Ainashe.net

According to the French News Agency; AFP the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board on Thursday agreed on a procedure to select the next IMF chief….

The board said it would accept nominations from any of the IMF’s 185 member countries and would weigh the choice of candidates in September, before IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato steps down at the end of meetings in October. ‘The nomination period will commence immediately and will close on Aug. 31, 2007,’ the board said in a statement, saying the successful candidate must have a record in economic policymaking and have managerial and diplomatic skills. … ‘The objective is not to take it away from Europe but to make the process merit based,’ said one IMF board director. …”

AFP reports went on by saying:

“… The IMF added that ‘although the Executive Board may select a Managing Director by a majority of votes cast, the objective of the Executive Board is to select the Managing Director by consensus.’ …”

The Chinese News Agency; Xinhua reports:

The 14th general conference of the Arab Towns Organization (ATO) opened in Marrakech, on the theme of ‘Effective Partnership for Sustainable Development of Towns,’ according to the Moroccan News Agency (MAP). The ongoing meeting is being attended by about 400 officials from member-towns of the ATO, representatives of the World Alliance of Towns, UN Habitat Program as well as the Arab League.

You may like to click here for more on this.

SALIM LONE writes:

In the wake of the awful attacks of September 11 2001, Tony Blair’s passionate denunciation of impoverishment in Africa as “a scar on the conscience of the world” convinced many that the west would propel the issue of mass poverty and injustice to the top of the international agenda in the cause of a more stable world.

This week’s news only confirms that it was a misplaced hope. Not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa has met the criteria set by the UN’s millennium development goals on poverty alleviation, the centrepiece of the project. Some observers believe the number of poor, and the intensity of the poverty, has actually risen in almost all countries.

(more…)