G8 SUMMIT: Further Retreat from Tackling Climate Change

A new leaked document on the current stage of negotiations on the G8 position on climate change shows a further retreat from consensus on many fronts.

G8 SUMMIT: Leaders Asked to Get Scientific on Africa

Leading scientists from around the world are asking leaders of the G8 countries to get more scientific in their approach to the development of Africa.

G8 SUMMIT: Privatisation Hangs Over Debt Relief

The G7 finance ministers agreed Saturday to write off the debt of 18 of the poorest countries, but firm prescriptions of privatisation hovered over the debt relief offer.

DEVELOPMENT: Business As Usual Means 28 Million Dead Children

If development in Africa continues in a business as usual manner, sub-Saharan Africa will reach the UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality not by 2015 as targeted but a century later, a study says.

AFRICA: If Music Be the Food of Development, Play On

Forget religious fads, fast cars or the latest summer accessory. For many international celebrities the ultimate fashion must-have has become the 'Make Poverty History' wristband.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Groups Say UK-US Aid Falls Woefully Short

A U.S. promise to disperse 674 million dollars for famine relief in Africa has disappointed independent development groups, who decried the proposal as a sham that offers too little in face of the continent's mounting crises.

RUSSIA: Progress Could Be Under Arrest

The sentencing of Russia's richest oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to nine years in prison could cause the country immeasurable harm and change its economic and political landscape, human rights activists and political analysts say.

HEALTH: Weak Donor Response Seen to Plague Fight Against AIDS

Worried that a lack of resources for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths in poor countries this year, health activists are urging the world's richest nations to do much more to fight the pandemic.

FINANCE: Gold Industry, Activists Face Off Over Debt Relief

Anti-poverty groups are accusing the U.S. gold industry of seeking to block a sale of the precious metal from International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves as part of an effort to cancel wealthy nations' claims against the world's poorest and most heavily-indebted countries.

G8 SUMMIT: Leaders Begin to Face the Music

When rock star and campaigner for African development Bob Geldof named his new aid concert Live 8, everyone knew who the real audience would be.

G8 SUMMIT: The Climate Does Not Look Good

-The prospects for progress on climate change at the G8 summit in July do not look too good, going by the content of a leaked document.

G8 SUMMIT: Divisions Deepen over Route to Africa

Britain has declared that the development of Africa will be a priority at the G8 summit, but little agreement is in sight over the preferred aid route.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Aid Policies Turning Killers’

Free market policies have led to more than 4,000 farmers killing themselves in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, says a report by the charity Christian Aid.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: All Aboard the ‘Johannesburg to G8’ Bus

Calls for debt relief to be awarded to African countries have become "de rigueur" in non-governmental circles and a good many news publications. But does the matter crop up during dinner conversations across the continent? Is it sufficiently important to crowd out sports talk amongst people riding mini-bus taxis on their way to work?

G8 SUMMIT: Scots Look for Some Local Fallout

Scots in Perthshire are perking up for some local benefits from hosting the G8 summit later this summer.

G8 SUMMIT: Heads of Government, and Those Goats

When Scots choose to make a statement, a tartan is usually right up front, along with Scotch whisky. But there is something about the tartan at the G8 summit this year that presents a picture of globalisation that Scotland, or Britain which it is a part of, never intended.

G8 SUMMIT: Far From Those Maddening Crowds

The long and winding road from Scotland's capital Edinburgh to Gleneagles where the G8 summit will be held in July was never built to carry a couple of hundred thousand demonstrators over the space of a day or two.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Arab Leaders Steal the Show At G8 Summit

Kenyan civil society activist Edward Oyugi says Africa's relations with the developed world amount to the continent holding out a begging bowl. But, African leaders insist they have a partnership with wealthy nations - one based on investment in return for good governance.

DEVELOPMENT-G8: African Leaders Get More Promises than Support

Leaders from Africa who came as special guests to the G8 summit in Evian have returned empty-handed despite new promises of support to development.

DEVELOPMENT: EU Bows to International Pressure Over Aid

The European Union has responded to calls from the U.S. and civil society to step-up its humanitarian aid to Africa by pledging more than 2 million euros in financial help to the troubled continent.

DEVELOPMENT: African NGOs Call G8 Meeting ‘a Lost Opportunity’

Six African organisations, representing women, labour, researchers and development activists have described the outcome of the G8 summit a ”stunning failure”.