In an attempt to achieve a more equitable distribution of refugees among member states, the EU has launched a programme of incentives for future host countries, reports El Mundo. "Ten countries will share the burden of asylum seekers, who are currently arriving in huge numbers in southern EU states – like Spain, Italy, and Malta – and also in the more tolerant states like Sweden," explains the Spanish daily, which further adds that for every refugee accepted, host countries will receive a payment of 4,000 euros from the European Fund for Refugees to defray part of the cost of state assistance. "The United Kingdom, Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries have pledged to participate," announced UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, in the wake of a meeting of EU interior ministers which agreed to adopt the plan. In the meantime, the NGO Human Rights Watch has publicly condemned the treatment of refugees intercepted in the Mediterranean, who are sent to makeshift centres in Libya where they are "subject to physical abuse" – conditions that Guterres has described as "horrible." The Commissioner emphasized that the UN has "major reservations" about Libya's suitability as a host country for refugees.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.