Greek voters choose pro-bailout party; China completes first manned space docking; Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally accepts Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 1991; sucide bombers attack churches in Nigeria, 19 dead; G20 summit begins in Mexico; and more
Top of the Agenda: Greek Voters Choose Pro-Bailout Party
Greece's conservative New Democracy party placed first in parliamentary elections yesterday in a vote seen as a harbinger of whether the debt-laden country would remain in the eurozone (WSJ). New Democracy has vowed support for the country's EU-IMF bailout packages and the attendant austerity measures that have triggered popular unrest throughout the country. The party beat the anti-austerity, leftist Syriza party 30 percent to 27 percent. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras is expected to form a pro-Europe coalition government with the Socialist Pasok party that will carry out the country's obligations to its international lenders and allow Greece to remain in the eurozone.
Analysis
"Mr. Samaras's refusal to support Greece's first bailout in 2010 means he will have to work hard at convincing eurozone leaders he is serious about completing fiscal and structural reforms required by the second €130 billion bailout, which the previous coalition government was too timid to undertake," says the Economist.
"Public-opinion polls show that more than 70 percent of Greeks want to keep the euro as their currency. But most Greeks are also deeply troubled by Europe's terms for staying in the euro zone: the very harsh austerity measures that come in exchange for billions in international bailout loans keeping the country solvent," TIME's Joanna Kakissis.
"The only way the euro might--might--be saved is if the Germans and the European Central Bank realize that they're the ones who need to change their behavior, spending more and, yes, accepting higher inflation. If not-- well, Greece will basically go down in history as the victim of other people's hubris," writes the New York Times' Paul Krugman.
PACIFIC RIM
China in First Manned Space Docking
China successfully completed its first manned space docking today when the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft reached the country's Tiangong-1 space laboratory. China plans to launch a space station by 2020 (WSJ).
BURMA: Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi accepted in Oslo this past weekend the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991 (NYT), calling on the international community to not neglect prisoners of conscience and refugees in Myanmar and elsewhere around the world.
ELSEWHERE:
Suicide bombers attack churches in Nigeria
G20 summit begins in Mexico
This is an excerpt of the CFR.org Daily News Brief. The full version is available on CFR.org.