Government Transitions
UNITED NATIONS - The African Union appealed for funds to increase its force in conflict-wracked Somalia from the current 8,000 ceiling to 20,000.
AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands' queen and the outgoing prime minister presented an austere annual budget on Tuesday that slashes government jobs, spending on immigrants, and tax breaks for families - a foretaste of more far-reaching cuts likely to come under the conservative Cabinet now being formed.
AMSTERDAM - The Dutch government's budget deficit will be 3.9 percent of economic output in 2011, better than the 4.7 percent deficit forecast as recently as June.
BOGOTA, Colombia - A former defense minister from an elite political clan fell just short of a first-round victory in Colombia's presidential elections while trouncing his closest rival, an unorthodox Green Party candidate.
NAIROBI, Kenya - Chaacha Mwita waits for his phone to ring, takes down his customer's order, then furtively delivers his product that no stores in Kenya's capital dare carry.
