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Okonjo-Iweala tipped to head World Bank
The coordinating Minister of the economy and finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has being tipped to be amongst the candidates to be nominated from the developing countries to head the World Bank ahead of the planned resignation of the incumbent president.
According to Reuters, Dr Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister, Jose Antonio Ocampo are the two tipped to be nominated to lead the World Bank, sources with knowledge of emerging market efforts to find candidates said on Tuesday.
The candidacies of Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo, who have credentials as both economists and diplomats and according to sources the respective backing of Brazil and South Africa, pose a challenge to the United States, whose hold on the top post has never been contested.
But with its majority of votes and the expected support of European countries, the United States is still likely to ensure that another American will succeed Robert Zoellick, who plans to step down when his term expires at the end of June.
Washington has held the presidency since the Bank’s founding after World War II, while a European has always led the International Monetary Fund. It has yet to publicly identify a nominee to succeed Zoellick.
The decision to nominate Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo followed weeks of discussions among emerging and developing countries at the World Bank board including China and India.
Two sources said South Africa’s director at the World Bank board, Renosi Mokate, who also represents Nigeria and other English-speaking African countries, personally flew to Abuja to consult with Okonjo-Iweala about her nomination.
“The impressive credentials of both Ocampo and Okonjo-Iweala puts tremendous pressure on the White House to come up with a candidate of at least equivalent standing,” said Domenico Lombardi, a former World Bank board official now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“This signals a big shift and really reflects a game change,” Lombardi added. “This is the first time in history we have a truly contested election.”
Okonjo-Iweala, who left the World Bank as managing director last year to become Nigeria’s finance minister, and Ocampo, a former U.N. under-secretary for economic and social affairs, will join American economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has the backing of a handful of small countries, on the nomination list.
The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, and the Obama administration has said it will name a candidate by then. All of the World Bank’s 187 members nations have committed to a merit-based process to select Zoellick’s successor.
Former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo
Sources said Ocampo, currently a professor at Columbia University in New York, would be formally nominated by Brazil while Okonjo-Iweala could be nominated on Wednesday.
Nominations will be submitted to the 25-member World Bank board, which has said it will decide on the next president within the next month. The candidacy of Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy is said to have the blessing of President Goodluck Jonathan, who convinced her to join his cabinet last year to lend more weight to his reform agenda.
Emerging and developing economies have long talked up their desire to break U.S. and European dominance of the Bretton Woods Institutions, but have until now have failed to build a coalition large enough to change the status quo.
Sources with knowledge of the administration’s thinking say Washington has focused on convincing a woman to enter the race, which could go some way to address calls by emerging market nations for change. A woman has never led the bank.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was a leading contender, however, it is not clear she wants the job, sources have said. Former adviser to President Barack Obama, Lawrence Summers, has also been short-listed for the job. He has declined to comment.
The United States has insisted that to keep funding flowing from Congress for the World Bank, it is important to retain the presidency.
Lombardi said the test was whether large emerging economies like China would rally support for Ocampo and Okonjo-Iweala, or in the end vote for a U.S. nominee.
Last year, Brazil and China failed to rally around Mexico’s central bank chief, Agustin Carstens, for the top post at the IMF, instead favoring former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who now heads the institution. It is unclear if big emerging nations such as China and India would support a fellow developing nation candidate.
Source: Channels TV, 21st March 2012.
Mandela Stable After Surgery For Abdominal Complaint
FORMER South Africa President Nelson Mandela is in a stable condition after undergoing surgery, the BBC understands.
Officials said he was taken to hospital overnight for a “long-standing abdominal complaint” which needed “proper specialist medical attention”.
Sources, according to the BBC, said he is talking and likely to leave hospital on Sunday.
The 93-year-old statesman and anti-apartheid icon has suffered declining health in recent years.
As the country’s first black president after a history of white minority rule, Mr. Mandela occupies a special place in the hearts of South Africans.
The authorities have not given any further information and say they will only release another statement after President Jacob Zuma has been briefed by medical specialists.
A statement from President Zuma’s office said the “love and good wishes of all South Africans and people throughout the world” were with Mr Mandela, and asked for his family to be given privacy.
The statement did not say which hospital he had been admitted to but there are suggestions it was a military hospital in the capital, Pretoria.
Journalists waiting outside one hospital have been told to move away or face arrest.
Mr Mandela had returned to Johannesburg last month from his rural home in the Eastern Cape and in January last year, he received treatment in the city’s Milpark hospital for a serious chest infection.
“I can assure you that the former president is in good spirits and well,” said Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for President Zuma.
He said further information would be released once President Zuma and the Mandela family had received a full medical report from doctors, but that the former president’s life was not in danger.
“This was a long-standing complaint –– nothing that cropped up suddenly and needed emergency attention,” said Mr Maharaj, who was in prison in Robben Island with Mr Mandela.
“But it is an issue that the doctors treating him felt needed specialist attention, and so arrangements were made accordingly.”
He would not confirm reports that Mr Mandela had undergone overnight surgery for a hernia, and appealed for “co-operation from the public and the media so we manage this thing properly”.
The statesman’s eldest granddaughter said she was not immediately concerned about his health.
“I don’t see it as a big thing. When I saw him on Wednesday, he was in good spirits, in perfect health, and the epitome of health really for a man of his age,” Ndileka Mandela told the AFP news agency.
“Grandad rebounded from his illness last year. I don’t see any reason why this should be any different.”
A spokesman for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), also said there was “no need for panic”.
“It was not an emergency admission. It was planned,” Keith Khosa told local media.
Andrew Harding says the government is clearly keen to control the flow of information, after previous alerts about the former leader’s health became the subject of much speculation.
Mr Mandela retired from public life eight years ago - his last public appearance was at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.The Nobel Peace Prize winner is affectionately known in South Africa by his clan name, Madiba.
He spent 27 years in prison for his fight against white minority rule before being released in 1990.
In 1994, he became South Africa’s first black president, stepping down in 1999 after one term.
Source: The Guardian, 26th February 2012.
Abdulmutallab, Nigerian Underwear Bomber to Get Life Sentence
Written by elombah.com
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the privileged son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, returns to federal court in Detroit on Thursday to receive a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, four months after pleading guilty and admitting it was a suicide mission for al-Qaida, elombah.com has learnt.
Abdulmutallab, 25, tried to detonate explosive chemicals that were hidden in his underwear minutes before the plane landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The government says he first performed a ritual in the lavatory — brushing his teeth and perfuming himself — and returned to his seat. The device didn't work as planned, but still produced flame, smoke and panic in the cabin.
On the second day of the trial in October, Abdulmutallab suddenly pleaded guilty to all charges.
In a defiant speech, he said he was carrying a "blessed weapon" to avenge Muslims who have been killed or poorly treated around the world. He admitted he was inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and leading al-Qaida figure in Yemen who was killed by a U.S. drone strike last fall.
"The Quran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them ... an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Abdulmutallab said.
Anthony Chambers, an attorney appointed to assist Abdulmutallab, believes the Nigerian will speak again Thursday but doesn't know what he'll say.
Chambers, meanwhile, is urging U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds to declare that a mandatory life sentence is unconstitutional, claiming it is a cruel punishment in a case where no one but Abdulmutallab was physically hurt. His groin was badly burned.
"Not one passenger lost his or her life. Not one passenger suffered life-threatening injuries," Chambers said.
The government said that is not the threshold.
"Unsuccessful terrorist attacks still engender fear in the broader public, which, after all, is one of their main objectives," prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday. "In addition, the enormous cost of the augmented security measures adopted as a direct result of defendant's unsuccessful terrorist attack are borne by the American public at large in both increased cost, inconvenience and wasted time at airports."
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