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A-How the scandal broke

The scandal broke in three stages. Mid-January, the British health authorities discover that certified pure beef burgers produced in Ireland contain horse meat. Ten days later, we learn that British horse carcasses contaminated with a prohibited medication, were sold in France in 2012. No direct link between these two events, but these scandals cast doubt on the reliability of the European System of traceability of meat. Alerted by a subcontractor, the Swedish giant test conducted on its products and announces the beginning of February and have found horsemeat in his lasagna, first in the United Kingdom and France. The company also withdrew its precaution moussaka and shepherd's pie in several European countries.  

B – The protagonists of the "case Findus"

• Comigel and clients

It is not that Findus Product lasagna offending, but French subcontractor based in Metz, Comigel. The company itself has alerted its customer in Sweden when she realized, after investigation, that the meat used by one of its subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Tavola, came from slaughterhouses Romanian producing both beef and horse.

The involvement of Comigel gives a new dimension to the scandal since the company produces ready meals for at least 28 companies in 13 different countries, including major retailers such as Picard, Carrefour, Auchan, Monoprix, etc..

"Horse meat: recipes vary depending on the brand

• Spanghero

It is this French company meat processing which provided Tavola meatloaf fraudulent. According to the Minister for Consumer Benoît Hamon, the company has changed the labeling of horse meat Romanian "Meat Beef EU origin." His boss, Bartholomew Aguerre, denies fraud. According to him, "the government has gone too fast" in the accusations Thursday.

According to the French anti-fraud agency (DGCCRF), 750 tons of meat falsely labeled beef that came out of the factory Spanghero located in the southwest of France. Some 550 tonnes were delivered to Tavola who cooked dishes with 4.5 million the meat. Potential recipients of the remaining 200 tons were not identified. It is not clear whether only lasagna are affected.

"Questioning the company organizes its defense Spanghero

"The employees Spanghero stunned by scandal

• Draap Trading Ltd

This scandal has revealed the complexity of the circuit followed by the meat trade in Europe. In this case, the meat was purchased in Romania through an intermediary Cyprus Draap Trading Ltd.. This company purchases made via a PO Box Belgian and stored the meat in a refrigerated warehouse located in Breda, the Netherlands. Its director, a Dutchman named Jan Fasen, was sentenced in early 2012 for fraudulently passing of horse meat for beef through another company. Although he made time office suspect Ideally, the meat trader, however, was cleared of suspicion Thursday by the French government.

"The surprising world circuits meat

C – The countries affected by the non-horsemeat reported

Photo credits: CHARLES PLATIAU / Reuters

Payday loans online can be risky because of the chance of identity theft. It is important to make sure that any online loan company is legitimate.

 

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The agreement to limit excess fees doctors will finally be implemented on the ground, but it has never attracted much opposition. Since its signing in October, two of the three doctors' unions have initialed the text have changed sides. And especially CSMF, the largest, which claims to be "into resistance" since Medicare has changed the text it validated "machine sanctions" in the definition of its implementing rules.

At the center of the problem, 150% intended to define an overflow considered abusive compared to Safely prices. The signatories felt that this ceiling should be a "landmark" and yet tempered by other criteria (location of the firm's reputation doctor …). But in the end, the 5% of physicians practicing overtaking the higher their department be questioned by the authorities.

If the interpretation of the agreement by Medicare seems much too harsh taste of doctors, it is not enough for patients. The Collective interassociative Health (CISS) denounces "a genuine license abuse" given to doctors. The influential association highlights including the famous 150% will be calculated an average "for an indefinite period." Clearly, physicians will continue to practice high levels of passing on part of their patient base (easiest) while exempting another.

A "bet" for additional

The plot thickens a bit more if we include the debate more than the opinion of some observers mixed, not least, in the industry business card templates. "We can share a doubt that there are many other sanctions and that sanctions if there are, they significantly reduce the overall level of overruns," criticizes Didier Tabuteau, Chair Health Sciences Po Paris. "Everything will depend on the application will be made by Medicare, agrees to share Brigitte Dormont, a health economist at the University of Paris-Dauphine. But the original text is not very dangerous for practitioners. Instead, it confirms that the excess fees up to 100% Safely prices are normal. "

The Economist refers in particular to the second part of the agreement on the contract for access to care. This will be offered from next week practitioners whose prices are less than or equal to 100% of the rate Safely. In exchange for reduced charges, the practitioner should moderate their prices, but it may break the contract after a year if not longer satisfied.

As for complementary health, they either do not believe that the agreement makes miracles. -They now call the "bet". It will actually wait until July to see if doctors adhere to contract for access to care. And even longer – six months or a year? – To see the first drop sanctions against doctors who "abuse".

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Neither official statement or survey encrypted, but a feeling of relief shared by the 2500 economic and political leaders gathered for five days in the resort of Grisons. "The worst is over, and this is the first time I …

 

More than a few hours before the big "live". Monday, 13 am, French time, George Alagiah present "GMT", one of the flagship programs of BBC World News, direct all new Broadcasting House studios. This is the international chain, the most-watched group with more than 72 million viewers per week, which will be the first to putting Portland Place studios.

This is actually a great return of BBC Broadcasting House. The group joined the Art Deco building which was built specially to welcome in 1932, ten years after his birth. But most offices have little to do with those who were bombed during the Second World War. 900 million pounds (over 1.1 billion) has been invested to modernize the new headquarters, and wing glass was adjoining the cylindrical building known at the time the "top-hat ".

The studios are now at the forefront of technology, with plasma screens on all sides and a half-dozen cameras placed on motorized carts traveling. Richard Porter, head of BBC Global News editorial, enthusiastically to the new technological jewel, a virtual studio all green: "You can throw anything you want, 3D images or just the bottom of main studio if failed. This is the same technology as the Lord of the Rings, it seems! "

To honor the technology it needed a fresh grid in 2013. Jon Sopel who is presenting the new show "Global" in 16 hours (French time). All week, the British anchorman, who said he "stressed but happy," registered drivers to prepare. It intends to present the news with a different angle, for example wishing to return to places that the cameras have left several months after a major news event. Jon Sopel is pleased to have now all BBC journalists at hand: "The advantage is that we now have experts from all countries in this building. It is an immense reservoir of talent and expertise that I can use immediately for analysis. "

6000 employees

The expertise is vast indeed because at this term will be 6000 employees who join the BBC Broadcasting House, a quarter of the total. Radio, television (the British news channel moving in March) and emitting websites in 27 languages ​​and with 239 million viewers worldwide each week will finally combined into a single complex diffusion London instead a dozen different places before.

The interest is obviously also financial. "Between the stop locations and synergies, we will quickly get our costs," said Jim Egan, CEO of BBC Global News, the company that manages BBC World News, the only channel of the "Beeb" that n ' is not funded by the license fee, but by advertising revenue.

While advertising revenue international chain are rising thanks to the growth of Asian countries, Jim Egan warns that the chain will continue to invest to ensure that BBC World News is recognized as "the best information provider in the world" .

And even if it is not visible because it is British, jokes CEO, he is "very excited".

 

A "clash" unpublished. In a statement sent Thursday evening, at the end of an interruption of four-hour session during which the employers' delegation tried to agree on a new version of the text, the UPA has indicated its opposition to the project agreement on the table of negotiations on employment.

For her, the measures proposed by the MEDEF and CGPME are simply 'pride to large companies at the expense of 98% of French companies that employ more than half of the employees. " See artisans including a dim Article 1 on a generalization of complementary health to all employees not covered by a collective agreement. "We seek to understand this clash of the UPA, which had yet validated the text," stated a spokesperson Medef early evening, not only without specifying negotiators MEDEF and CGPME "defend SMEs ".

A new article, explosive

While employers are enferrait in a psychodrama which no one can predict the outcome – we just know that the signing of the UPA is not necessary for an agreement to be valid by three unions – the employee representatives examined the new draft agreement which was submitted in late afternoon. MEDEF and CGPME deleted their proposal to create a permanent project and shortened by one year (2017 to 2016) the obligation for companies to offer complementary health to all their employees.

They do not always offered, however, at least at this time of negotiation, the taxation of short-term contracts, to the dismay of unions, which are always a prerequisite for a possible signature. Icing on the cake, MEDEF and CGPME introduced a new article, explosive, which creates a "order of dismissal" to "focus on professional competence" of employees in the event of social.

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Shanghai

China revives its projects XXL. Beijing opens Wednesday longest high-speed line in the world, linking Beijing to Guangzhou in the south of the country, some 2300 miles away. The train, which will spin averaged 300 km / h, will fulfill his trip to just eight, against more than twenty hours with the existing trains.

The Ministry of Railways heard a bang launch one of its iconic lines. This is also an opportunity to burnish an image tarnished by the seriously tragic accident in Wenzhou, where the collision of two trains launched at high speed caused the death of forty people in July 2011. Shocked by the attempts of local officials to cover the balance of the accident, the Chinese public has launched an unprecedented mobilization on canvas, demanding accountability to the government. The central government then froze many projects, dispatching inspections across the country to ensure the security of railway facilities and reducing train speed faster than 350 km / h to 300 km / h.

Journalists urge to photograph the train of high speed train. Photo credits: STR / AFP

 

Stormy day Saturday at the Elysée. Disavowed the night on the back of the furnaces Florange, Arnaud Montebourg threatened to resign from the government, during a meeting with François Hollande. Minister of Relief productive struggled to digest the words of Jean-Marc Ayrault, who had unceremoniously dismissed his proposal to nationalize site Moselle Arcelor Mittal. "I told [François Hollande] that if nothing was done until tonight (Saturday, ed) to repair the damage on the issue of nationalization, I will not stay in government, and the dislocation will begin. He asked me not to do anything, "said Arnaud Montebourg to Liberation.

According to the newspaper, anger Minister broke Saturday morning, when he realizes he has to undergo the disallowance of the Prime Minister. In his televised speech Friday night, Jean-Marc Ayrault had assured, unlike Arnaud Montebourg, there was no "serious buyer" and dismissed out of hand "the threat of nationalization." In the office of François Hollande, Arnaud Montebourg requires that "the buyer" and the principle of nationalization are rehabilitated. "It was not a personal issue. Behind this issue, there are people, "said Minister Liberation.

Holland wants to keep Montebourg

The meeting at the Elysee Palace, followed by a telephone conversation with Jean-Marc Ayrault. Tense. The Prime Minister assured that a decision on the resignation of Montebourg after its passage JT TF1, scheduled for Saturday evening. But in the meantime, François Hollande takes over. The Head of State, who has known the Socialist primary weight that represents Arnaud Montebourg with the left wing of the PS, can not afford to let his minister. The Elysee is therefore to defuse the crisis. "For 24 hours, we try to bring order and serenity within the government," says an adviser Elysian, quoted by Liberation.

At the request of the president, the prime minister issued a press release welcoming the efforts of Montebourg, who "has worked hard" and helped to "create a balance of power in favor of the conclusion of the agreement." But the minister balks. "It was explained that I am a good minister in a statement, but this is not what I wanted," says he. It will finally recalled that François Hollande personally give reason Arnaud Montebourg dismisses the idea of ​​resignation.

"I decided to stay at my job and fight," he says finally, Saturday night on TF1. In enjoying the passage of the buyer to qualify as "serious" and explain that the threat of nationalization remains valid. "It's a deterrent. If Mr. Mittal does not meet its commitments, the State will assume its responsibilities, "says he, welcoming the" patriotic mobilization in favor of saving the French steel. "But when asked about the Liberation future of the industry, Arnaud Montebourg refers to the Prime Minister: "I worked on this for six months, I have been retired for three days to make a compromise, then you ask him." Evidence for the Minister of Productive Recovery, the pill is hard to swallow.

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The puzzle of energy prices only gets complicated when the government launched Thursday a national debate on energy that could be an opportunity to overhaul the pricing of electricity and gas. One month after a similar decision canceling the electricity bills of the year 2009, the State Council has canceled a line of electricity bills which represents nearly half, 46% of the amount. This is the TURPE – one of the acronyms that do not facilitate understanding of the bills – which means rate of use of public transportation and distribution of electricity. TURPE this is intended to cover the costs of ERDF, EDF subsidiary responsible for the current distribution to final consumers.

The Sipperec, union covering a hundred towns in Ile-de-France, already led to the decision of the State Council in October, had seized the administrative court to cancel the TURPE currently in force, which was approved in May 2009. The Sipperec "estimated near 1, 9 billion the amount to be returned to all users of grid for each of the four years." Each year, all users pay 11.4 billion euros in the TURPE which 8.4 billion are paid to ERDF. For the consumer, hope the union of municipalities, the decision of the State Council should result in lower bills or refund. But the amount will depend on the recalculation the Regulatory Commission (CRE) will be forced to repeat.

Municipalities are conceding the public service of electricity and it is for this reason that the Sipperec was entitled to challenge in court fees. "What we have denounced, it is a lack of transparency in the calculations, was recognized by the Council of State," says Catherine Dumas, Deputy Director General Sipperec. To summarize the argument put forward to the Council of State, the consumers "pay to ERDF financial costs that largely does not exist online payday loans."

Uncertainty about the consequences for the consumer

According to the Parisien in France today, individuals may be reimbursed up to 250 euros. ERDF, however, denies be studying how a future repayment. CRE, in turn, "do certainly not confirm that figure," she said Thursday AFP. Conservative, said in a statement not to be able to tell if the new date calculations result in an increase or decrease of the invoice.

Decision of the State Council shall take effect on 1 June 2013. "In this period indicates the CRE, a new version of TURPE 3 – which will apply retroactively to the period 2009-2013 and will replace the canceled tariff – may be proposed by the CRE relevant ministers to cover the full costs incurred by ERDF. "

For its part, "the government wants the future rate of use of networks (TURPE 4 for the period 2013 to 1016) being developed by the Commission of Energy Regulation, preserves the ability of network managers make the necessary investments to achieve energy transition and ensure the quality and security of electricity supply for our citizens, "said a statement from the Ministry of Ecology, Energy charge. Delphine Batho also points out that "the level of the tariff for use of French networks is one of the lowest in Europe."

Meanwhile, two successive decisions of the State Council and the adventures parliamentary legislation on the creation of progressive tariffs for energy perplexing consumers who are especially successive increases in their bills. CRE expected to increase electricity prices by 6% on average per year by 2016.

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Hersant Media folder is complicated. Many candidates whose Iskandar Safa and Étienne François Pinault Mougeotte or covet the remains of the newspaper empire strangled by a debt of 210 million euros. According to AFP, Bernard Tapie and the family would Hersant a joint bid for the purchase of the entire group (with pole Paca La Provence, Nice-Matin, Corse-Matin and pole Antilles-Guyane) to fifty million euros.

"I'm not at the origin of this rumor, and I do not confirm any of this information," says Bernard Tapie. "What is true is that I'm working on the file Hersant for 50 days. I confirm my interest in all the newspapers of the group Hersant pole Paca and newspapers in the West Indies and Guyana, "says Bernard Tapie refuting reports that he is an ally of the family Hersant.

Governments have their say

"There is a clear procedure. Applicants must submit a folder. Then, the final decision will be the shareholder, that is to say the family Hersant. Next week, the group Hersant should render its decision in choosing a buyer. This choice must both convince the creditors of the group and meet the conciliator Christopher Thevenot. The government will also have their say because there are 4,000 jobs at stake in this case. The Interministerial Committee on Industrial Restructuring (Ciri) will be consulted. In the meantime, we must respect the confidentiality of the process, "insists Bernard Tapie who fulminates against the announcement of an interest François Pinault for the resumption of pole Paca Hersant Media. "The arrival of Franz-Olivier Giesbert (managing editor of Point belongs to François-Henri Pinault) screwed up the mess in the process," he storm.

"Unlike other candidates, I'm not interested in only one end group Hersant but by all. And most importantly, I do not offer this in the background with political ambitions. "But this is politically motivated and referred to the conquest of the City of Marseille in 2014 that elicit great suspicion until Elysee. It's François Hollande, himself, prompting François Pinault to consider a takeover bid to thwart the ambitions of Bernard Tapie. "I will not bog down 100 million euros to conquer the City of Marseille!" Replies the latter.

During his eventful career, Bernard Tapie has been many things: singer, businessman, politician, minister, owner of a cycling team and football club Olympique de Marseille, TV presenter on TF1 and actor. It has had its ups and even more downs, with a resounding failure and a stay in prison. But until now, there has never been head of press. What drives him to make an offer on a group of regional newspapers?

Invest heavily in Internet

"The press is an area at risk. And in my life I have worked with companies at risk. I know. I bought 41 companies in bankruptcy (including Terraillon, Look, batteries Wonder, Adidas …) and all are still living. I think the national daily confronted with hyper-news channels continuously and lost Internet friendly relationship with their readers. In contrast, the regional newspapers still retain. "

For the first time, Bernard Tapie reveals the strategy he intends to put in place if the group manages to acquire Hersant Media. "We must invest heavily upfront in Internet and the tools of production and distribution. In addition to the purchase price, I am willing to put 50 million euros on the table for investment. I think regional newspapers should play a role in promoting their regions to national and international level. Paca, there are more than 35 major events such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Prix of Monaco Formula 1, festivals Arles, Orange, OM … Provence or Nice-Matin must not only be spectators but actors. Finally, we must develop a huge event center will be linked to the identity of newspapers like the Tour de France for Team or the Solitaire du Figaro. "

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