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ROME – World leaders attending the Group of Eight summit opening Wednesday in Italy will each be presented with a gift from the past and one for the future. Handmade books portraying works by Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, as well as gold coins representing an imaginary future world currency will be given to the participants at the opening of the three-day summit. There are 10 copies of the book, commissioned by Italy's Premier Silvio Berlusconi from the Bologna-based art publishing house Fondazione Marilena Ferrari, each with a personalized dedication for the leader who receives it. ...snip... The coins, made by...

Friday, Apr. 9, 2004. Page 5 Russia 'Frustrated' UN Iraq Sanctions By Jesse Westbrook BLOOMBERG Bloomberg John Negroponte WASHINGTON -- Russia, France and China blocked enforcement of United Nations sanctions on Iraq, contributing to former dictator Saddam Hussein's alleged theft of money from the UN-administered oil-for-food program, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, asked Negroponte at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing if the three countries were unwilling to impose "strict" guidelines that would have prevented abuses of the program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy medicine and...

Cocaine found on nearly all euro notesBy Kate Connolly in Berlin(Filed: 26/06/2003) Almost all euro bank notes have traces of cocaine, according to a study by German scientists.Prof Fritz Sögel and a team from the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg studied 700 euro notes from across the euro zone between January 2002 - the month the notes were launched - and last August.Three per cent were found to be contaminated with an average of 0.4 microgrammes of cocaine particles, just days after the euro's launch, and this figure soared to 90 per cent in seven months.The most...

Euro hits 4-year high The euro was at $1,1739 today, up from about $1,1672 in late U.S. trade on Friday, and hitting its highest level since January 1999. Dollar Within Grasp of Euro Debut Rate Ruters Monday, May 19, 2003; 6:17 AM By Justyna Pawlak LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar dropped to multiyear lows on major currencies, bringing the euro within grasp of its debut level on Monday, after U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow cemented views that Washington backed a weaker dollar.