Euro drops after an International Monetary Fund official worries about continued investor skepticism.

G-20 finance officials struggle to come up with "indicative guidelines" for managing global imbalances.

Don't treat Greece and Portugal like Ukraine or Argentina, says EU president.

Haiti's president casts doubt on Organization of American States report on last year's elections.

World Bank finalizes $1.7 billion loan package to build roads and battle cyclones in India.

Another abduction of U.N. personnel in Darfur.

The battle for Cote d'Ivoire, seen through a financial lens.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is worried about Kazakhstan.

Hot potato: Senegal wants the African Union to handle the case of exiled Chadian dictator.

International Monetary Fund board approves funds for Georgia, warns about need for foreign investment.

U.N. peacekeepers ambushed in Cote d'Ivoire.

Russia says Iran's nuclear facilities invite is interesting -- but can't replace IAEA inspections.

China would like to "participate actively" in any new euro stabilization activity, signals willingness to buy Spanish bonds.

Will the United States veto Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements?

Hillary Clinton warns that attempts to derail U.N.-backed Lebanon tribunal will fail.

World Bank expects global GDP growth to slow slightly in 2011.

Jimmy Carter says Southern Sudan might not sign on to the International Criminal Court, so as to keep dialogue open with Bashir.

Do Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund have an unhealthy relationship?

U.N. peacekeeping chief wants more troops for Cote d'Ivoire; Security Council sounds positive.

Good Euro news: New Euro-bonds sell out in an hour; plus, China still likes Spanish bonds.

Bad Euro news: Euro-zone retail sales drop unexpectedly.

A full plate: World Bank president wants the G-20 to help stabilize food prices.

Kidnapped U.N. employee in Darfur is released.

Indonesia is hosting an ASEAN ministerial retreat next week.

A report on the jostling and secret negotiations over the international tribunal for Lebanon.

Organization of American States report on Haiti elections expected soon.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn discusses the IMF's "triple comeback." Plus, Portugal is encouraged by a laudatory IMF report.

Hope: Oxfam calls Cancún "an important chapter in the epic story to tackle global climate change."

Funny money: Sarkozy wants IMF "special drawing rights" to play a greater role in the international monetary system.

African Union drafts model law criminalizing terrorism and banning ransom payments.

Opium on the rise in Southeast Asia, says new U.N. drugs report.

A look at Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's new brand of multilateralism.

What is NATO's real aim? asks (wacky) op-ed in Pravda.

German finance minister argues that "limited sovereignty" is the wave of the future.

As pressure mounts, Eurozone finance ministers begin to think about plans B, C, and D; plus, Rogoff says debt restructuring will be tough to avoid.

The P5 +1 are talking with Iran today.

The African Union's Mbeki struggles to mediate election dispute in Ivory Coast.

U.N. peacekeepers won't be safe if there is strife in Lebanon, warns prominent politician.

In Poland, Medvedev says Russia must be included in NATO missile defense program. Plus, at EU-Russia summit, Medvedev hopes to seal WTO negotiations with Europe.

With cash from Warren Buffett, International Atomic Energy Agency approves plans for nuclear fuel bank.

Ireland finalizes $90 billion deal with the EU and IMF; plus, Eurozone endorses IMF approach on bondholders.

U.N. cites "numerous incidents" during Haiti elections; no public report yet from OAS and EU election monitors.

Top U.N. envoy reports on his talks with Myanmar's military government.

U.N. marks International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Sudan announces boycott of European Union-African Union summit, citing Europe's "colonial mentality."

Will the next head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe be Turkish?

World Bank official wants to boost African power.

One of the World Bank's most popular publications is under fire -- from inside Bank headquarters.

For the last eight years, the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the Bank focused on private-sector issues, has published with the Bank itself a report titled Doing Business. It ranks countries on several indicators, including how easy it is to start up a business, enforce contracts, get credit, and comply with regulations. The 2011 report was launched last week. Singapore topped the rankings, while Kazakhstan and Rwanda were most improved. As it does every year, the report got major media attention around the world. The IFC believes the report has been a catalyst for countries to streamline their procedures and create more business-friendly environments.

But the report also apparently sparked a heated meeting of the World Bank's executive directors last month. By most accounts, the BRIC countries led the charge against the publication. None of the BRICs did particularly well in the study. China came in at 79th, Russia at 123th, and Brazil at 127th. India brought up the BRIC rear at 134th. Rogerio Studart, who represents Brazil and several other countries on the Bank's board, told me the report is rife with methodological and data problems. He points to an independent review conducted by the Bank in 2008, which contained a number of criticisms and suggestions for improvement. More fundamentally, Studart believes the report is ideological and elevates a certain regulatory approach to an unwarranted level of importance.

I've always been struck by the exuberance of the propaganda they made out of it and the pressure they would put on some governments by using the rankings to adopt reforms, as if those reforms would solve some fundamental problems that in my view they could not solve. Reducing the number of procedures and the number of days to open up a company -- this is always helpful. But portraying that as a way to create more jobs is a total jump.

Studart vows to keep up the fight against the Bank's association with the report. "As a shareholder, I have a fiduciary responsibility to say that this has a reputation effect that I cannot accept," he said. "This is doing a disservice for the World Bank and for the shareholders." Studart believes that he and other critics are making progress and notes that some new voices on the board objected in this year's debate.

The criticism has the IFC worried. "I worry when you have important board members like that who are not fully behind a report," says Neil Gregory, director of indicators and analysis for the institution. He attributes much of the discomfort to the ranking component, which is quite unusual in Bank reports. "Because it's one of the few products the Bank does that ranks countries -- and ranks all countries globally -- it does attract a certain amount of controversy," he says. "There are those voices on the Board and beyond the Board who don't like the Bank publishing products which have rankings in them."

Gregory traveled recently to China to try to allay concerns and will be headed to Brazil soon.

The Bretton Woods Project, a London-based activist group that monitors the IMF and World Bank, is skeptical of the IMF's recent governance reforms. Managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn hailed the measures as a "historic" shift of voting power and board seats toward the emerging economies and developing world. BWP argues that the IMF fudged some of the numbers by classifying several rich countries as developing.

Like the World Bank's reforms earlier in the year...the IMF has included South Korea and Singapore in the group of emerging markets and developing countries benefitting from the shift. This is despite the IMF's own flagship analytical report, the World Economic Outlook (WEO), classifying Korea and Singapore as "advanced economies". This misleading classification has added 0.6 percentage points to the shift. By the WEO definitions, advanced economies experience a net loss of only 2 per cent, far shy of the 6 per cent being reported in the press.

Nor is the activist group pleased that the United States retains its unilateral veto over major IMF decisions. So far, so good. This is all consistent with the activist community's broad complaint that the IMF and World Bank remain, for the most part, instruments for the rich countries to foist their preferences on the rest of the world. I don't necessarily agree with the argument or its implications; plenty of what these institutions do isn't foisting at all (and plenty of the foisting they actually do seems sensible to me). But I understand the logic of the position.

Where I lose the activist thread is on the issue of the environment. Like other activist groups, the BWP has hammered the Bank recently for funding coal projects and engaging in other activity of questionable environmental virtue. At least as far as I discern, there's no real recognition that more developing world power at the IMF and World Bank will almost certainly mean less emphasis on the environment, and certainly less attention to issues like climate change. The BRIC countries, in particular, have banded together to defend projects like South Africa's coal-fired power plant. When I've asked NGOs and activists about this, they respond that the positions of the big developing countries don't accurately represent the views of the people, who, they insist, care more about environmental issues. Maybe they're right. But IMF and Bank board meetings convene with representatives of real governments, not some Platonic ideal of what developing world governments should look like.

However slowly, the Bank and the Fund are changing. And it's not simply a matter of voting shares, it's also a question of assertiveness. I've heard from a number of sources that developing world executive directors are much more prepared and interventionist than they used to be. This trend will almost certainly continue. It seems much less certain that the activist community will be pleased with the result.

IMF insists that the United States needs a "credible plan" to cut deficits and notes that Fed monetary expansionism will increase capital flows to developing world.

NATO experts consider shrinking defense budgets; meanwhile, leftist politicians plan an alternative NATO summit.

Charlemagne worries about the power of European constitutional court judges.

EU border guards arrive to stem flow of immigrants into Greece.

Mutual, I'm sure: Belarus's Lukashenko can't imagine his country in the EU.

Irony watch: China accuses the United States of reverting to age of "planned economies."  Brazil is also peeved at U.S. monetary policy and will have words with Washington at the G-20; meanwhile, big business wants the G-20 to pressure China on rare earth exports.

Conference call: the P5 + 1 talk about next steps on Iran.

International contact group on Somalia piracy meets -- in Copenhagen.

OECD reveals that its information system was hacked.

Organization of American States tries to mediate Nicaragua-Costa Rica dispute.

The veto on his mind: Ban Ki-moon stays mum on political prisoners during Beijing trip.

Obama and Lee pledge to finalize U.S.-Korea free trade agreement in advance of G-20 summit.

IMF expected to vote Friday on governance reform package.

Speaking of emerging country investment in Africa, IMF chief warns of a "new form of colonialism."

How much will WTO accession actually help the Russian economy?

NATO's secretary-general arrives in Moscow today for pre-Lisbon summit talks.

Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff may accompany Lula to the G-20 summit.

Eyes on EU accession, Serbia hunts for Ratko Mladic. Meanwhile, French courts are considering several Rwanda extraditions, including one to the International Criminal Court.

Romanian government survives no-confidence vote -- and improves odds of keeping IMF loans.

Fireworks: NATO responds to Gorbachev's gloom and doom on Afghanistan.

East African summit moved to help Kenya avoid awkward ICC questions.

Baroness Ashton lays out her vision of the EU External Action Service. 

U.N. General Assembly again condemns U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Georgia keeps up tough talk on Russian WTO accession.

Japan prepares a Plan B in case the G-20 fails.

Interpol opens a regional bureau in Buenos Aires.

The price of international carbon reduction credits is in flux.

The IMF taps a Portuguese economist to head its Europe department. Meanwhile, the World Bank prez talks biodiversity.

Former top IAEA official opens up about his work; plus, it's disarmament week at the United Nations.

Can't live with them, can't live without them: Concern as U.N. peacekeepers in Central African Republic pack up.

Mikhail Gorbachev warns: NATO victory in Afghanistan is impossible.

Does the public care about climate change negotiations anymore?

Russia reportedly skeptical of adding security issues to G-20 agenda. But U.S. President Barack Obama may discuss rare earth concerns with China.

International Criminal Court rebukes Commonwealth head for going soft on duty to arrest indictees.

The EU reaches agreement on hedge fund regulations.

India ready to sign international convention on nuclear damage.

An "uneasy truce": analyzing the results of the G20 meeting of finance ministers. The outcome appeared to be good enough for the markets.

Celebrating U.N. Day in Sudan.

Feeling jilted by Obama, is Europe flirting with Moscow?

Survey says: The Czechs still believe in NATO.

He knows of what he speaks: Sarkozy calls a Security Council without a permanent African seat a "scandal."

A good analysis of the IMF's new centrality -- and new dangers.

Fault lines emerge on possible EU treaty revisions; meanwhile, there's some movement on Serbia's bid to join the European Union.

ASEAN gets a talking to on Myanmar's elections, and its own policy of non-interference.

U.N. negotiations on combating animal and plant extinction struggle.

Analysts downgrade the chance of a currency war, citing IMF economic diplomacy; meanwhile, the IMF applauds China's recent interest rate hike.

Beijing's bullets? More on the saga of Chinese-made ammunition in Darfur -- and the U.N. response.

A dose of skepticism about the chances for a G-20 grand bargain.

Charles Kupchan elaborates on the recent Moscow-Paris-Berlin summit.

The OECD grades the United States' anti-bribery efforts.

Hezbollah blasts U.N. report on Lebanon's political climate. Plus, do we finally have a real U.N. Security Council?

The multinational effort to identify banks too-big-to-fail might just be failing.