In November 2011, the G-20 endorsed an action plan to support the development of local currency bond markets (LCBM). International institutions—the IMF, the World Bank, the EBRD, and the OECD—were asked to draw on their experience to develop a diagnostic framework (DF) to identify general preconditions, key components, and constraints for successful LCBM development. The objective is to provide a tool for analyzing the state of development and efficiency of local currency bond markets. The application of the DF is expected to be flexible, bearing in mind that the potential for LCBM development depends on economic size, financing needs, and stage of economic development.

This volume contains electoral studies of multiparty politics in 14 African countries during the 1990s. Most are about national elections in Anglophone Africa. There are also less well-known examples from Sudan, Ethiopia and Guinea Bissau. The collection also features studies of the local elections in Namibia and of a significant by-election in Malawi. The multiparty period had been put, wherever possible, within the historical context of earlier elections in Africa. Questions addressed include: how did incumbent governing regimes learn to live with multiparty politics? Why have some elections been so closely fought and others have suffered from apathy? Why has there been relatively open political expression and activity when the elections have increased the political and economic manipulation by incumbent governments? Why have the elections of the 1990s been so marked by local and ethnic variations? To what extent did this wave of democracy result from pressure from donor countries?

Today, there are more than twenty complete zodiacs in Washington, D.C., each one pointing to an extraordinary mystery. David Ovason, who has studied these astrological devices for ten years, now reveals why they have been placed in such abundance in the center of our nation's capital and explains their interconnections. His richly illustrated text tells the story of how Washington, from its foundation in 1791, was linked with the zodiac, with the meaning of certain stars, and with a hidden cosmological symbolism that he uncovers here for the first time. Fascinating and thoroughly researched, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation 's Capital is an engrossing book that raises provocative questions and otters complex insights into the meanings behind the mysterious symbols in Washington.