NIGERIA - PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Goodluck Jonathan at the top of the partial results

AFP - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan took out a big lead Sunday in the presidential race, winning in at least 20 of the 36 states, and could win the first round in this election, whose effectiveness has been praised overall by observers.

The final results of the election on Saturday, known in 30 states, gave Mr. Jonathan winner in 20 states, while its main rival, former junta leader Muhammadu Buhari, won the votes in 9 states, and Nuhu Ribadu, who led the anti-corruption agency in Nigeria, was leading in the State.

Voting took place Saturday in a relative calm, with sporadic incidents that have not made a victim.Observers have generally welcomed the successful conduct of this election, which marks a positive break after a series of fraudulent elections.

"There is consensus that this is a new beginning, after irregularities in the 2007 presidential election," said Clement Nwankmo, coordinator of a local group of observers.

"The election was held in conditions even better" than as laws of April 9, already felt Saturday Slovene Alojz Peterle, head of the mission of the European Union.

The known results include those officially announced by Abuja those reported by the states themselves and, finally, those of local media and NGOs.

To win, the candidate with the most votes must also obtain at least a quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the 36 states or 24 states, in the words of the Constitution.

Nigeria, most populous country in Africa with 155 million inhabitants, has 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and that includes its surroundings.

Goodluck Jonathan, Vice-President became head of state in May 2010 following the death of his predecessor Umaru Yar'Adua (2007-2010), a Muslim, a Christian South, candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP).This party dominates the political scene and won the first round every presidential since 1999.

Elected vice president in 2007, Jonathan is a doctor of zoology 53 years old, known for constantly wearing the hat.

The country has had such a new electoral register containing the electronic fingerprints of more than 73 million subscribers. The previous list was riddled with ghost voters.

A coalition of local observers nevertheless reported irregularities concerning the voting of voters minors, the unusually high turnout and suspicions of ballot stuffing important.

Partial results of the election were also emerge a clear division between the Muslim north, which voted for the former military junta leader (1984-1985) Muhammadu Buhari, and the Christian south favor Goodluck Jonathan, waving the spectrum of religious and ethnic divisions.

Muhammadu Buhari was reported Saturday in "news of election fraud, ballot stuffing in some places."

Tensions have arisen in the North where voters were afraid of fraud from the camp of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) Goodluck Jonathan.

"There is good news and bad news in this presidential election. The good news is that we count actual votes and people are interested.The bad news is that the country is seriously divided, North against South, "said Chidi Odinkalu, the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Many analysts had warned against this scenario in a country as turbulent as Nigeria, which has more than 250 ethnic groups.

In the Muslim north, many believe that the reelection of Jonathan would be a breach of an unwritten rule in the People's Democratic Party (PDP), providing for rotation of power between North and South.

The final results of parliamentary April 9 have not yet been proclaimed. April 26 will be the elections of state governors and regional assemblies.

INTERNET: Microsoft launches assault against Google in Europe

AFP - The U.S. computer group Microsoft has openly declared war in Europe with his compatriot and great rival Google on Internet, by filing Thursday for the first time in its history, a complaint with the European Commission for abusing its dominant position.

Brad Smith, vice president of Microsoft, announced the complaint in a blog published on the website of the group in Redmond.

It has been confirmed by the services of EU Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, who already have a formal investigation against Google open since November.

Brad Smith accuses Google of using "an increasing number of technical measures" to "build walls" preventing proper access to certain content to Internet search engines online competitor of his.

It "blocks of content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers," source of income for the free services on the Internet, he acknowledges, with several examples support.

Brad Smith evokes including restrictions on access to online video site YouTube to search engines other than Google Search or the multifunction phones using Microsoft software.

Ultimately, Google and reinforces the dominance of Google Search, whose market share in Europe is estimated at 95%, against 5% for Bing, the search engine from Microsoft.

The Commission had already received several complaints in the past against Google.His investigation is focused for now on two markets where the giant internet hyperdominant in Europe, research and online advertising.

It seeks to verify if it promotes its own services and penalizes those of competitors in the results provided by its search engine, or if it imposes exclusivity to advertising partners.

In the immediate future, its services have "taken note" of the new complaint, saying they would like the procedure provided, request a response to Google.

They will then assess whether or not to include it in the file, allowing Microsoft to be more involved in the investigation.

For its part, Google is "not surprised," he assured his spokesman in Brussels, Al Verney, recalling that one of the subsidiaries of Microsoft had been "one of the first plaintiffs in Brussels.

The group suggested all along that Microsoft is behind his troubles in Europe.

Upon revelation of the first complaints, he noted that two of them were related to the group from Redmond: the Internet portal Ciao, acquired by Microsoft in 2008, and that of Foundem compare prices, part of him as association lobbying ICOMP.

From this point of view, the complaint of Microsoft clarifies the debate.

She is also a backlash, because a few years ago, the positions were exactly reversed: it's Microsoft that was in the sights of Brussels for abuse of dominant position, at the time because of its Internet Explorer browser, and Google on the side of plaintiffs.

The standoff lasted for years, and Microsoft had to pay heavy fines.

Brad Smith acknowledged Thursday "irony" of the situation, but assured that Microsoft had not taken his decision lightly. Google "should not be allowed to continue practices that restrict innovation and offer competing services," he stressed, saying "hope" that Brussels' decision to stop. "

LIBYA: Several loud explosions heard in Tripoli

Firing of the air defense and several loud bangs were heard Thursday morning in Tripoli, the sixth day of the offensive of the international coalition, according to an AFP journalist.

The DCA went into action at 4:30 GMT and several loud explosions resounded then, according to an AFP journalist who was unable to identify the origin of the blasts.

The coalition had conducted air raids on Wednesday night in Tripoli.Of flak and fighter aircraft noise had been heard above the city, according to AFP journalists.

By early evening, a loud explosion occurred on a basis of the Libyan army in the region Tajoura, 32 km east of Tripoli, witnesses said AFP.

These witnesses saw flames rising over the military base after the explosion.

The Libyan news agency Jana said last year that the international coalition raids on the eastern outskirts of Tripoli on Wednesday night had "targeted a residential area," making a "significant number of civilian deaths".

LIBYA: Tripoli suspends diplomatic relations with Paris

Libya on Friday decided to "suspend" its diplomatic relations with France, said the Libyan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Khaled Kaaim, during a press conference in Tripoli.

"We decided today (Friday) to suspend diplomatic relations with France. We will later load a country to represent our interests in France," saidKaaim.

"The aim of France is only to divide Libya," he further said.

The decision comes after that of Paris on Thursday to recognize the Libyan opponents of the National Transitional Council (CNT) as "the legitimate representative of the Libyan people."

"This council represents only himself. He was not elected. Do not represent the regions of Libya, even in the East" the stronghold of the opposition, still hammered Friday, Vice-Minister.

BENIN: The UN, African Union and ECOWAS called for a postponement of the presidential

The UN, AU and ECOWAS called on Thursday for a second postponement of the presidential election scheduled for Sunday in Benin, including claimed by the opposition who claimed that more than one million voters were not registered .

A high level delegation of these three organizations, arrived Thursday in Cotonou to "inquire into the state of preparations for elections," made the announcement after talks with outgoing President Boni Yayi candidate and his main opponents and election officials.

"The delegation expressed its support for a postponement of a few days of the presidential election," said the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations West Africa, Said Djinnit, who read a joint declaration at a briefing.

The panel suggests that the vote be postponed until "a date that is consistent with the deadlines prescribed by the Constitution, including one on the inauguration of President of the Republic set for April 6, 2011.

With the approach of the vote, opposition, unions and civil society organizations have stepped up calls for a postponement, arguing that more than one million voters were not registered in the new electronic electoral register, with about 3.5 million enrolled.

Several demonstrations have taken place and many voters also said they did not always be in possession of their card.

A postponement would, according to the panel UN-AU-ECOWAS, "the finalization of the process of distributing electoral cards, completion of necessary measures by the (electoral commission), the appointment and training of all officers of polling stations' .

In addition to Mr.Djinnit, the delegation includes the Commissioner for Peace and Security of the AU, Ramtane Lamamra and Chairman of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Victor Gbeho.

The first round of presidential elections in the former French colony, originally scheduled on Feb. 27, has already been delayed one week due to delays in compiling the file.

The government has warned that a further postponement could cause a constitutional crisis.

The five-year term expires Boni Yayi on April 6 and the Basic Law provides that his successor is sworn by that date.If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, a sencond round must take place 15 days after the first, a very likely scenario according to observers.

The law also provides that the first round takes place 30 days before the end of the current presidential term, but ways to circumvent these requirements were already being examined Thursday at the parliament in particular.

Fourteen candidates are running for election, to be played mainly between the opponent and Yayi Adrien Houngbedji, who covets the presidency for twenty years. A third man, Abdoulaye Bio Tchane economist, could find themselves kingmaker.

NORTH AFRICA: The immolation, an act of desperation to high political office

A father of six children, dealer on the run, was doused with petrol before lighting a lighter in the open market on Wednesday, El-Oued, Algeria. Dozens of people were quickly intervened to try to save him. The day before, a lawyer of forty years has tried to set themselves on fire outside the government headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Monday is a contractor for 43 years Mauritania has poured a flammable liquid into his car before setting it on fire. He meant by this act, denouncing "the country's political situation and the regime."

Since the immolation, December 17, the young unemployed Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi, became the symbol of the revolution of Tunisia, a dozen people at least have replicated this gesture in the Arab world.One person died of his injuries in Algeria. "These events seem, a priori, bound to each other, tells Michael France24.com Ayari, associate researcher at the Research Institute for the Study of Arab and Muslim world (IREMAM). These countries are in any case face similar problems, such as rising prices "of basic commodities.

"The fire destroyed and regenerates"

For many observers, these sacrifices reflect the desperation of some of the Arab population. By their violence and the fact that they are held in public and not anonymous, they are also political.The immolation "contains a message for power that is: 'I protest', explained to AFP Hefny Kedra, professor of political psychology at Ain Shams University, Cairo.

"This series of sacrifices is a sign of political deadlock, an ideological vacuum, confirms Michael Ayari. It reveals that many things are not in the office of the underbody Arab world. Symbolically, the Fire destroys but also regenerates, like the phoenix rising from the ashes.These gestures can be a political regeneration: in sacrifice, we destroy what destroys us. "

An analysis shared Nacéra Sadou, clinical psychologist and consultant to the Algerian Society of psychological research, quoted by the Algerian daily El Watan. " Immolate is somehow "reclaiming the right to appear, a way to exist, to say 'I'm here,' she says. In the destruction of the relationship between inside and The outside skin is seen as the only means of expression since access to speech is impossible. "

Psycho-sociologist in Beirut, Lebanon, Raja Makki believes, too, that these desperate acts are a means "to exist"."It seems to me that people in the Arab world, is seeking a new identity, says she France24.com. People are fragmented between two models, West and East. They have many problems to exist; citizenship does not exist in the true sense of the term, diets do not protect the individual as a human being, as a citizen. It is a sentiment that has simmered in an indirect and invisible, expressed today. "

Nor religious, nor specificity Arabic

Symptom of a socio-economic, political and ideological self-immolation has, according to Michael Ayari, no religious connotation. "This is currently the social, not religious, which is dominant" in the protest movements of the Arab street, "he says.On Tuesday, the highest institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar, however, stressed that Islam forbids any form of suicide. "Islam does not separate from her body to express discomfort, anger or protest," said the spokesperson of the institution, Mohamed al-Tahtawi Rifa'a, while stating that individuals who committed these acts could be "in a state of mental instability."

Should this be seen, however, specificity of the Arab world? Ayari for Michael, the answer is clearly no. Tibetan Buddhist monks, for example, have repeatedly sacrificed by fire. Russia, China, South Korea or Burma, such events have already occurred.Between 1998 and 2003, hundreds of people have also attempted suicide by immolation in north-western Iran.

If the media today identify with extreme attention to each case immolation in the Arab world because of the Tunisian revolution, it is however clear that the phenomenon is not completely unprecedented in the region. "We have witnessed in recent years all sorts of suicide beyond the traditional, Gaci said Ali, a specialist in social psychology, the Algerian daily" L'Expression ".Young people have committed suicide by self-mutilating to challenge their release lists of homes, while others were thrown overboard, preferring to drown rather than be rescued by the coastguard, "said there.

In Morocco, in 2005, a group of unemployed youth himself had organized a march "from the hiring or death" with a destination of the seat of the Prime Minister's Office, Rabat, threatening to immolate themselves.In Tunisia, a few farmers had also threatened suicide in the late 1960s to protest against the nationalization of agriculture.

In sacrificing himself in his little town of Sidi Bouzid, Mohamed Bouazizi himself has crystallized the challenges and frustrations social and economic policies in a large part of the Arab world, causing a shockwave that was certainly not imagine ...