● LE FIGARO Quand l?Ifop dissèque le vote des militants socialistes

Jérôme Fourquet, directeur adjoint du département d?opinion publique de l?Ifop(Institut français d?opinion publique) décrypte les résultats de la primaire socialiste : Ségolène Royal a davantage séduit dans les petites villes que dans les grandes. Quand on compare la carte du vote Royal et celle du référendum interne au Parti socialiste, on note que Ségolène Royal réalise de bons scores dans les zones où le oui l'a emporté, comme le Grand Ouest, et de moins bons à Paris et dans la petite couronne. Dans les bastions du non, les fiefs fabiusiens lui ont accordé nettement moins que la moyenne, mais elle fait de bons scores là où elle a reçu le soutien de personnalités du non, comme dans la Somme ou la Saône-et-Loire. Elle a donc partiellement recollé les morceaux, tandis que Dominique Strauss-Kahn n'a fait de bons scores que là où le oui l?a emporté et que Laurent Fabius est resté cantonné dans ceux qui ont voté non, ce qui a réduit son périmètre. À Paris, dont le nombre d?adhérents a plus que doublé, Royal fait un score au-dessous de sa moyenne nationale. Fabius a bénéficié de l?afflux de nouveaux adhérents dans son fief de Seine-Maritime. DSK, lui, en bénéficie dans les grandes métropoles régionales alors que Royal y réalise des scores inférieurs à sa moyenne nationale. On peut donc dire que Royal et DSK se sont partagé les nouveaux adhérents. Ségolène Royal est la candidate de la campagne et des petites villes contre la grande ville. Elle fait toujours un meilleur score plus on s?éloigne de la grande ville : son résultat est moins bon à Paris qu'en banlieue, moins bon à Rennes que dans le reste de la Bretagne, à Nancy qu?en Lorraine, à Bordeaux qu?en Aquitaine. Elle réalise ses meilleurs résultats dans les catégories ouvriers, employés et cadres intermédiaires, qui forment tout de même 65 % de la population. Chez les cadres, elle tombe à 45 %, au-dessous de sa moyenne nationale. Ce qui fait d?elle une candidate de la France d'en bas.

● RUSSIA TIMES Litvinenko was told that he was marked for death

On the day he was poisoned, Alexander Litvinenko was shown a hit list of Kremlin targets that included his own name, it emerged last night. An Italian security expert who met Mr Litvinenko in a London restaurant on November 1 said that both men were on the list, with other exiled Russians living in Britain. Mario Scaramella revealed that he had turned to the former KGB spy for help. They met at their usual rendezvous, in a sushi restaurant in Piccadilly, to study the list. Litvinenko, 43, promised to investigate the threats but before the pair could discuss the list further he complained of feeling violently unwell. He did not at first suspect he had been poisoned. As Scotland Yard anti-terror detectives began compiling a list of suspects they want to question, doctors at University College Hospital, where he is in a serious condition, admitted that the precise cause of his illness may never be known. As speculation intensified over who was behind the Cold War-style murder attempt, Russian authorities said that British police were welcome to visit Moscow and question anyone they want. A senior Russian diplomat told The Times: «It is in the Kremlin?s interests to offer full co-operation with British police in trying to find the would-be assassin. This was not some official hit as so much of the British press would have it, so let us investigate this thoroughly wherever it takes us. The finger has been pointed at us so let us find who was truly responsible.»

● LEBANON TIMES Funeral turns into anti-Syria platform

Central Beirut was a sea of people on Thursday as Lebanese turned out in strength for the funeral of anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel, whose murder threatens to plunge the country deeper into political turmoil.The crowd, which local media estimated at hundreds of thousands, heard fiery speeches from leaders of the beleaguered pro-Western governing coalition castigating Syria and its local allies for the violence dogging the country. Sunni leader Saad Hariri, who lost his five-time Prime minister father Rafiq to an assassin?s bomb in February 2005, told the crowd that they had shown the world that those opposed to Syria?s machinations, and not Damascus?s allies, were in the majority in Lebanon. The appeals by Mr Gemayel?s father for the funeral to pass off peacefully appeared largely to have been heeded. Martyrs? Square was wherean estimated one million people gathered in March last year after Rafiq Hariri?s assassination sparked a wave of popular anger that prompted Syria to end a three-decade troop presence the following month.