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In meetings at Hokkaido, Japan, the leaders of the G8 made a breakthrough on climate change when they agreed to adopt a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to a draft communique.

rising prices and a global shortage of provisions. But yesterday the Prime Minister and other world leaders sat down to an 18-course gastronomic extravaganza at a G8 summit in Japan, which is focusing on the food crisis. The dinner, and a six-course lunch, at the summit of leading industrialised nations on the island of Hokkaido, included delicacies such as caviar, milkfed lamb, sea urchin and tuna, with champagne and wines flown in from Europe and the U.S.

Tony Blair's flagship promise of more aid for Africa, secured at the Gleneagles summit three years ago, is being pulled apart as "backsliding" leaders assemble for a G8 meeting in Japan. On the opening day of the gathering on Japan's island of Hokkaido, a draft communiqué prepared for leaders of the world's eight richest nations showed how the pledge which Mr Blair negotiated with such fanfare was being steadily watered down. The central promise made by G8 countries at Gleneagles, as rock concerts and demonstrations took place across the world, was to raise their aid budgets by £25 billion by...

Gordon Brown and his fellow world leaders have sparked outrage after it was disclosed they enjoyed a six-course lunch followed by an eight-course dinner at the G8 summit where the global food crisis tops the agenda.

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - African leaders urged the Group of Eight rich nations on Monday to keep promises to help their continent and pleaded with them to remember that soaring oil and food prices were making their poverty worse. The G8 has been accused by activists of reneging on the promise made at its 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to double aid by 2010 to $50 billion, half of which would go to Africa. "Some African leaders just wanted to emphasize that while appreciating G8 leaders' commitment to help Africa in past G8 summits, they just wanted to point that...

How have G8 members done under the protocol so far?The EU’s environment agency projects Britain and France will meet their Kyoto obligations but other G8 members are struggling: Canada. Emissions have gone up as much as 35 percent since 1990 because of continued increases in the exploitation of the country’s oil resources, calling into question whether Canada can make its 5 percent reduction target.Japan. The second-largest economy in the world is also in jeopardy of not making its assigned goal. Japan’s emissions have risen over 8 percent, which means the country will now have to reduce emissions more than 14...

A fair and global effort to tackle climate change needs wealthy states to take the lead in CO2 cuts The Bali summit on climate change, which starts next week, will seek to lay the foundations for a new global agreement on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause rising temperatures and climate change. Ambitious targets for emission reduction must be at the heart of that agreement, together with effective market mechanisms that encourage emission trading between countries, rich and poor. The problem of climate change involves a fundamental failure of markets: those who damage others by emitting greenhouse gases generally...

“Fulfill your promises before making new ones” — this is what African leaders have to say to the 33rd G-8 summit meeting now going on at the resort city of Heiligendamm, Germany. Days before the summit many African leaders and international organizations were drawing attention to the futility of the rich nations making new promises to eradicate poverty in Africa without fulfilling earlier declarations to this effect. They recalled promises made at the summit in the Scottish town of Glendale two years ago. The participants at the 2005 summit which they called the African summit agreed to write off the...

TIRANA, Albania, — The highlight of President Bush’s European tour may well be his visit on Sunday to this tiny country, one of the few places left where he can bask in unabashed pro-American sentiment without a protester in sight. Americans here are greeted with a refreshing adoration that feels as though it comes from another time. “Albania is for sure the most pro-American country in Europe, maybe even in the world,” said Edi Rama, Tirana’s mayor and leader of the opposition Socialists. “Nowhere else can you find such respect and hospitality for the president of the United States. Even...

HEILIGENDAMM-WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL SAYS BUSH TAKEN ILL AT G8 SUMMIT BUT "NOT SERIOUS"

June 08, 2007, 8:08 a.m. G-8 PrecipiceIt’s a different world. By Victor Davis Hanson The fitting geological metaphor for the so-called G-8 meeting in Germany is not a summit, but a precipice — as the world’s leaders scramble around to grab something before one of them falls into the abyss. The old postwar order is tottering on the brink of Islamism, oil-price hikes, energy shortages, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, Russian belligerency, global-warming concern and hysteria, and war. Europe is at the edge of the chasm, despite its strong euro and strengthening economy. Once convinced that they would serve as a...

After wrapping up the G8 Summit in Germany, President and Mrs. Bush flew to Poland to meet with President Lech Kaczynski. The two leaders delivered a joint statement in Gdansk. (Transcript) From there, President and Mrs. Bush traveled to Rome. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Poverty campaigner Bob Geldof has condemned leaders of the G8 nations for coming up with a deal on Africa which he says is a "farce". He praised Tony Blair, who he said had "gone down all guns blazing" in an effort to get the eight nations to deliver on previous aid commitments. But he said he also felt sorry for the out-going PM as he had secured "no legacy stuff" in the two-day talks. And he launched a strongly-worded attack on the other summit leaders. At a joint press conference with fellow rock star and Live8 organiser, Bono, Mr Geldof...

President Bush arrived in Heiligendamm, Germany today to attend the 2007 G8 Summit. There he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Transcript) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Transcript) First Lady Laura Bush participated in the opening ceremonies at the Schwerin City Library in Schwerin, Germany. Marking the 63rd anniversary of the D-Day invasion, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates met with veterans in Normandy and spoke at a ceremony unveiling the new visitor center at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

(LEAD) Bush vows to "never excuse" oppressors in countries like North Korea WASHINGTON, June 5 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President George W. Bush, calling North Korea one of the world's worst dictatorship, said Tuesday his country "will never excuse" the oppressors. "People living in tyranny need to know they are not forgotten," he said in a speech in Prague where he was visiting for a G-8 summit. "North Koreans live in a closed society where dissent is brutally suppressed, and they are cut off from their brothers and sisters to the South." The speech transcript was released in Washington. Bush recounted...

Thousand Hurt In Anti-G8 Protest In Germany Germany - An anti-G8 protester waves a flag in front of a burning car during unrest between riot police and anti-G8 protesters in Rostock, 02Jun2007 Protester in Rostock on June 2 (AFP) June 3, 2007 -- German police said today that 128 people were arrested after a violent demonstration on June 2 against the upcoming meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized countries in Rostock. About 1,000 people were injured in the riots. The organizers of the protest in northern Germany, which came four days before the start of the G8...

MORE than 150 police have been injured in violent clashes with protesters at a demonstration in northern Germany against next week's G8 summit, a police spokesman says. Some of the injuries were serious, the spokesman said, after updating an earlier injured figure of 100. Masked demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles at police as tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rostock, a port city near Heiligendamm where the Group of Eight leaders will gather for three days of talks from Wednesday. Protesters overturned and set fire to several cars, an AFP reporter said. Demonstrators from...

The forward suite aboard Air Force One is a hushed and dimly lit space, a private sanctuary where the president can sleep, exercise and lead the free world from 30,000 feet. At the start of an eight-hour flight en route to Germany and a world summit in Russia, President Bush is deep inside his own head as he paces up and down the long hallway that leads from his study to his conference room. While Washington was sleeping the night before, yet another corner of the Middle East had erupted into violence, after Hizbullah launched a deadly ambush on an...

Yet another crime against humanity by the despicable tyrant, George Bush. Only this time it was caught on tape by our friends in the Russian news media.(I've included the time clocks so that you can see how long Ms. Merkel had to endure this humiliating sexual harassment.) That's right. Less than a second.Outrageous!