International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

By Paul Rhys in Africa on January 17th, 2010
Photograph by Paul Rhys

The day's experience is summed up as a petrol tanker pulls into the oil refinery on an industrial estate beneath the cliffs of Luanda's giant Boavista slum.

As the driver slows for the gate to be opened, a boy of about 12 runs up with a bucket, wrenches open a tap on the lorry's flank and takes a precious few seconds worth of gushing petrol before sprinting away again.

It's not a job, exactly. But the contents sloshing in the bucket are worth more than many people will earn in Angola today.

People in musseques like Boavista see very little return from the 1.8 million barrels of oil produced by the southwest African country every 24 hours, with the World Bank estimating that two-thirds of the population earn less than $2 in that time.

By Omar Chatriwala in Americas on January 13th, 2010
Photo by Carel Pedre via Twitter

At 21:53GMT on Tuesday, the Caribbean nation of Haiti was hit by its strongest earthquake in more than 200 years, causing what is being described as "a catastrophe of major proportions".

Heavy casualties are feared after numerous buildings were levelled by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

This blog post, previously named "Haiti Earthquake: Latest updates", followed events in the immediate aftermath of quake.

Update | Latest blog posts:

By Alan Fisher in Europe on December 9th, 2009
Photo by AFP

It's very rare in journalism and politics that there's an accidential leak.  Normally documents find their way to their intended recipients for a reason.  And that's what's happened here in Copenhagen.

The leak was of the so-called 'Danish Text', a set of proposals which the developed countries - the world's richest nations -  intended to table in the last few days of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change. The idea of harmony, of 192 nations moving towards agreement, was seriously damaged by the document.

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on November 5th, 2009
Photo by Getty Images

"Fears of a New Bubble as Cash Pours In" declares the front page of the Wall Street Journal Asia  (print copy) today.

"Concerns are mounting that efforts by governments and central banks to stoke a recovery will create a nasty side effect: asset bubbles in real-estate, stock and currency markets, especially in Asia."

The article quotes a World Bank report warning:

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on October 11th, 2009
Photo by Getty Images

From deep within the offices of economists, traders and think tanks around the world, a faint but familiar sound is heard. Amid the muted grumbling and huffing, you'll catch snatches of terse conversation echoing around the corridors containing phrases like "currency manipulation",  "global re-balancing" and even "trade war".

At government level, the subject also occasionally breaks out into the open,  as at the G20 meetings in Pittsburgh and, more recently, the IMF/World Bank meetings in Istanbul. But here the message is much more diplomatic, and can be summarised thus: "the world needs a new framework for strong and balanced global growth".

It sounds reasonable enough doesn't it?  But not in Beijing, where the message translates as something far less benign.

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