We did it! Yesterday, Paul Wolfowitz resigned. Two years ago, George W Bush was able to install Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank President despite the international outcry. But yesterday, Bush simply could not overpower world opinion. He could no longer ignore you - the many thousands who supported our campaign, and the many millions who felt the same around the world.

Everyone's excited about our success in getting Bush's buddy Paul Wolfowitz out of the World Bank for good. In just an hour this morning after we told you, we had dozens of e-mails congratulating Avaaz on the big win. This victory belongs to all of us, so here are some of your messages for us all to share:

"Congatulations to all 52,000 odd!" (India)

"From all of us who have supported in my network from South Africa, I would like to say a very big WELL DONE and please keep it up! We will continue to support you. I have sent out your news [out] this morning, and we all rejoice at this win!" (South Africa)

"Ladies and gentlemen... We've got 'm...!...Congratulations! Keep up the very good work." (Netherlands)

"Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your campaign against injustice." (Canada)

"Well done!! That is a great Result...so glad to see that particular Neocon get his just desserts!!" (UK)

"Yes, victory! Step by step! One by one they must go down!" (Germany)

"Keep up the good work!!!!!!! If ONLY more people will wake up to the power that internet has put into our hands!!" (Malta)

"That's wonderful l news , Congratulation and wish continued success in all your endeavors." (France)

Wolfowitz updates... worldbankpresident.org is full of updates all the time...

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/26/content_6028403.htm

By 332 votes against 251, the European Union assembly added a paragraph to a resolution on next week's EU-U.S. summit, calling on Germany, currently holding the presidency of the 27-nation bloc, and the United States to ask Wolfowitz to step down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602641.html

Under the bank's articles, the governing board has unqualified power to decide by majority vote whether and under what circumstances the bank president must go. But the political reality is more complex. Under a diplomatic arrangement in effect since the creation of the World Bank in 1944, the U.S. president has the right to appoint the chief of the institution. Europe has the power to appoint the head of the bank's affiliate, the International Monetary Fund.

Wolfowitz's defenders have cast the scandal as a European power play, led by France and Germany, to diminish U.S. influence. Hardly lost in this analysis is the fact that Wolfowitz was a key proponent and architect of the Iraq war, which has severely strained relations between the United States and much of Europe.

http://www.worldbankpresident.org/archives/000537.php

New rumours on Wolfowitz departure timing. (Update). A tip reached me overnight that Wolfowitz's departure may be announced before European leaders arrive in Washington DC for Monday's EU-US summit meeting. The Washington Post also carries a comment from "a senior Bank official" saying that the board committee has already decided to recommend Wolfowitz leaves.

Peter S. Goodman, writes in the Washington Post:

a senior bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested that members of the committee had already decided to recommend Wolfowitz's ouster, casting Monday's appearance as a last-ditch appeal before the panel pronounces judgment.

Committee members were circulating a draft of the document they planned to release next week outlining Wolfowitz's ethical breaches and formally recommending his expulsion, the official said.

Such a move would substantially weaken Wolfowitz's hand, though it would not end his tenure. Rather, it would leave his fate to the full, 24-member board of governors.

Other stories carry a message from Wolfowitz's lawyer Robert Bennett saying that the Bank president will appear before the Bank's board on Monday. Bennett may attend, but not speak.

Journalists at the US-EU summit will I'm sure want to ask Bush, Merkel and Barroso about this very messy affair. It seems to prove exactly the opposite of what European Commission president José Manuel Barroso is spinning out ahead of the summit. One line in the release about Barroso's speech in New York today reads: "Europe and the US enjoy deep bonds of kinship, now it is time to deepen our economic partnership".

Wolfowitz, and the US government's dogged backing of their man in the World Bank, is only re-emphasising trans-atlantic differences, differences which Wolfowitz and similar unilateralist thinkers did so much to foster in 2002-2003.

I can't recommend that you rush to the betting shop to put a lot of money on decisive action before Monday, but the chances seem to be increasing. This is not the first rumour of Mr W's departure announcement.

If the board ultimately votes to remove Wolfowitz, a Bush administration official said it would jeopardize the governing arrangements of other international financial institutions, including Europe's right to appoint the leader of the IMF and Japan's authority to name the head of the Asian Development Bank.