that the romances in electronic format have good times ahead! The New Yorker as well as ensures the success of the ebook in the United States reflects this passion for romance novels.

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France could seek to accelerate its transition energy. In fact, the country's fuel bill has reached a new record in 2011, up from 32% to 61.4 billion euros, according to figures from the Commissioner General for Sustainable Development announced by Les Echos. The energy bill of France and represented 3.1% of GDP, last year against 2.5% in 2010.

This increase was driven by soaring oil prices. The average price per barrel of oil a year has indeed established last year to $ 111, not seen since the nineteenth century. The price of unleaded gasoline and have reached new heights last week, to 1.6211 euro on average for a liter of unleaded 95 and 1.6610 for that of 98 unleaded, according to data released yesterday by Ministry of Sustainable Development. This price is still below the record high of 1 fast cash without a hassle.4541 euro per liter recorded in May 2008.

Since late 2011, gasoline prices beat record after record in France, propelled by the combination of geopolitical factors that keep crude oil prices at very high levels, and weakening of the euro against the dollar , which amplifies the cost of black gold once its converted value in the single currency.

Nuclear energy has however enabled France to reduce its energy dependence as the country has a net electricity exports by 2.6 billion euros. The development of renewable energy has also enabled France to reduce the weight of its energy dependence.

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The efforts made by Belgium are unprecedented in history. The Socialist government led by Elio di Rupo announced this Sunday the adoption of additional measures of rigor. To 11.3 billion euros in savings adopted at the end of 2011 have now been added 1.82 billion euros of provisions negotiated into the night from Saturday to Sunday, and 650 million reserve if growth is below expectations. It took six days at Belgian coalition, which brings together six parties, the center-left to center-right, to agree on this new package, which aims to limit the budget deficit to 2, 8% of GDP in 2012. In 2011, it reached 3.8% of GDP.

"With this budget, our country is one of the best students in Europe. We considered the possibility of an economic situation even worse, "justified the Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. The government is based on a forecast of almost zero growth for 2012 at 0.1% against 0.8% previously, as recommended by the European Commission.

No VAT increase

After the austerity measures announced in November – limiting the use of early retirement, decrease the duration of unemployment benefits, taxation of stock and stock options … – Prime Minister also wanted to convince voters of the fairness of the new train measures. "It is an effort fair and balanced. The government is making an effort in structural terms, both in expenditures and receipts. [...] But the new measures do not touch many citizens. "

Most of the additional revenue will come from an announced increased repression of the black, and a tax increase on tobacco and stock transactions. However, the minimum wage, the amount of family allowance or the retirement pensions will not be modified downward. "We do not touch to VAT, it does not touch the savings accounts. [...] Despite a very challenging environment, the purchasing power of citizens is preserved and the competitiveness of companies saved, "said the Prime Minister.

Last November, the rating is downgraded sovereign debt by the Belgian credit rating agency Standard & Poor's had precipitated the adoption of an austerity plan of great magnitude. The rating agency, which matched its rating a negative outlook, particularly doubted the ability of Belgium to break the political deadlock and to present a credible budget.

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The government of Naoto Kan had indeed lost control of the situation in Fukushima, in full crisis following the tsunami of March 11, 2011. According to the independent commission of inquiry Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation (RJIF), a copy of a 400-page report was leaked to the press on Tuesday in a few days before its publication, Japanese authorities have considered a time a "worst case scenario "that would have led to an outright removal of Tokyo. Or 35 million people including the town, which lies 220 kilometers southwest of the damaged power plant. This report is based mainly on the testimony of Yukio Edano, spokesman for the government of the day, who says he worked on the assumption of a "chain reaction diabolical" if the nuclear reactor site would have exploded one after the other. "If this had happened, it was quite logical to conclude that we also lost Tokyo," he told investigators, according to The New York Times.

In lack of information on the extent of the disaster Fukushime, but anxious to avoid a general panic, the government has attempted to distill reassuring messages to the population. "We really just brushed against the worst case scenario, but the public did not know at this point," says Yoichi Funabashi, former editor of Asahi Shimbun and founder of the inquiry. This secret project evacuation of the Japanese capital, which Reuters obtained a copy, was presented to Prime Minister Naoto Kan – who resigned last August – by Shunsuke Kondo, Chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, two weeks after the tsunami. He did not finally been unsheathed. "It was a crucial time during which I was not even sure that Japan could still function as a state," Naoto Kan admitted in an interview with the Japanese agency Kyodo News, last September.

Tepco wants to "abandon the central"

Far from overwhelming the only Japanese government, the pin also RJIF Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the plant in Fukushima, whose lack of transparency during the crisis has already been highlighted in numerous reports. Its leaders have also refused to cooperate with investigators RJIF. According to their study, TEPCO sought, the worst of the crisis, to evacuate the atomic site where employees were trying to control the disaster. This is Naoto Kan himself that would have forced the utility to continue its work maintaining on-site employees. For experts, without the insistence of Prime Minister, the accident would still Fukushima degenerate, causing even more catastrophic consequences. Thus concludes Yoichi Funabashi, "Naoto Kan has had its flaws and moments of absence, but his decision to go into force at Tepco and insist that the company does not abandon the plant has saved Japan." .. ……

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"It took us a while to get to the current situation. We will need some time to get out, "said Meg Whitman, arrived at the helm of HP five months ago. She spoke Wednesday night to mark the publication of first quarter results (ended Jan. 31) group.

Quarterly net income fell 44% to $ 1.5 billion, for a turnover down 7%, to $ 30 billion. The group anticipates a further decline in sales for the current quarter, weighed down by falling sales of PCs and printers. These divisions are still suffering the consequences of statements by the former CEO, Leo Apotheker, who suggested last August that HP would stop producing PC. To this were added the shortage of hard drives, a result of floods in Thailand, and the economic downturn. Finally, the PC division and tablets (PSG) has seen its sales drop by 15% in value and 18% by volume. This decline is likely to cost in addition to HP's leading position worldwide PC. The U.S. could be dethroned in the coming months by China's Lenovo. The direction of HP also noted the weak consumer demand for printers and evoked a reorganization of this division that has long been the cash cow of the group. For the current year, Meg Whitman still expects a profit of $ 6.3 billion.

Reduce expenses

"We must invest to save, save to grow," said Meg Whitman, without even specifying the amounts listed online cash advance. "We must optimize our supply chain and reduce the number of our references," she added. "The electronics industry is interested in the effect of increasing production methods introduced in the automobile: a common platform from which several models are broken," says one industry expert. For example, a frame may be common to one or two PCs, a tablet and a hybrid product. One way to significantly reduce development costs and production. This mode of industrial production would respond perfectly to the deployment of Windows 8, scheduled for the end of the year. The new version of the operating system from Microsoft is designed to promote convergence between PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Moreover, the allusions to Meg Whitman to the need to develop a simpler system ("one HP"), more integrated, suggest that job cuts are not ruled out. "Our big customers want to deal with a single point of contact when speaking to HP," she said. A way as to emphasize the importance of a presence in both the hardware (PC) and services. Meg Whitman also took care to reaffirm its confidence in the future of the company, its ability to adapt to changing conditions.

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There is one who has been lucky. Mining giant Rio Tinto said it had discovered a pink diamond of 12.76 carats in a mine in Western Australia. This is, to date, the largest diamond discovered in the country. "A diamond of this size is unprecedented, says Josephine Johnson, Manager of Argyle Pink Diamonds division. It took 26 years of operation to retrieve the stone and it is possible that we find in no other like this. "

The valuable discovery was named Argyle Pink Jubilee in reference to the name of the mine (Argyle) and the sixty-year reign, says, "Diamond Jubilee", which is celebrating Queen Elizabeth II.

Next step: cut and polish the stone, a delicate task that should take ten days. How Richard Kim Kam, in charge of the operation, already trembling, "I'll take care of it. I know that the world will look. "The diamond is then evaluated by a team of international experts and exposed before being sold.

Pink, more valued than white

Rio Tinto is kept for the moment any estimate on the price of wonder, but said in a statement that the high quality pink diamonds could exceed $ 1 million per carat. More than $ 10 million (7.6 million) for it.

It must be said that the diamond market is resisting rather well and that it is a pink diamond, which can be up to ten times more valued than white. In November 2010, a 24.78 carat diamond Pink has been awarded to more than $ 46 million. An unprecedented amount for a diamond and jewelry and is far ahead the previous record of $ 10 million for another pink diamond.  

Nearly 90% of pink diamonds discovered in the world come from the Argyle mine in the Kimberley region, says Rio Tinto. Stones the size of Argyle Pink Jubilee usually go to museums, the royal family or are auctioned in houses like Christie's. The latter has in fact sold only 18 pink diamonds over 10 carats in its 244 year history, said Rio Tinto.

The discovery of the pink diamond on Australian television:

VIDEO: Rio's biggest pink diamond gets the cut

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Apple promises to all iPhone users: using its Safari browser, they will escape hyperciblées advertisements on the Internet. The firm at the apple has, indeed, with his navigator, also available on Mac computers, an automatic locking mechanism that prevents the specialists in online advertising to place cookies on websites and thereby to determine an Internet user who accesses a merchant site is also a frequent visitor to a site about golf.

But a computer science researcher at Stanford University, California, has just discovered that Google has bypassed this protection system and collected data on the browsing habits of users who use Safari. The Wall Street Journal, which revealed the findings of this research, the Internet giant has "used a special computer program that leads the Safari browser software to allow tracing of many users."

"The Wall Street Journal distorts what happened, was immediately defended by the voice of Google's director of public affairs, Rachel Whetstone. We used a technical device known Safari to provide functionality that Google users logged into their accounts were activated. "It allows, for example, to store the click of a surfer on the button" 1 "or Google the "Like" Facebook as a Web content. This data is stored within a day on Google's servers payday loan.

Involuntary collection

But by putting a temporary marker to operate the "a" in Safari, Google has also opened a breach through which have slipped a variety of other markers that sought, them, to collect information on what users were on the Internet. These data are valuable to Google then to offer targeted advertising to users. Google defends itself by providing not have intended to collect these data.

From the revelation of the findings of this study, the giant search engine has disabled the technical device that has "opened the door" to the navigation information of Safari users. The group also noted that no personal data (identity of persons in particular) has been captured in this case. Apple, for its part, says "work to end" to this flaw.

But this incident is indicative of two forces that traverse the Web today: on the one hand, the giants of the Web, always seeking to target users more precisely, increasing the risks to the data they handle. The other, players such as Apple took the opportunity to surround their consumers ever higher walls.

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This is a recurring complaint of local elected officials: the proliferation of standards on the environment, urban planning, accessibility of the disabled, or food in school canteens, leaden local finances. The bill would be about 600 million euros a year, according to the advisory panel for assessment of standards (NECC). The moratorium on standards established by the government since July 2010 has been ineffective, he had to find new weapons. Among them is the proposed law (PPL) of UMP senator Eric Doligé, a proposal that was discussed Wednesday in the Senate. The text can not pass the Assembly before the legislative elections of June 2012. But at the very least, the process is launched.

The main idea of ​​the PPL is that standards may vary depending on community size. "It is absurd that the buildings of kindergartens in Paris, located on several floors in a building, have the same standards as local nursery in a small town, which are on one level," says Eric Doligé. The text also proposes to address the 400,000 current standards. The NECC would consider this stock, including devices older than five years and propose simplifications or deletions. The government would be required to indicate, within six months, the follow-up.

Step

The PPL also creates an instance of mediation departmental standards and simplifies certain procedures, particularly in the field of urban planning.

For Eric Doligé, this text is a first step. Once the elections are over, the senator wants to put on the table the 2005 law on disability law that forced utilities to make all buildings accessible to disabled people in 2015. "The cost of work – 17 billion – is too high to communities," said Eric Doligé.

His solution? Make the service, not local, necessarily accessible. "The employee asked the public service would come down on the ground floor to meet the disabled person. City Hall would no longer need to install a lift or other special equipment, "says the senator. Still, this subject is highly sensitive, both politically and humanly. Another idea, often mentioned, would increase the powers of the NEAC, to give this advisory body veto power. Gilles Carrez, Rapporteur UMP budget to the Assembly, is favorable.

The NECC could finally block orders it considers absurd. Such as the recent decree stipulating that social and medico-social will offer four to five dishes for each lunch or dinner to their residents, dishes that need to be tailored to their tastes and habits!

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The biggest shop shows the world may soon see the day in Paris. The luxury group Richemont actively preparing to open a palace watches of 2250 square meters on two floors, which would be represented as 60 brands ranging from entry level to luxury. This store may be substituted for the brand Old England, old shop of the 19th century, strategically located between the Opera and the Boulevard Haussmann in the heart of the capital. According to the website dedicated businessmontres.com, Richemont should benefit from the commercial end of the lease granted to the current property owner to get their hands on the site. Neither the luxury group, nor the SFL, owner of the walls has to comment that "rumor".

Sources close to the discussions say, however, that the real estate transaction is scheduled for over a year.Richemont has even approached the great names in luxury and watch as LVMH, Swatch and Rolex to tell them about the operation. If the participation of the latter to the final draft to be confirmed, Richemont has already convinced major retailers such as Audemars Piguet Breitling or to be part of.

The Swiss group is currently in discussions with Bucherer, another big name in the jewelry and luxury watches, in order to leave the management of this huge store. Few in France, it has been favored by Richemont because of its extensive experience in managing multi-brand stores. In addition to his label, Bucherer has a network of 15 stores which are marketed brands Rolex, Piaget, TAG Heuer, or Longines. It also has other stores in Austria and Germany.

Released in early 2010, a year and a half of recession caused by the bursting of the housing bubble, Spain could plunge into the red. Supported by the only engine of exports and tourism, the economy will suffer from the international slowdown. And domestic demand – consumption and investment – remains stalled, weighed down by record unemployment. Economists forecast a decline in activity over the next two quarters. For the full 2012, Natixis expects an increase of GDP, limited to 0.2%, even more severe, Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects a fall of 0.7%. Two days before the election, the government had to accept lower growth for 2011 at 0.8% against 1.3%, less than half that expected by Brussels in the euro area.

Occupation: the red lantern of Europe

This is the black point of the Spanish economy guaranteed online payday loans.Toxic assets that are concentrated in the "cajas" (savings banks).

Increased risk for public finances

Spain has embarked on the path of fiscal consolidation since 2009. The great austerity plan dating back to May 2010 combining lower wages of civil servants, cuts in social spending, increase tax and pension reform. After a budget deficit rising to 11.2% of GDP in 2009, the stated objective is to reduce it to 6% this year. It is not clear as far as Madrid to keep, given the downward revision of growth. On the front of the public debt, Madrid pre-crisis low, 40% of GDP. It has since risen sharply, it should peak around 72% in 2013 before declining.