IT COULD have been worse. That was more or less the read-out after talks on Syria in Vienna on October 30th between allies and foes of President Bashar al-Assad including America, Saudi Arabia, Russia and, for the first time, Iran. No one walked out, even though Iran backs Mr Assad and Saudi Arabia is one of the main backers of anti-Assad rebel groups, as well as Iran’s chief rival in the region.
At first glance the nine-point statement put out at the end looks good, too. It pledges to work for a ceasefire and commits the parties to an UN-led transition in which Syrians, including the diaspora, elect their leaders. The powers will meet again within two weeks’ time to discuss it further.
Yet no party hid the fact that there was no agreement on the fate of Mr Assad, one of the main points of contention. Speaking at a security conference in Bahrain organised by IISS, a British think-tank, Adel al-Jubair, the Saudi foreign minister, restated the Saudi belief that peace could not be achieved as long as Mr Assad stayed in power: "He should leave this afternoon. The sooner the better." He also insisted that Iranian forces would have to be withdrawn as part of any...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1itGpVQ
ZANZIBAR, wrote Ryszard Kapuscinski, is a “sad, dark star, a grim address, a cursed isle”. That may seem an odd claim for a place of white sandy beaches beloved of Western honeymooners, but it is not wrong. As well as its history as a slave port, the archipelago off the coast of Tanzania is still burdened with deeply troubled politics.
Elections this week in the rest of Tanzania were fairly peaceful and orderly. As most polling predicted he would, the ruling party’s candidate, John Magufuli, was elected president, albeit with a reduced majority in parliament. But on Zanzibar, the results have been a mess. The islands, which are nominally autonomous, elect their own president and parliament. Just hours after polls closed, the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), which is part of the Ukawa opposition alliance across Tanzania, declared victory. But before the votes were even counted, the head of the Tanzanian election commission annulled the result, alleging that the elections were neither free nor fair. Election commissioners from different parties were accused of starting fist fights; allegations of voter fraud have been flung around. Businesses have been closed for days,...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1kYLmrH
BEFORE Greece’s snap elections in September, the outgoing left-wing government laid out plans for a value-added tax of 23% on private education. The measure, dreamed up by the governing Syriza party as an alternative to raising tax on beef, featured in their manifesto as a blow against plutocracy. It looked like a double win that would simultaneously please creditors and demonstrate the government’s commitment to helping the underprivileged. Unsurprisingly, it did neither.
Some of the country’s reasonably priced private schools were forced to close, leaving staff jobless. Elsewhere, fees rose. Those affected were not just rich families. Greece has more than 300 full-time private schools, attended by about 6% of school-age children, many of whom come from middle- and lower-income families. With tuition fees as low as €2,500 ($2,750) a year, some operate in working-class areas and attract parents who are keen to give their children a leg up.
Those whose parents were unable to pay higher fees moved into the already overwhelmed state system. At the beginning of term in September, Greek schools were short of some 12,000 teachers, according to the ministry of...Continue reading
Souce: Europe http://ift.tt/1PZvYXH
A DISAGREEMENT about the treatment of transgender students is pitting the largest high-school district in Illinois against federal authorities. The bone of contention is the access to changing rooms for a transgender high-school student in one of the five high schools and two alternative schools of Township High School District 211 in Palatine, a suburb of Chicago. The student, who was born male but identifies as female, lived for several years as a girl and plays on the girls' sports team, demands that she is given full access to the girls' locker room.
Daniel Cates, the superintendent of district 211, denies her full access to that and instead offers her a separate room or the male locker room to change in. He argues that he has to balance the privacy rights of 12,500 students and the rights of a group with particular needs. In his view, the privacy of that vast majority of students is infringed if transgender students are allowed to change in the same locker room as the students of the gender they identify with.
The controversy began in 2014 when the student’s family, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), filed a complaint with the...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1Mmbxys