Top of the Morning: Israel’s Surprising Election Results; Global Unemployment to Reach New Highs

Top stories from DAWNS Digest.

Netanyahu Weakened in Closer Than Expected Israeli Elections

A shocker in in the Knesset elections. “Israel’s parliamentary election ended Wednesday in a stunning deadlock between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line bloc and center-left rivals, forcing the badly weakened Israeli leader to scramble to cobble together a coalition of parties from both camps, despite dramatically different views on Mideast peacemaking and other polarizing issues. Israeli media said that with 99.8 percent of votes counted on Wednesday morning, each bloc had 60 of parliament’s 120 seats. Commentators said Netanyahu, who called early elections expecting easy victory, would be tapped to form the next government because the rival camp drew 12 of its 60 seats from Arab parties who’ve never joined a coalition.” (CBS http://cbsn.ws/144uSkY)

Record Global Unemployment Expected in 2013

Not good news. “A record 202 million people could be unemployed across the world in 2013, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Tuesday…the fragile recovery is threatened by “incoherent monetary policy” in the US and Europe, said the ILO. According to United Nation’s agency’s latest report, Global Employment Trends 2013, 6% of the world’s workforce were without a job in 2012. The number of jobless people around the world rose by 4m in 2012 to 197m. Young people were the worst affected: nearly 13% of those under 24 were unemployed.” (Guardian http://bit.ly/WelQhU)