As UNDP Re-Directs to Airline Ads, No Answer on $10 to Hear Clark, UN Responds to FUNCA, But Is Australia on Afghanistan or Zimbabwe in UNSC?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 4 -- While the UN Development Program has not explained a $10 charge to hear Administrator Helen Clark speak, after 24 hours, its Liberia website's "Delivering as One" section is re-directing traffic to airline advertisements.

  While the UN's main Twitter account @UN quickly responded to the Free UN Coalition for Access when @FUNCA_info raised this problem -- the UN deleted its own link, which it said worked when it had been "scheduled" --UNDP has still not respond on that or the charging of money to hear its Administrator speak.

  Helen Clark, who will apparently be in her native New Zealand from July past the middle of August, also has not explained the $5 charge for children to hear her on August 7 at the Baycourt Centennial Theatre in Tauranga City, New Zealand. 

  Rather, Clark has promoted her television appearances there and re-tweeted all praise and mentions.

  The advertisement for the August 7 talk says Clark "will be speaking about her work as head of the United Nations Development Program, the peak global body that coordinates development strategy globally, and works in over 170 countries to empower people’s lives while helping nations become more resilient. With a budget of over $US 5 billion a year."

  Five billion dollars a year but Administrator Helen Clark virtually never holds a question and answer press conference at UN Headquarters in New York. Last year after an inquiryby Inner City Press, she did disavow a previous award she'd given to a tobacco firm. 

  That came through UNDP lead spokesperson Satinder Bindra, to whom along with Clark's "personal" spokesperson Christina LoNigro and Abdel-Rahman Ghandour the Free UN Coalition for Access has sent these questions:

"This is a timely request for an explanation of how (or if) it is consistent with UN system principles and rules for UNDP Administrator Helen Clark's upcoming talk "about her work as head of the United Nations Development Program" to have an entrance fee of $10, and even $5 for children:

http://www.ticketdirect.co.nz/event/details/77032/helen-clark-challenges-and-achievements-in-making-a-better-world

"Given that this for-pay event is impending, please provide the requested explanation upon receipt / as quickly as possible and confirm receipt of this request for explanation.

"This is also a formal request that Administrator Clark belatedly hold a question and answer press conference in UN Headquarters in New York, and for an explanation of why she has done even fewer of these than Kemal Dervis or Ad Melkert. Thank you in advance."

  As said 24 hours ago, we will publish any substantive response -- one would think, well in advance of the August 7 event, which is listed (tellingly) as "sold out." Will those people be given their money back?

  Meanwhile, hats off to @UN for responding so quickly. Hats off, too, to UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant, who replied to a question from Inner City Press about the attack on the Indian consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, if only to refer the question to the UN Mission of Australia, which was assigned the lead or "pen" in the Security Council about Afghanistan.

  No reply yet from them - but from Australia itself comes news, from foreign minister Bob Carr, that Australia wants the elections in Zimbabwe re-run. Will they raise that in the UN Security Council? It's been asked. Watch this site.

Footnote: The quick response, and "thanks," of @UN to the Free UN Coalition for Access stands in contrast to that of the sub-unit Department of Public Information, which has threatened to suspend or withdraw the accreditation of Inner City Press for merely hanging a sign of the Free UN Coalition for Access on the door of its shared office, click here to view.

   FUNCA asked questions that have not been answered, about this and that, and noted that the UN or DPI can't outlaw an organization like the Free UN Coalition for Accesswhich would, has and will if necessary do its work without DPI. Watch this site.

   

As Egypt Bans Yemen Nobel Winner Tawakkol Karman, Will Ban Ki-moon's UN Speak Up or Try to Silence as Before?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 4 -- As drones overfly Sana'a, Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman has been banned from entering Egypt to join those who say they are protesting a coup d'etat.

  Since UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with much fanfare put Tawakkol Karmen on his Post-2015 Development panel (while his Secretariat threatened the Press for signing her into the UN where she dared speak at the UN Security Council stakeout, click here for that), Inner City Press has asked Ban's three spokespeople for comment on her detention.

It will be, for the UN, a gut-check on the "Arab Spring." Many expected Ban to follow the African Union and call the military ouster of elected president Morsi a coup. But Ban did not.

A high ranking UN official, nonetheless afraid of retaliation for speaking on the record, told Inner City Press this silence harmed what was left of the UN's moral capital, to call things by their name. If the US called it a coup, financing would be stopped a matter of law. But why would the UN follow suit? How can the UN now denounce other future coups?

On the day Inner City Press signed Tawakkol Karman into the UN, at her request, the Security Council was considering Yemen. She stepped to the UNTV microphone and spoke; halfway through the Council ambassador in the lead (or "with the pen") on Yemen, the UK's Mark Lyall Grant, came out and stood by - smiling. (The generally responsive Lyall Grant has also be asked if the UK has any comment.)

But after the UN initially didn't air the footage of Tawakkol Karman speaking about Yemen - they blamed this on a cut cable - they told Inner City Press its accreditation was in jeopardy for signing her in.

Now the same Department of Public Information says Inner City Press accreditation can be suspended or withdrawn for hanging the sign of a new organization, the Free UN Coalition for Access, on the door of its shared office. According to the UN DPI, there can be only one media organization in the UN - one that it uses for its own purposes. One party systems? No comment on coups or detentions and banning? Watch this site.

Footnote: On the attack in Afghanistan on the Indian consulate in Jalalabad in which at least 12 were killed including nine children, the UK's Mark Lyall Grant told Inner City Press the UK is open to the UNSC statement, that Australia is in the lead and will probably look to the Indian mission to the UN for guidance. Click here for that.

   

UN Won't Say if Mary Robinson or Ban Ki-moon Knew of DRC Deadline, "Fiasco" Alleged, Ladsous & AFP

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- After UN Peacekeeping run by Herve Ladsous announced a 48 hour "ultimatum," in New York several Security Council members told Inner City Press that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon or at least his Great Lakes envoy Mary Robinson hadn't known of and weren't happy with the threat.

Inner City Press went to the August 2 UN noon briefing, after being "shut down" on the topic on August 1 by Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky, and asked:

Inner City Press: On DRC, the ultimatum or 48-hour deadline, questions have arisen, including here, among Security Council members, of whether the Secretary-General and Mary Robinson, were they given any prior notice of that? There’s been some criticism of the way it was announced from the ICGLR [International Conference on the Great Lakes Region]. So, just to understand how these things occur, I know that missions may have total independence, but was the Secretary-General and was Mary Robinson, as his envoy to the Great Lakes, were they told in advance of this impending 48-hour deadline?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, missions don’t have total independence. I think you understand that, Matthew. They operate under Security Council mandate, and the Force Commander and the Special Representative for the Mission have clear reporting lines, so I don’t think that you should see this as some kind of autonomous decision-making.

Inner City Press: one follow-up on that because I understand that there is a reporting line, there is a mandate; I guess the question is, someone on the Council said that they don’t micromanage these things, so my question to you is a decision such as to announce a 48-hour deadline to have all weapons out of that area, is that the kind of thing that gets checked at Headquarters before it’s announced, or is that viewed as simply as implementation of a mandate given from New York and can be announced?

Spokesperson: I think it would depend on the circumstances. I don’t think that I am in a position here to lay down the certain policy on how Force Commanders take decisions in the field. When I say that they have a reporting line to the Security Council, it’s obvious that the Security Council is not sitting there giving instructions every day. I mean that there is a clear mandate provided, in this case, not least, for protection of civilians in part. Therefore, the need for the Mission to carry out the operation that it’s carrying out is to ensure that civilians are better protected in an area where they have suffered enormously. Let me go to other people and I will come back to you.

  While appreciated, especially after the August 1 "shut down" (video here), it still didn't answer: were Ban Ki-moon and Mary Robinson told of the ultimatum in advance?

  Department of Peacekeeping Operations sources who,unlike Herve Ladsous actually answer Inner City Press' questions, said that Ladsous' spokesperson Keiran Dwyer "screwed up" by distributing the MONUSCO press release and map in New York, "making it a big deal than it was, and a fiasco."

  It's ironic, because Dwyer and the three people who work for him have not responded now in five weeks to Inner City Press' simple request for yes or no if DPKO supports units of the Congolese Army named in the UN Group of Experts report as supporting the FDLR, recruiting child soldiers, raping and looting.

One DPKO spokesperson said they would answer after that weekend, five weeks ago. Then, nothing. Finally Nesirky said that DPKO will not answer about unit numbers. But the numbers, like the 41st Battalion implicated in the 135 rapes in Minova, ARE listed in MONUSCO's own press conference documents.

Meanwhile Agence France Presse today ran a story citing the"UN panel of experts" report, the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online in June -- but only on M23 and Rwanda, no mention for example of its statements on Congolese Army units / commanders supporting the FDLR units.

  Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop DPKO, previously served on an AFP managerial board; at the UN, he summons AFP and a handful of others to hand out (false) answers to questions he refuses to answer when Inner City Press asks them.

Click here for the "Ladsous in the Hallway" (with AFP, Reuters and Voice of America) video. Recently at the Security Council stakeout, Ladsous' mic-grabbing spokesperson brushed off the head of the Darfur mission to insist that AFP be given the microphone, click here for that.

  Given that Ladsous was France's Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo, and now (mis) manages an all-African Intervention Brigade there -- some question whether if should be recused from this whole matter. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: Of $10 Charge to hear UNDP's Helen Clark Speak in NZ, Like UN's Pay to Ask Through UNCA, Free UN Coalition for Access Questions

At UNDP, Pay to Listen to Clark, Pay to Ask through UNCA, FUNCA Fights 

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- How can people be charged money, $10 for adults and even $5 for children, to hear a UN system official speak about their work for the UN?

  The Free UN Coalition for Access put this question to the UN Development Program's three top spokespeople regarding UNDP Administrator Helen Clark's upcoming August 7 talk at the Baycourt Centennial Theatre in Tauranga City, New Zealand.

  The advertisement says Clark "will be speaking about her work as head of the United Nations Development Program, the peak global body that coordinates development strategy globally, and works in over 170 countries to empower people’s lives while helping nations become more resilient. With a budget of over $US 5 billion a year."

  Five billion dollars a year but Administrator Helen Clark virtually never holds a question and answer press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

    Last year after an inquiry by Inner City Press, she did disavow a previous business award she'd given to a tobacco firm. That came through UNDP lead spokesperson Satinder Bindra, to whom along with Clark's "personal" spokesperson Christina LoNigro and Abdel-Rahman Ghandour the Free UN Coalition for Access has sent these questions:

"This is a timely request for an explanation of how (or if) it is consistent with UN system principles and rules for UNDP Administrator Helen Clark's upcoming talk "about her work as head of the United Nations Development Program" to have an entrance fee of $10, and even $5 for children, here.

"Given that this for-pay event is impending, please provide the requested explanation upon receipt / as quickly as possible and confirm receipt of this request for explanation.

"This is also a formal request that Administrator Clark belatedly hold a question and answer press conference in UN Headquarters in New York, and for an explanation of why she has done even fewer of these than Kemal Dervis or Ad Melkert. Thank you in advance."

  We will publish any substantive response -- one would think, well in advance of the August 7 event, which is listed (tellingly) as "sold out." Will those people be given their money back?

  There is a disturbing trend of money being charged in the UN system, that the Free UN Coalition for Access is looking into. At UN press conference, the UN Correspondents Association as it becomes increasingly discredited for, among other things, spying for the UN (story, audio of UNCA's first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters,document with his "you didn't get this from me"), fights ever harder to be given the first question.

  But since UNCA 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS News has said that this first question can be given to ANY dues paying member of UNCA, even one who ran for but was not elected to the Executive Committee, it is clearly a situation of pay to play: a person getting a first question at the UN in exchange for paying money. Where is the Office of Legal Affairs? The Ethics Office? OIOS?

  Also the UN gives large room S-310 to UNCA, for briefings they publicize only to those who pay them money. Even member states have started to complain about this. But those in charge of this increasingly discredited partnership, the UN Censorship Alliance, are apparently out of touch with member states and the rules of the UN that at least some of them used to previously seek to enforce.

This charging of money to children to hear a UN system official speak takes place outside of UN premises, far from New York in Helen Clark's native New Zealand. Watch this site.

   

On Syria, As Father Paolo Dall'Oglio Goes Missing in Raqa, Jarba's Faux UN Briefing Compared

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- With word, even from Pope Francis, that Father Paolo Dall'Oglio has likely been kidnapped in Raqa, Syria by the opposition Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, we turn back nearly a year to August 6, 2012 when Father Paolo, a Jesuit priest, came to the UN in New York.

  He spoke not inside the UN building but at a hotel across the street. Inner City Press asked him questions, along with media from Italy and Saudi Arabia, and the US State Department controlled Voice of America.

  Father Paolo said, honestly, that Saudi Arabia's funneling of arms into Syria was a regional strategy against Shi'a Iran.

  He did not, however, acknowledge the equally political role of Herve Ladsous, the fourth French UN Peacekeeping chief in a row, in killing off the UN observer mission, and more recently refusing request that he investigate a role from Qatar in the kidnapping of "his" peacekeepers. Nor would he cite Qatar.

Flash-forward to late July 2013, when the Saudi-supporter Jarba oppositionist groups came to New York. 

   In order to make it "more UN," instead of holding a press conference across that street as Father Paolo had done, or in the alternative having Saudi Arabia sponsor a session in the UN's Press Briefing Room 257, Jarba contracted with the UN Correspondents Association and held a faux "UN briefing."

  It was only publicized to those who pay UNCA money; since UNCA was outed as spying for the UN (story, audio of UNCA's first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, document with his "you didn't get this from me"), this is less and less palatable. The UN has yet to answer, including questions asked on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access before the faux UN briefing, and at the next chance at noon. From the July 26, 2013, UN noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: currently, there is a meeting in the North Lawn Building of the Syrian coalition with members of the Security Council. I’ve seen, although it wasn’t sent to me, a notice of a press conference in the UN building by the Syrian Coalition in room 310 of the United Nations, and I wanted you to describe what this press conference is. Is it a UN press conference? Is it only open to individuals who have paid money in order to attend it? And I saw one of the speakers described as the Special Representative of the Syrian Coalition to the United Nations, and I wanted to know, is there such a thing? Is there official representation to the United Nations by the Syrian opposition and on what basis does the UN give a large room to the UN Correspondents Association for meetings of this type, which they only promote to members that pay them money?

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Well, I’ll have to check on that, Matthew. I don’t have the information with me, but we’ll check on that and get back to you.

Inner City Press: Okay, I’d really like an answer soon, before the meeting takes place would be ideal.

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Well, we’re going to try.

  Neither before the meeting nor as of this writing more than a week later was any answer given by the UN. They are flim-flam; Father Paolo? Well, he is something else. Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino has said there is as yet "no news." Watch this site.

   

On Sri Lanka, UN's Ban Ki-moon Has Nothing on Army Shots in Weliweriya, On Report Next Month, Press Freedom?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- The day after the Sri Lankan army opened fire on protesters in Weliweriya, and amid threats against journalists seeking to critically cover the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo, Inner City Press put these and one more Sri Lanka questions to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky.

  Four weeks ago Ban's deputy Jan Eliasson told Inner City Press he was near to completing his report on what the UN should learn from its actions (and inaction) during the slaughter in Sri Lanka in 2008 and 2009.

  On August 2, as it had tried to on August 1, Inner City Press asked Nesirky for the status of the report, and if and when it will be made public. Video here, from Minute 13:43.

Nesirky said the report has recently been given to the Secretary General, and he is "studying it." He expects the Secretary General to have more to say about it -- "next month."

Today is only August 2. Can it take four weeks to study this report? On the well documented live fire shooting, involving as should be of interest to Ban's UN ground water contaminated by Global Compact member Hayleys, Nesirky said he had nothing. Maybe next month?

We intend to be here, despite another threat by the UN Department of Public Information to suspend or withdraw Inner City Press' accreditation for merely hanging the sign of the new media freedom organization the Free UN Coalition for Access on the door to its shared office. Ironically, Nesirky told Inner City Press on Friday that Ban thinks journalists should be able to do their work without obstacle or intimidation. Really? Watch this site.

   

UN Tells ICP "Its" Radio Okapi Calmed DR Congo Protesters, Of Ladsous Drone Info Withheld

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- After two Democratic Republic of the Congo question were posed at Friday's noon briefing by Inner City Press, one was answered in writing by the MONUSCO mission less than three hours later (below).

  While appreciated, this just further confirms that the UN Office of the Spokesperson could and should have done the same on Inner City Press' July 31 question of who got the drone contract that UN Peacekeeping head Herve Ladsous bragged about signing.

On that, the UN Spokesperson's Office waited a full 24 hours until the August 1 noon briefing and then read the answer out -- Selex ES Falco -- such that, for example, the stenographers at Reuters who didn't even come to the briefing could put the information out without any background.

  When did the Spokesperson's Office GET the answer to Inner City Press' July 31 question? Why did it wait, unlike here, until the next day's noon briefing to read it out?

  It has been noted that the Spokesperson used to work at Reuters. Also relevant is Ladsous' refusal to answer Inner City Press questions -- today's answer is said to come "from MONUSCO." Here it is:

Subject: Your question on MONUSCO
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 2:08 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question at the noon briefing on Gama, we have the following information from the UN Mission, MONUSCO:

MONUSCO confirms that there were demonstrations in Goma today, with protesters calling for MONUSCO to extend the Security Zone announced earlier in the week, by which the Congolese Armed Forces are being supported by MONUSCO to protect civilians in a densely populated area around Goma and Sake.

The Mission confirms that the situation in Goma is now calm after talks with civil society groups, as well as extensive outreach through the Mission's radio station, Radio Okapi, with the Governor of North Kivu and civil society leaders giving interviews and reaching out to the population.

  One surmises that this is an answer that the UN likes giving: they could cite to it if they start shooting up the place in the north, saying that "civil society" asked them to do it.

  It is also noteworthy that MONUSCO calmed things down by using "Mission's radio station, Radio Okapi" -- so much for the (false) claims of independence.

  But mostly, for now, we take from this that the UN Spokesperson's Office knows how to email an answer to the media which asked the question -- but when the answer was important, news-making, it didn't do so for Inner City Press, but rather services Reuters and others.

   Reuters UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau has been shown to have leaked to the UN's top accreditation official an internal anti-Press document of the UN Correspondents Association, three minutes after promising he would not. This is, in essence, spying for the UN.  Story here,Charbonneau audio here, document here.

Ladsous made it clear, only if Press coverage of him was positive would he answer questions. Now in what we call a process of Ladsousification, this is spreading in the UN. For example, OCHA said nothing when MSF complained that the Intervention Brigade would undermine humanitarian independence.

A big question now is did Ladsous' DPKO tell Ban Ki-moon (and / or Mary Robinson) before announcing the 48 hour ultimatum. This was asked, at Friday's improved noon briefing, and we will have more on these questions. Watch this site.

   

Argentina's UN Security Council Month Has Latin Groups like CELAC, Class, May Have Congo- But No CAR Resolution?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- The first thing people noticed about Ambassador María Cristina Perceval's UN press conference Friday on the Security Council's program of work for her month as president was that she spoke entirely in Spanish.

  Of course, Spanish is not only one of the six official languages of the United Nations -- it is also the second most active language among tweeting diplomats, far outpacing French which France still claims is the language of diplomacy.

  The second thing people noticed, beyond some long impassioned answers about Argentina's history, was that María Cristina Perceval was classy. Before and after Inner City Press asked about the Malvinas or Falkland Islands and the UN's ultimatum in the Congo, nearly all of the questions were about Syria, and all pointing one way.

  When another journalist dared ask about the UN taking sides, in Iraq ten years ago and Libya more recently, many "correspondents" tried to shout the questions down. María Cristina Perceval on the other hand was classy, only asking that the question be "a bit shorter," making a small space between her thumb and forefinger.

  Inner City Press, after thanking Perceval on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access (in Spanish) and expressing hope that she do many question and answer stakeouts during the month, asked her if the MONUSCO mission checked with the Council before issuing its 48 hour ultimatum for groups to disarm between Goma and Sake in Eastern Congo.

  The answer appears to be no: Perceval said the Security Council sets the mandate, then it is up to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to implement it.

  But, we note, when DPKO is handed over to a single country four times in a row, as with France, and has culminated in a person who represented France in the Security Council during the Rwanda genocide and argued for the escape of genocidaires into Eastern Congo, isn't this an invitation for problems?

María Cristina Perceval said the Council may meet on the topic in August; for now it is only in the footnotes. Yes, an invitation for problems.

Inner City Press had wanted to asked Perceval about itsexclusive report of August 1, that France because of vacations says it will NOT be drafting a Central African Republic resolution this month. Given other officials' statements, for example the EU's Kristalina Georgieva, talking and writing about the plight of CAR, can one country's mission's vacations stall action? We'll see.

Inner City Press ask Perceval about another topic it reported on yesterday: the August 6 debate on cooperation with regional and subregional organizations. Would Cuba's foreign minister be coming, to represent CELAC? Yes.

  What about the Malvinas or Falkland Islands, which at least one Permanent Member of the Council told Inner City Press will be a topic on August 6? Perceval was diplomatic, saying that is an issue in the Special Committee on De-Colonization.

  As her press conference stretched past one hour, Perceval was asked about Edward Snowden -- by Voice of America, a media run by the US State Department, with John Kerry on the its Broadcasting Board of Governors -- and about migrants dying trying to get to Europe. This last question invoked the Argentinian Pope Francis; Perceval said she listened to him, not only because he's from Argentina, but for that reason too.

Footnote: we conclude with this because we must: Permanent Representative María Cristina Perceval after being asked for stakeouts by the Free UN Coalition for Access, responded that its co-founder Inner City Press is "most present" in covering the Security Council.

  Why then did the Department of Public Information and its partners, its UN Censorship Alliance, conspire to make a rulepurporting to ban media workspace at the Security Council stakeout, most glaringly by prohibiting the work table present at the stakeout before and during the relocation? 

   When Inner City Press bought and brought its own table, at the beginning of the UK's month in June, DPI came and took it away. This issue must be solved. Watch this site.

   

IMF's Spain Report Only Thrice Mentions Bankia Bailout, Lagarde Question UNanswered, Unlike South Sudan and Even Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- The International Monetary Fund's annual report on Spain, under embargo until 10 am today, runs some 66 page but mentions Bankia only three times, all of them in financial tables.

But as Inner City Press asked the IMF at its briefing on July 11, Managing Director Christine Lagarde was on the witness list of the Spanish political partyUnion, Progress & Democracy, which alleged fraud in the weakening and bail out of the bank.

The IMF answered Inner City Press' questions from that day on Sri Lanka, and more recently on South Sudan.

On Sri Lanka: "The one on Mr. Singh is accurate. The Island and Daily Mirror coverage of Mr. Mathai's talk was much better in our view and may be helpful to you."

From the IMF's transcript of Inner City Press' question:

I have a question on South Sudan. We'll jump to Africa. I think we'll move off Europe for awhile. On South Sudan:

“How does the IMF view the recent firing of the vice president and ministers and non-passage of the petroleum act? What impact may this have?”

Thanks for that question. The effects on both countries, both South Sudan and Sudan, are likely to be quite severe, given the rundown of their reserve buffers since 2011, and a progressive build up of economic and social tensions. We can't give you a precise analysis of what these firings mean in terms of the severity of the economic dislocations in South Sudan and Sudan, but we basically hope that both countries will implement their recent agreements, given their importance for regional peace and economic stability. We also think that implementing these agreements will help relieve the economic pressures that have been building up since oil was shut down there in January of 2012.

But on Bankia and Lagarde, nothing.

That process led Bankia to put its subsidiary City National Bank of Florida up for sale. BankUnited, which Inner City Press covered last week, was said to be among the suitors, but Chile's Banco de Credito e Inversiones ended up with the winning bid on May 24, for $882.8 million.

Analysis now proceeds on that proposed acquisition. Until July, Inner City Press used and cited SNL Financial in stories such as these. A request to continue, and specifically about BankUnited and this, is pending before Christina M. Twomey of SNL's Public Relations. We hope to have more on this - and on Larry Summers and the Fed. Watch this site.