The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Labour Court in the legal saga of the crib Baby Wolf, canceling the dismissal 2008 an employee of the nursery which had been criticized by his employer from refusing to remove her veil.

“Being a private nursery”, the highest judicial court held that the dismissal of Fatima Afif, which dates from 2008, was “discrimination because of religious convictions” and should be “annulled”. At the hearing before the Social Chamber of the Supreme Court on February 12, the Advocate General had recommended the dismissal of the appeal of Mrs. Afif. The Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, said he regretted “a challenge to secularism.” “In a few seconds out of my office, I would like to say that I regret the decision of the Court of Cassation on crib Baby Wolf,” he said.



SWIRL

In December 2010, the Labour Court of Mantes-la-Jolie had nevertheless felt that the direction of the crib was right to dismiss the complainant for “insubordination and repeated” and “gross negligence”, the latter having desired work veiled return from parental leave. She was then dismissed for a second time by the Court of Appeal of Versailles in October 2011.



Throughout the litigation, the crib Baby Wolf arose in “business secular trend” and defending “a vision anticommunautariste prohibiting conspicuous religious signs in a manger, as is the case in the public school “according to one of his lawyers, Richard Malka.

According to its director, Natalia Baleato, the rules included a requirement of “philosophical, political and religious neutrality” too vague for lawyers Mrs. Afif, but essential for the director, who says he faced since the early 2000s “a rise in religious claims.” However, for one of the lawyers for Mrs. Afif, Michel Henry, “internal rules can not defeat the exercise of a fundamental freedom, religious freedom.”

This case created a stir within the High Authority against Discrimination and for Equality (Halde), seized by the dismissed employee. The institution was first brought him his support, but in October 2010, its new president, Jeannette Bougrab, had taken a position in favor of Baby Wolf.

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An interview request was forwarded to the European Commission. It preferred to respond in writing to a list of questions. These responses are Frederic Vincent, spokesman for Health and Consumer Policy.

The commission is based on information provided by manufacturers to allow a product with additives. Is it enough?

One of the fundamental principles of EU law – but these rules exist at international level (OECD) – it is up to the industry to demonstrate that these substances can be consumed. It is to her that it is conducting (and thus funding) studies requested by the scientific and political levels that check and possibly approve. Is it possible that public money is funding studies which then benefit to private economic operators? The European Agency provides guidelines that manufacturers must always follow when submitting a file for approval.

Loyalty industrial vis-à-vis additives has recently been undermined in France (an unexpected study DGCCRF found in 2009 that 40% of controlled sweets were “non-compliant”). Can you take action at European level to avoid this kind of practice?

European legislation provides roles to each: at European level, the authorization on the market, after scientific advice process in nationalism, the verification of the implementation of the legislation. So what is the role of supervisory authorities, such as the DGCCRF France and the FSA in the UK, check with studies or unannounced products put into circulation are consistent and comply with the maximum permitted levels, the rules labeling, among others. It is also at the national level that will decide the sanctions.

Nevertheless, the European Commission, through its Food and Veterinary Office carried out a series of missions on food additives in eighteen Member States. The issue of labeling was actually at the heart of discussions and a series of recommendations were made.

Any toxicity is a matter of concentration. Why Europe does not require manufacturers to include concentrations of additives on the labels?

It is the role of economic operators to ensure the safety of food additives they wish to market. At the level of policy makers, including the European Commission, it is essential to ensure scientific guarantees given by the European Food Safety Authority before any authorization. This review of the agency generally includes Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), which is the level that can be consumed daily over a lifetime without risk.

Cocktails effects (possible synergy between ingested food additives once) and kinetic effects (fixation in the body of some addififs and chemical evolution of their properties) are subjects of study in certain academic laboratories. Ad-hoc studies it was ordered by the commission?

Yes, the “cocktail effect” is increasingly taken into account in the assessments at European level. This is actually a subject to be taken into account and the Agency is working – with regulators in Europe and beyond, as well as scientific – to refine its assessment methods to reflect the exposure simultaneously in the body of chemical elements.

The European Commission has launched a study on additives that will last until 2020. Why the delay?

More than 300 additives again (precisely 324): this is a lot of work (thirty additives per year) thus takes time. This is why the Commission has decided to revise the additives according to priority criteria that take into account in particular the age of science.

A “work program” has been developed giving priority to dyes and preservatives. A timetable has been set. However, this schedule may be changed according to new demands or the emergence of data. Thus, while the revaluation of aspartame was planned for 2020, the Commission – on the basis of new scientific evidence and growing consumer demand – has decided to advance the publication in 2013 by the EFSA’s opinion . This review is expected in the coming months.

When a problem is identified additive in a country on another continent (as E150d in California in January 2012), what is the procedure in Europe?

If new scientific evidence is put forward, the Commission shall forward to the EFSA and the Agency responds to us whether or not the additive in question – and in particular TDI – must be reviewed. In the case in question, EFSA considered that the . data did not warrant review its authorization.

Since 16 December 2008, by European regulation, including food additives E110, E104, E124, E122, E102, E129 should have on their labels the words “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children “. For cons, the manufacturers did not have to put the name of the additive code number (Exxx), convenient to inform consumers, and can choose to put the chemical name, easily identifiable. Is it the result of a food lobbying?

EU legislation leaves the choice to operators either the name of the substance, its E-number Usually both are available on the label, and the “technological function” of the additive (dyes, etc.) is always indicated. So a consumer is informed of the presence of additives. Similarly, there are tools available (eg a database created by the European Commission) to identify additives and their presence in different types of food.

Collaborative international sites such openfoodfacts, multiply to “inform” the consumer. Contributions are European and even global. What political issues it raises there?

Everything that goes in the direction of better consumer information is welcome. Consumers are more and more attention to what they buy and information channels multiply. It is undeniable that the “crises” food (like the recent one on horse meat) or the increase in obesity in Europe and elsewhere lead to both questions, distrust or concern for a number of consumers. This kind of websites most certainly contributes to the exchange of information. Then there is the question of the veracity of the information exchanged. Again, it is up to national authorities to ensure their oversight role and to ensure that consumers are properly informed.

A search was conducted Wednesday, March 20 at the Paris home of the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde in the Tapie.

“Lagarde has nothing to hide,” said his lawyer Yves Repiquet, adding that his client had not been heard at this stage of the investigation. “These searches are the manifestation of the truth, it will contribute to the exemption from criminal responsibility of my client,” the lawyer added. These searches, which he could not tell if they were still in progress, were conducted by judges of the investigation panel of the Court of Justice of the Republic, he said.

A procedure Christine Lagarde has been open since the summer of 2011 to the Court of Justice of the Republic for “complicity in embezzlement and false.” IMF chief is traveling to Frankfurt on Wednesday and must return to the United States in the day, according to his spokesman.



In 2007, then Minister of Economy, she chose to settle by arbitration a private legal dispute concerning the resale in 1993 by Crédit Lyonnais Adidas controlled by Bernard Tapie. The current director of the IMF has denied any wrongdoing and has ruled out resigning. This arbitration has provided $ 240 million to Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT), plus 70 million euros in interest and $ 45 million of “moral damages”.

The French Justice investigation into the arbitration. Searches were carried out by the financial police at the home and office of former secretary general of the Elysee, Claude Gueant, the businessman Bernard Tapie and Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom, which was chief of staff Christine Lagarde at the time of arbitration. Furthermore, the procedure for Christine Lagarde, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a criminal investigation last September for “improper use of social power and concealment of the crime” in this case.

Elected from the center and left have criticized Lagarde have chosen the path of a private arbitration to settle the dispute, seeing it as a “favor” policy with regard to Bernard Tapie, who supported Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 . Christine Lagarde has denied any wrongdoing and excluded to resign from the IMF.

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The French Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced Tuesday the expulsion “in the coming days” several foreign preachers and radical imam at a conference Brussels.



“Several foreign radical preachers will be deported in the coming days,” said Mr. Valls in at an international conference on the fight against violent extremism. This measure is part of the prevention of radicalization process and the fight against radical Islam and the “global jihadism”, he said. Mr. Valls stressed the need to avoid generalizations.



“I do not confuse this with radical Islam Islam in France but there is a religious environment, there are groups who claim to Salafism, which is a political process, which simply aim to capture both the world association, school processes, to take the bottom hand on the consciences of a number of families, “he said.



“We expel all these imams, all foreign preachers who prey on women, hold about contrary to our values, refer to the need to combat France,” he warned. “From this point of view, it must be extremely strong and I would,” he concluded.



MERAH WAS NOT A “LONE WOLF”

During the same conference, the minister also reversed the thesis of a solitary drift Mohamed Merah. “[The] action was the result of careful preparation, a learning process made many contacts.” “The famous thesis of the lone wolf does not.” Manuel Valls and supports a contrary view to that of Bernard Squarcini, the former head of domestic intelligence when the right was in power.

“I make a difference.’s Lone wolf, in this case, it is Breivik (author of a massacre in Norway, note) seems to have done, was formed through the Internet alone. Not the case of Merah, “he said. “Merah is alone, but not isolated. This is not the same thing. Ago an environment, which may be that of the family, the neighborhood, the prison. Contacts that were hers, in France or abroad, who coined the radicalization process that led him to kill, “he said.

This is What a clarion call, Wednesday, March 20, the National Academy of Pharmacy. More and more pharmacies are out of stock: daily, 5% of controlled drugs by pharmacists City are not available, and half of these interruptions exceed four days. Antibiotics, anticancer drugs, anesthetics are the main classes involved, but also lack vaccines or anxiolytics. In total, the National Security Agency has identified 118 drug products whose supply is difficult or simply stopped.

“This phenomenon is global, has worsened in recent years. Everyday, we lack one or more drugs,” said Philip Lieberman, pharmacist Strasbourg and vice-president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical unions France.

Given this situation, pharmacists concede that they “are doing.” This phenomenon also affects …

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With children per woman, the fertility rate in France is among the highest in Europe, behind Ireland. The rate has stabilized over 2 children per woman since 2008. The average age of mothers at childbirth meanwhile continues to increase to years.

If the number of births fell slightly, must see, according to Insee the result of two factors: the reduction in the number of women of childbearing age, due to aging of the population and stability of fertility.

Alongside the publication of these figures, INSEE has also published an analysis by regions fertility. After strong regional disparities to baby boom the state of fertility has stabilized.

High fertility observed overseas due to a higher fertility than in mainland France at younger ages and after 35 years.

The age of the first child, after going from years in the early twentieth century to years in 1977 from ever increasing. By the 1970s, a bachelor’s degree and higher qualifications were the first to delay their first child, followed in the 1980s by the least educated women.

It is in ?le-de-France that the average age at childbearing is highest, particularly because the fertility of women over 35 years is 26% of fertility, against 20% in other regions.

AT THE FOOT OF THE WAILING WALL, Jerusalem police arrested on April 11, five women from the organization Women of the Wall (WOW, “Women of wall “). Their mistake: wearing a tallit, prayer shawl and tefillin, phylacteries leather, the Orthodox believe reserved for men. Judge Sharon Bavli-Larry finally did release warned, saying that their actions were not a “provocation.” This incident recovery controversy which, far from being an obscure quarrel between religious Jews, regularly threatens to degenerate into a serious political problem. Since December 1988 for Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the month of the Hebrew calendar), Women of the Wall come to pray at the Western Wall, the Kotel, wearing shawls, tefillin and reciting the Torah aloud. However, the Orthodox rabbi of the Kotel, Shmuel Rabinovitch, is not ready to move away from a strict interpretation of halacha, Jewish law “allowed [our] religion to survive intact for over three thousand years” . Or waive the prohibitions governing the use of the prayer shawl …

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Moaz Ahmed Al-Khatib, president of the Syrian National Coalition, the main structure of the opposition, announced Sunday, March 24, his démision on Facebook, information later confirmed by his spokesman.

“I swore to the great Syrian people and to God that I would resign if certain red lines were crossed,” he wrote, without specifying their nature. “I announce my resignation from the National Coalition in order to work with a freedom that I can not be in an official organization,” says Khatib in a statement. The Syrian National Coalition is recognized as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in dozens of countries and international organizations.

“Over the past two years we have been slaughtered by a regime of unprecedented brutality, while the world was watching us,” said Mr. Khatib said in a statement. “All destruction of Syrian infrastructure, detention of tens of thousands of people, forced exile of hundreds of thousands of others (…) were not enough for the international community to take a decision to allow the people to defend themselves, “he said.

The CNS said Sunday not to accept the decision Moaz Al-Khatib, and asked him to return to work. “As Mr. Khatib will continue at this stage to lead the coalition,” the CNS in a statement. The government of Qatar, one of the main supports for the Syrian rebels, for their part also lamented the resignation of Moaz Al Khatib and urged him to reconsider his decision.

ELECTION OF A PRIME MINISTER

The surprise resignation of Mr. Khatib comes just days after the unprecedented election of a prime minister responsible for administering the rebel territories in Syria, Ghassan Hitto, and nearly two years after the start of a popular uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) does not recognize Ghassan Hitto said Sunday a senior official of that organization. “We, the ASL does not recognize Ghassan Hitto as prime minister as the National Coalition has not chosen by consensus,” said Loua? Mouqdad, political and media coordinator within the ASL.

Meanwhile, fighting continues and spoof their share of victims. According to information provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, the violence is a hundred dead Sunday in the country, including 61 civilians.

Beirut correspondence.



Throughout the weekend, the back-and-forth was incessant in the elegant home of the new Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam, the heart of a popular district of Beirut. Leaders and volunteers from the charitable foundation he has long led successive congratulating the Sunni deputy of the capital charge Saturday, April 6 by President Michel Suleiman to form a government. He must begin, Tuesday, April 9, consultations to compose his team.

The consensus on the appointment of the affable and weighted man, heir to a famous political family, has emerged as providential in a tense political context. It opens the way to a relative calm in a country destabilized by the Syrian conflict. Salam, 67, was knighted by Saudi Arabia and the pro-Western alliance called the “March 14″ (which it is derived), who have taken the initiative on the national political scene. More importantly, he was chosen by Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze party, whose seven members can make and unmake government coalitions. He also received the endorsement of the alliance “March 8″, dominated by Hezbollah and supported by Tehran.

His appointment away the specter of a political vacuum, following the resignation on March 22, Najib Mikati’s cabinet, supported by …

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Fourteen complaints were filed Thursday, January 24, before the high court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), against the laboratories manufacturing control pills third and fourth generations and against the National Security Agency of the drug (MSNA), for “manslaughter” and “involuntary integrity of the human person with”. These complaints are more than Marion Larat on 14 December 2012, the first filed in France against a pill, and are again deposited by Jean-Christophe Coubris, counsel for the young woman left disabled after a stroke (stroke) due to take her pill Méliane.

Alexandra, Vanessa, Juliet Marine, Fatima, Ariane … Among the eleven complainants alive this second legal salvo, six suffered a pulmonary embolism, four stroke, and the last cerebral thrombophlebitis. They were not all girls when these serious accidents happened to them: they were aged 18-46 years, and only three of them were under 30 years. They took for three, six or fifteen months of the third generation pills, or generic (Désobel, Gestoden Ethinylestradiol30, Melodia, Carlin20, Varnoline), fourth generation pills (Yaz, Jasmine, Yasminelle) and Diane 35. Contraceptives or acne to misuse made by Bayer laboratories (which was the subject of the first complaint) Effik, MSD France and Biogaran.

The latest complaint comes from the father of Theodora, died at age 17 of a pulmonary embolism, 14 October 2007, on the way to school, two months after being prescribed the pill at Planned Parenthood Mercilon the hospital of the country Gier (Loire). On 7 July 2010, the Regional Commission for conciliation and compensation (RCCI) Rhone admitted that the death was “directly attributable to prescription contraceptive, beyond a reasonable doubt.” “It’s just when the expertise of RCCI report in May 2010 that the link was formally established between death and the pill, which is not a requirement” already calls me Coubris.



“TRUNCATED INFORMATION”

According to counsel, the instructions for the pill Mercilon, nor records of offending other pills, did clearly state that taking a third generation contraceptive is associated with a significantly increased risk of accidents thrombemboliques venous and stroke compared to second generation oral contraceptives. “Speaking of slightly higher risk, he said, laboratories gave a truncated information, falsely reassuring.” As for Medicines Agency, it has not, according to him, respected the principle of precaution.

A month and a half after the media coverage of the first complaint, the lawyer has already received 400 testimonials from young women or families who consider themselves victims of their pill. “We see that the numbers of pharmacovigilance are totally wrong, and it has something to be wary of so-called scientific studies funded by the laboratories themselves.” In mid-February, he plans to introduce “at least a hundred” other complaints.

Peter Markarian, the father of Theodora, was created in 2010 the Association of Victims of pulmonary embolism (AVEP), trying to get the message about the dangers of recent pills “face of resistance from the medical profession, politicians, associations feminist. ” The recent awareness on forward: “My daughter does not have to be ashamed of me, I have not forgotten, we bailed out a few people.” Since its inception, the AVEP identified five deaths pill.