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Saturday, February 04, 2012 04:19 GMT

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Mekong Unquiet Over Contain China Moves
Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Six countries that share the Mekong River are being drawn into a development turf war, exposing initiatives by the United States government and its Asian allies – Japan and South Korea – to contain China’s growing influence in the region.
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PORTUGAL
Going Underground in Hard Times
By Mario Queiroz
LISBON - The underground economy in Portugal is booming thanks to the steep increases in taxation and prices demanded by a "troika" of international creditors to address the country's economic crisis.
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JAMAICA
"Mama P" Faces Prejudice, Economic Challenges
Analysis by Zadie Neufville
KINGSTON - Running on promises of job creation, economic growth and wider stakeholder consultations, Jamaica's most popular politician and the country's first female prime minister Portia Simpson Miller swept to power in a victory almost no one had predicted.
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Romanians Discover Street Protest
Analysis by Claudia Ciobanu
WARSAW - For more than a week, thousands have been demonstrating in cities across Romania. Participants from all walks of life bring to the fore the broadest array of demands in what looks like a celebratory discovery of street protest. The main call is against lack of transparency and accountability in decision-making.
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GREECE
Austerity Plan Breaches Last Line of Defence of Greek Workers
By Apostolis Fotiadis
ATHENS - As the Eurozone falls deeper into its sovereign debt crisis, the labour movement in Greece is being cudgelled to its knees by an austerity programme that has so far failed to bring any positive change for the crumbling Mediterranean country.
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EUROPE
Unrest Spreads Eastwards
Analysis by Zoltan Dujisin
BUDAPEST - Protests in Hungary and Romania are the first signs of anti-systemic mobilisation in the Eastern half of the continent. While protests in both countries indicate dissatisfaction with their governments’ authoritarian turn, their origins differ, as does the European Union’s reaction to them.
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EGYPT
Lending to Repression, Again
By Cam McGrath
CAIRO - For three decades Western governments and lending institutions bankrolled a corrupt regime in Egypt that trampled human rights and stifled democracy. Now they appear ready to do it again, say critics of the military council that has ruled since removing president Hosni Mubarak last February.
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HUNGARY
Civil Society Steps in as Opposition
By Zoltan Dujisin
BUDAPEST - The massive overhaul of Hungary’s political system by the conservative Fidesz party is raising fears the country’s days as a liberal democracy may be numbered. With opposition parties powerless, it is civil society that has awakened to support a more participatory democracy.
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U.S.
Protestors Condemn Mining Corporation Suing El Salvador
By Barbara Doherty
WASHINGTON - Protestors rallied in front of World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. today hoping to persuade a tribunal housed there to dismiss a case brought by Pacific Rim Mining Corporation against the government of El Salvador.
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TUNISIA
Neo-Liberalism the Issue, Not Islam
By Jake Lippincott
TUNIS - On the verge of officially forming a coalition government to run the country and rewrite the nation’s pre-revolution constitution, Tunisia’s dominant, Islamist political party Ennahda has come under fire for its economic neo-liberalism, both from opponents and from coalition partners.
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HUNGARY
‘Unorthodoxy’ Fails, IMF Returns
By Zoltan Dujisin
BUDAPEST - A year after slamming the door on the International Monetary Fund and announcing that a small country like Hungary could pursue an independent economic policy, conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been forced to kneel to the IMF and ask for help. Was there ever an alternative?
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Aid Not Enough to Fight AIDS
By Miriam Gathigah
BUSAN - Billions of people are marking yet another World AIDS Day - this one themed "Getting to Zero", for zero AIDS-related deaths, zero new infections, and zero stigma and discrimination.
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For Big Financial Institutions, Profit Trumps Women's Rights
By Kanya D'Almeida*
WASHINGTON - This year, for the first time, the World Bank dedicated its 2012 annual flagship World Development Report to women as indispensable players in the global economy and launched a media campaign to "think equal".
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To Women's Rights, Financial Institutions Pay Lip Service Only
By Kanya D'Almeida*
WASHINGTON - On day seven of "the 16 days of activism to end violence against women" campaign, women's rights organisations around the world are asking what the biggest international financial institutions (IFIs) are really doing to protect women's rights, which are under daily assault.
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Aid Not Effectively Reaching Africa’s Poor
By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI - Kenyan tea and coffee farmers remain disgruntled about the minimal profits they make selling their cash crops, the country’s leading foreign currency earners, as the government receives millions in funding for training and subsidies that most of these farmers are yet to see materialise.
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KYRGYZSTAN
Bishkek Struggling to Find Right Economic Path
By Nate Schenkkan*
BISHKEK - In a small office on the second floor of the Kyrgyzstan Stock Exchange, a lone administrator checked the time and looked up from the computer: "Two o'clock. No applications received. Auction for sale of Zalkar Bank is declared invalid."
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They underpin the world's financial architecture, with the power to revamp whole economies and channel billions of development dollars each year. But the so-called International Financial Institutions -- the World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund and regional investment banks -- face a new era of public scrutiny and challenges to their relevancy.

How are the IFIs responding to growing demands from the South and civil society groups for greater democracy and accountability? And are they living up to their stated mission of promoting economic prosperity for all? IPS reports.