There is division in the European Union ranks over taking in detainees from Guantánamo when the prison closes. Only a few countries, Finland and Spain among them, showed support for the expected U.S. request to take Guantánamo inmates into their prisons. The debate is President Barack Obama‘s first challenge to the relationship between his administration and Europe.
Radio Nationale Malgache is now back on the air in Madagascar just a day after thousands of anti-government demonstrators set fire to the state broadcasting complex in unrest that left at least two dead. However, the leader of anti-government demonstrations said he would not talk with the ruling party until there is justice over the deaths of the protesters.
The Kenyan government announced Monday possible pay suspensions that could result in dismissals for teachers on a two-week strike. The union and government reached a standstill over whether raises would take effect July 1 or occur incrementally over three years. Union officials dismissed the government’s “empty threats.”
The Afghan government requested increased military resources for its troops from the United States and said that, if denied, it would turn to Russia for its needs. Many parts of the country are still besieged with Taliban violence, despite a foreign force that numbers about 70,000. “If the U.S. doesn’t help us, we will ask other countries for airplanes and tanks,” said President Hamid Karzai.
Lebanese courts stopped the presses of The Daily Star—the oldest English-language newspaper in the Middle East—over allegations that the publication owes roughly $1.7 million to creditors. The publisher, Jamil Mroueh, said the paper is only in debt for around $700,000, adding that after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, The Star performs a public service and can’t be expected to turn a profit in the current economic climate. Mroueh ridiculed “the decrepit Lebanese justice system” for seizing the paper. A further ruling is expected by Thursday.
The Zimbabwe opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, rejected an appeal from a regional summit to join a coalition government, while President Robert Mugabe hailed the idea as a “new chapter” in the country’s politics. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai denies that a power-sharing deal was reached since, he asserts, Mugabe won’t negotiate on key issues.
The election of Barack Obama portends a different future for American-Israeli relations, regardless who is elected as the next Israeli prime minister, says Eitan Haber in Yediot Ahronoth, a major daily newspaper. He contends that the next Israeli leader will “likely not enjoy traditional intimacy with Washington” and that Tel Aviv may have to reconsider its whole approach to governance and Gaza.
Since the creation of Doctors Without Borders in 1971, private “borderless” associations have proliferated—with organizations like Reporters Without Borders to Studies Without Borders—to the point where the legitimacy of these groups is now in question. This International Herald Tribune video explores a world where unhindered humanitarian action may suffer as too many organizations claim to serve all populations, regardless of sovereignty.