New York Times—Starvation and Strife Menace Torn Kenya
One year after Kenya exploded in ethnic bloodshed, the New York Times reports that trouble is brewing again in the east African country. Ten million people face starvation, partly because farmers in crucial food-producing areas who fled their homes last year have not returned, instead withdrawing deeper into their ethnic enclaves. And at the same time, public confidence in the Kenyan government is plummeting. Top politicians have been implicated in an endless string of scandals involving tourism, fuel, guns and corn.

Los Angeles Times—African nations pledge to press for aid to Zimbabwe
At a regional meeting in South Africa, southern African nations made no promises to invest money to support Zimbabwe’s unity government. Instead, regional government leaders said they will press donors and international financial institutions to help Zimbabwe. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, has called on Western governments to support the fledgling transitional government. But Europe and the United States have been reluctant to commit funds amid concerns that Mugabe and his hard-line security chiefs remain firmly in charge despite the power-sharing arrangement.

Financial Times—Brown aims to engage Obama on recession
According to FT, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s meeting with President Obama this week is being portrayed by British officials as a make-or-break opportunity to -persuade the new U.S. administration to engage in international efforts to tackle the recession. Brown expects talks to focus on the agenda for next month’s G20 summit in London, seen by Downing Street as a decisive moment for the world economy and a crucial moment in efforts to revive his premiership. British officials fear that the White House has been mainly focused on its domestic economic challenges until now and hope to persuade Obama to throw his weight behind an ambitious outcome for the April 2 summit.

Sunday Times—The special relationship is going global
In advance of his meeting with President Obama, Prime Minister Brown writes in the Sunday Times about the need for Britain and the United States to show leadership in responding to the global financial crisis by formulating “a new global deal, whose impact can stretch from the villages of Africa to reforming the financial institutions of London and New York– and giving security to the hard-working families in every country.”

Politico—Arena: Obama’s budget
The Capitol Hill paper, Politico, this morning has several experts and opinionators comment on President Obama’s recently released budget. One of those opinionators, Greg Dworkin of the Daily Kos, writes that one of the best parts of Obama’s budget is its “commitment to international public health that follows up on the excellent work George W. Bush did on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria at the end of his term. This really is bipartisan territory, and these are examples of things we can all agree on.”

-Steve Wilson