G20 Should Bail Out the Poor: Kristof

Group aims to raise awareness, not money

(NEWSER) - Bono, George Clooney, Colin Farrell, and a host of celebrities spout the F-word in a new ad with a simple message: "F*** famine." (Don't worry, it's still SFW, thanks to a lot of censoring.) "Famine is the real obscenity," explains Bono in the video. The commercial points people to his anti-poverty group ONE, which aims to focus attention on the famine in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia, the Telegraph reports. More»

French, American presidents meet at White House

(NEWSER) - President Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy discussed ways to stabilize the world economy and prevent another global financial crisis today at the White House ahead of the G8 and G20 meetings, Bloomberg reports. While the two countries would seem to be at odds on world finance—many French officials believe that the US dollar should be used less often as an international reserve currency—Sarkozy acknowledged that the dollar has a "key role." More»

That's one quick theme emerging from the summit

(NEWSER) - Look like a theme is emerging from the G20, at least judging by a spate of instant-analysis headlines now moving. And the White House won't like it:

• New York Times : "Traveling in Asia, Obama's Glow Dims"
• Wall Street Journal : "China's Hu Rebuffs Weakened Obama at Summit"
• Independent : "Summit marks shift in power to the East"

Obama slams China over currency manipulation

(NEWSER) - G20 leaders have agreed to curb “persistently large imbalances” in saving and spending and set “indicative guidelines” against trade imbalances, but more specific decisions on how to identify and fix said imbalances were left until next year, reports the New York Times . The finance minsters are to agree on these guidelines by June; the IMF will then use them to analyze the cause and effect of the imbalances in advance of next year's G20 meeting. More»

Economic powers set goals for reducing public debt

(NEWSER) - The leaders of the Group of 20 nations wrapped up their 2-day summit today in Toronto, striking an agreement to reduce deficits over the next 3 to 6 years without endangering the global economic rebound. The major economic powers vowed to cut their deficits in half by 2013 and "stabilize" debt by 2016 while saying the reductions would be "carefully calibrated to sustain the recovery," reports the Washington Post . More»