UN call to reform IMF and WB will fall on deaf ears "The world institutions created generations ago must be made more accountable, more representative and more effective," UN Secretary General Ban said at the opening of a three-day meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on the global financial crisis and its impact on the developing world. "I regret that financial institutional reform has divided (U.N.) member states," he said.…

Anti-Islamic parties do well in European elections The Dutch politician Geert Wilders' Freedom Party won 17 percent of the vote European Union parliamentary elections in the Netherlands. Wilders, who has compared the Koran to Mein Kampf, campaigned on an anti-EU and anti-immigrant platform. The Freedom Party finished second to the governing Christian Democratic Alliance, which garnered 19.9% of the vote. Naftaniel, a Dutch Jew whose organization monitors anti-Semitism and racism,…

BBC is ready to broadcast a gay love affair involving Muslims In a further effort by the British establishment to raise the bar for Muslims to prove their loyalty to Britain, the BBC will use its flagship programme EastEnders to tackle a storyline which will feature a Muslim man embarking upon a gay affair. The Muslim character Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott, will fall for openly gay man Christian…

No green shoots only economic misery Despite all the talk in some western capitals about how their economies are showing signs of recovery the exact opposite is transpiring. This week the US Federal Reserve forecast predicts that the US economy will contract by as much as 2% this year, an increase from the 1.3% contraction previously estimated. In addition, recovery in 2010 and 2011 will also be slower than first…