Today's news briefing: A bid for Opel, a blockade in Somalia, and the president of Macedonia sits down with the Monitor
Here are the main stories we'll be posting throughout the day:
In world news ...
• Jane Arraf in Baghdad reports on a survey of the Iraqi Army is finding almost one-quarter currently fails to meet its own minimum qualifications for soldiers.
• The bidding for Opel, the German automaker, begins. And Jeffrey White in Berlin finds that Fiat is driving hard.
• In his first interview with a Western newspaper, the new president of Macedonia sits down with the Monitor. The discussion with reporter Christopher Deliso includes US foreign policy in the Balkans, tied in with Joe Biden’s visit to the region, which wraps up Thursday.
• It took the imminent fall of Mogadishu to militant Islamists for Somalia’s neighbors to get involved. Scott Baldauf asks if their Wednesday request for a UN blockade is likely to be fulfilled. And how quickly would it be in place? Would it really stop foreign fighters? How many foreign fighters are there, anyway?
