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The multiplication of internal crises within its member States has led the African Union to appoint mediators, tasked with bringing parties to resolve their disputes in a peaceful manner. As a political dispute settlement method, mediation appears to only obey political dynamics. However, regulation of this dispute settlement method is emerging, even though it is only through soft law instruments. The question at the heart of this essay is to which regulations does the African Union's mediation obey when it intervenes in its member States' internal crises. It would be difficult to argue that mediation is entirely left to the will of parties and the mediator while it unfolds within an international organization. Using factual elements and an analysis of different instruments aimed at providing a framework for mediation, this essay demonstrates that even if its results remain ambivalent as concerns the resolution of States' internal crises, mediation is a dispute settlement method undergoing a regulation effort.

The analysis of instantaneous water discharge and suspended sediment loads in the watershed of the Boumessaoud Wadi (118 km2), for the period from September 1988 to August 2004, revealed the existence of annual and seasonal variability in sediment transport in this Mediterranean semi-arid catchment and demonstrated the impact of flood events, which contribute to about 71% of the overall solid tonnage in the autumn and up to 97% in the spring. The results of this analysis indicate that the annual average specific erosion is about 518 t∙km-2∙y-1. The methodological approach adopted consists of finding a regression model capable of explaining the sediment load (QS) as a function of the discharge (QL), tested by studying this relation at various temporal scales. The produced models are a power relationship type (QS = aQLb), where water discharge explains overall more than 80% of the variance in sediment yield. The identification of periods that are sediment-productive in this dynamic erosion system was studied by analysis of the evolution of the sediment concentrations in the stream. The objective of this modeling is to overcome the shortcomings of the sediment transport data available for our studied catchment.

Keywords: Transport solide, modélisation, débit liquide, débit solide, hystérésis, Sediment transport, modeling, liquid flows, sediment load, hysteresis

The chapter describes Madeleine Lucette Ferraille, who later changed her name to Ruth Ben David/Blau, during World War Two in France. When the war broke, Lucette was married to a handsome French soldier and gave him a son, but she wanted more out of life than was within easy reach—more, indeed, than the Vichy regime encouraged. By 1943, she was divorced, with a BA from the University of Toulouse. That year, she also helped a female Jewish refugee escape deportation and certain death. Recruited by the Resistance in early 1944, Lucette, who was beautiful as well as brilliant, made her way into the heart of the local Gestapo by becoming the mistress of a Waffen-SS officer, continuing to spy on the Nazi headquarters just a few months before D-Day.

Keywords: Ruth Blau, World War II France, Madeleine Lucette Ferraille, Resistance

AbstractIn this article, the authors are interested in the diverse forms of political commitment of young adults (18-30 years old) in Quebec. Joining a new thought regarding political commitment terms (more individualized, distanced), they present the results of a qualitative research done among 50 young adults engaged in different political parties (20) and associations (30), and among 30 young adults individually concerned by fair trade issues. The authors start by reviewing the activist trajectory followed by these young adults and explain the characteristics and meaning of their involvement. Then, they show that these young adults have similar objectives (act to change the world, participate in the founding of a better world). Their commitment also expresses a sense of responsibility (altruism) towards « Others » (future generations, society, health of the planet, etc.).

ABSTRACTThe outlet of the Saguenay fiord, near the head of the Laurentian Channel, is characterised by a sequence of original morpho-sedimentary units including a raised (120-125 m) delta at Tadoussac, a thick fluvio-marine valleyfill in Rivière du Moulin à Baude, a 60-m high marine terrace at Pointe aux Vaches, a complex terrace at Pointe aux Alouettes, wide silty-clayey (rhythmites) terraces at Pointe Hubert and Pointe au Bouleau, a large tidal flat at Pointe aux Alouettes, and three submerged half-moon shaped ridges. According to 14C dates and aminochronology on shell fragments from a relict sand deposit at Pointe aux Alouettes, 35 ka or older, the area was ice-free during a Wisconsinan interstadial. This marine event was followed by a period of sand and gravel deposition, a period of marginal ice shelf deposition, and by one or several glacial episodes. During Late Wisconsinan, partial deglaciation and marine submergence occurred before 11.1 ka. Diamicts interstratified with marine clay and a till deposit occurring to the S of the fjord outlet, the outwash raised delta at Tadoussac built between 11 and 10.6 ka are correlated with the St. Narcisse event. Subsequently, the Goldthwait Sea at least by 10.4 ka submerged the ice-free topographic depressions of the Laurentidian Shield to a relative level 140-150 m. Then the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated to the NW progressively thinning on the highlands while an ice tongue remained in the fjord. This isostatic recovery has been rapid, the 20-m level being emerged by 8 ka. Around 6 ka, the relative sea-level was approximately that of today. It rose subsequently, building the 6-m Mitis terrace dated between 1.2 and 1.6 ka.