Reuters: Don’t leave poor behind, World Bank chief tells G20 (Lesley Wroughton)
World Bank President Robert Zoellick called on Group of 20 leaders to not leave the poorest countries behind after a new World Bank report indicated that more than 40 poor countries are still struggling to finance key needs such as health and education. This report came despite signs of recovery in some industrialized and emerging economies.

Wall Street Journal: G-20 Countries Urged to Aid Poor Nations
The WSJ also ran an article on the World Bank’s ask to not forget the poorer countries in preparation for the G20 next week, and includes additional information on remittances and the Doha round of trade talks.

Financial Times: G20 nations face call to agree on tackling global imbalances (Krishna Guha and Edward Luce)
The Obama administration is seeking to reach agreement to produce more balanced global growth and a process for ensuring that countries deliver on their commitments at next week’s Group of 20, but it is still unclear how far China and other trade surplus nations will be willing to go. Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economics says, “We hope to reach agreement on a framework…for agreeing on how to address the imbalances that led to this crisis and on some process for holding each other accountable.”

New York Times: E.U. Seeks Global Agreement on Bonus Curbs
In a statement expected to be adopted at an extraordinary European Union meeting in Brussels on Thursday evening, European leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, called on G-20 members to stand by commitments made this month “to encourage sound risk management and a strong link between compensation and long term performance, while ensuring a level-playing field.”

Financial Times: A tax on finance to help the world’s poor (Op-Ed, Bernard Kouchner)
Bernard Kouchner, the French minister of foreign affairs and European affairs, writes in this morning’s Financial Times that to fund development, world leaders must think about introducing a voluntary contribution based on international financial transactions. Kouchner suggests innovative financing mechanisms as a means to help restore stability to the global economy, including proposals ranging from caps on bonuses to tools to combat speculation and the economic and social turmoil it creates.

Reuters: New approach could stop 6 mln African malaria cases
A third of malaria cases in African babies can be prevented by giving them regular doses of antimalarial drugs even before the children are infected, researchers said. Research into intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in infants (IPTi) found it helped children build better immunity to the disease and reduced the risk of the parasite becoming drug-resistant, but both of these benefits decrease if treatment is given continuously as a prophylaxis.

-Robyn Mitchell