Paul Wolfowitz came under renewed pressure to resign as World Bank president on Monday as a bank committee formally transmitted its findings that he was guilty of a conflict of interest in arranging for a pay raise and promotion in 2005 to Shaha Ali Riza, his companion.[..]
It was not clear whether the committee, consisting of 7 of the bank's 24 board members, would remove Wolfowitz from his post or, more likely, express a loss of confidence in his leadership in a manner that might persuade him to resign. Bank officials say that a majority of the bank board has concluded that he should go.
In another sign of Wolfowitz's difficulties, his top communications aide, Kevin Kellems, resigned on Monday, saying that "the current environment surrounding the leadership" at the bank made it "very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution."[..]
(A senior European) official said that the overwhelming sentiment in Europe, as expressed in editorials, political commentaries and even Web logs, was that European governments should never again let the United States pick the president of the World Bank all by itself.
UPDATE: More than 50,000 Avaaz.org members from more than 180 countries have signed a global petition calling for Wolfowitz to be fired. At 1 pm tomorrow--Wednesday, May 9--join us for a rally outside of the World Bank headquarters at 1818 H St NW in DC to deliver the petition. We'll have a banner reading "World to Bank - Fire Wolfowitz," and flags from around the world.
