G8 summit

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

Aftershocks Rattle G8 Organizers

(Newser) - Italy's decision to shift the G8 summit to the quake-damaged city of L'Aquila has raised major safety fears as aftershocks continue to rattle the region, reports the Washington Post. A 4.1 magnitude temblor hit the area Friday, with the epicenter just half a mile from where world leaders will...

Chinese Prez Ditches G8 to Grapple With Ethnic Crisis

(Newser) - Chinese President Hu Jintao abandoned plans to attend the G8 summit and returned to China from Italy to deal with growing unrest in Xinjiang after some 160 people were killed in riots there, the Financial Times reports. Troops have flooded into the provincial capital, Urumqi, in a bid to restore...

Pope Urges New World Order for Global Economy

(Newser) - Pope Benedict delivers a broad criticism of contemporary capitalism in his latest encyclical, the Washington Post reports. The biggest problem with businesses today is that “they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors,” Benedict writes in the 144-page document. He proposes a radically different economic model in which...

Quake-Ravaged G8 Setting Still Tent City

(Newser) - World leaders have begun arriving in Italy for the G8 summit, which at the last minute Silvio Berlusconi relocated to L'Aquila—the devastated town where 300 died in a massive earthquake. While many praised the Italians for quickly rehousing the victims, rebuilding has been stalled and 15,000 people are...

Italy Seeks to Move G8 to Quake-Hit Town

Berlusconi wants world leaders to meet in L'Aquila in July

(Newser) - Silvio Berlusconi pledged today to move this summer's G8 summit to L'Aquila, where an earthquake killed 296 people and destroyed the homes of 65,000, Reuters reports. The meeting is set to take place on a small island off Sardinia, but the Italian PM said he would rather see the...

Bush Stuns G8 With 'Biggest Polluter' Boast

President leaves other leaders open-mouthed with defiant farewell

(Newser) - George Bush concluded the last G8 summit of his presidency with a defiant final joke: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter," he quipped. The president then punched the air, his mouth fixed in a huge grin, the Daily Telegraph reports. Bush, who has faced international condemnation for years...

China, India Reject G8 Carbon Plan

Developing countries show impotence of conference

(Newser) - Neither China nor India agreed to adopt the G8's targets for cutting carbon emissions by 2050 at their joint meeting today. Asia's two big developing economies, joined by Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa, said carbon reductions would endanger their growth and exacerbate poverty, and that rich nations should clean up...

Vague G8 Goals Deflate Green Hopes
 Vague G8 Goals
 Deflate Green Hopes 
ANALYSIS

Vague G8 Goals Deflate Green Hopes

'Fuzzy-minded' declaration on climate change sinks hopes for immediate action

(Newser) - G8 leaders are hailing an agreement to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050 as "major progress" in combating climate change—but their failure to come up with concrete shorter-term goals is a major letdown, Bryan Walsh writes in Time. The agreement, so vague it doesn't even say which...

Kissinger: US Must Temper Approach as Russia Evolves

Medvedev's election may signal real political change, so ease back on the bullying

(Newser) - Dmitry Medvedev has more power than some in the West believe, and Russia's political system is still evolving as Vladimir Putin moves from president to prime minister, Henry Kissinger writes in the Washington Post—and it behooves the US to throttle back. "The pace of such an evolution will...

G8 Agrees to Cut Emissions 50%
 G8 Agrees to Cut Emissions 50% 

G8 Agrees to Cut Emissions 50%

But doesn't settle on any interim goals

(Newser) - The G8 leaders have resolved to cut greenhouse gases in half by 2050, something they’d only agreed to “seriously consider” before. But the US has resisted setting any interim goals, the BBC reports, leading environmentalists to deride the pact. The group will also try to convince some 200...

G8 Leaders Chew on Global Food Crisis Over Caviar

Luxe meals by 60 chefs follow starvation talks

(Newser) - The global food crisis tops the agenda at this year's G8 summit—and the talks seem to be hungry work, reports the Independent. The 18 dishes at the eight-course luxury dinner served to the leaders last night included caviar, sea urchin, and Kyoto beef—followed by a "G8 fantasy...

Bush to Canadian PM: 'Yo, Harper!'
Bush to Canadian PM: 'Yo, Harper!'

Bush to Canadian PM: 'Yo, Harper!'

Commander-in-chief his ever-so-diplomatic self at G8 summit

(Newser) - Mixing Texas diplomacy with the high diplomacy of the G8 summit in Japan, President Bush showed off his characteristically casual behavior today by introducing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to another leader with a "Yo, Harper!" Bush landed British PM Tony Blair in hot water at a 2006...

Energy-Efficient Japan to Host G8 Summit

Tokyo will showcase conservation ethic, technology

(Newser) - Next week the leaders of the developed world will meet at a resort in northern Japan for this year's G8 summit. With oil prices topping the agenda, Japan—by most measures, the most energy-frugal developed nation on earth—is hoping to use the international platform to promote its energy conservation...

Dollar Soars to Biggest Weekly Gain in 3 Years

Greenback posts record advances ahead of G8 meeting

(Newser) - The dollar posted its biggest gain in almost 3 years this week, soaring 2.5% against the euro and 2.8% against the yen. This morning in London the dollar was trading at $1.54 against the euro, with analysts predicting a rise as high as $1.45 by year's...

Blair Pitches Global Climate Pact

Warns change will be irreversible if something isn't done now

(Newser) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair will seek to privately broker a new international agreement to cut carbon emissions by 50% before 2050 that would include China, India and the US, reports the Guardian. Blair has been working on the project with climate change experts since he left office last...

World Bank President Touts New Strategy

Zoellick calls for fast funds and alternative energy sources

(Newser) - Robert Zoellick has outlined a new strategy for the World Bank, including giving the private sector a bigger role in development, speeding aid to countries coming out of conflict, and promoting green energy alternatives, Reuters reports. The new president  has been quick to reposition the global bank's mission following the...

Sarko Looks Blotto at G8
Sarko Looks Blotto at G8

Sarko Looks Blotto at G8

After lunch with Putin, French boss sways and slurs at press conference

(Newser) - Vladimir Putin may have tested out some liquid diplomacy at the G8 summit. After a long meeting with the Russian leader, freshly elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy showed up late to a press conference and appeared inebriated, fumbling for words, giggling, and swaying at the podium.

World Bank Will Pay Countries to Spare Trees

$250M pilot program will reward "avoided deforestation"

(Newser) - The World Bank is planning a $250-million fund to pay countries to refrain from cutting down tropical forests. The plan, which won approval at the G-8 summit last week, depends on companies to contribute to the fund, but that's not likely to happen unless rules governing carbon emissions credits are...

G8 Concludes with AIDS Pledge
G8 Concludes with AIDS Pledge

G8 Concludes with AIDS Pledge

World leaders renew $60B pledge to fight disease in Africa

(Newser) - Global leaders renewed their vow to spend $60 billion to help fight AIDS, TB, and malaria in Africa today as the G8 summit wrapped up. But they set no deadlines for delivering the relief, leading critics to question the pledge. "I think it is deliberately the language of obfuscation,...

Moscow Backs Down on Missile Shield

Putin's tough talk yields to unexpected compromise proposal

(Newser) - After weeks of exchanging sharp criticism with US officials, Vladimir Putin today suggested a truce over a controversial missile shield in Eastern Europe. In talks with President Bush at the G8 summit, the Russian president reversed course and said Moscow would support US plans for the shield if it is...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>