New Internationalist magazine has a feature section on the G8 protests with on-site reports and statements from NGOs.
A coalition of African civil organisations released this statement after the end of the G8 summit at Gleneagles, in which they listed the main goals that need to be achieved to truly help Africa's countries end their poverty and improve themselves. All 4 points are wothwhile but the first and forth one especially. Without debt relief, most African countries will be unable to spend much on their civil budget due to the crushing burden of their debts and the mounting interest payments.
The section also has a look behind the scenes of the summit from a member of a small NGO that was involved, and a staff member who was part of the demonstrations and wrote first-hand of the rough justice meted out by the police.

The after-events of the London bombings have caused much to be concerned about. But not from the typical muslim, extremist, asian or black male but from the police and authorities.
First was the shooting death of a Brazilian man who police thought was a terrorist. Turns out the police were wrong, terribly wrong. This new "shoot to kill" policy which ignorant governemnt and police officials think will prevent terrorists will only cause greater risk to Asians and blacks, deemed to be acting suspicious. Already mundane activites like driving a nice car or even running down a street will get a black man stopped by police, now with the terrorist suspicion, things could get much worse.

William Bowles has some thoughts on the flaws and cracks in the explanation of the London bombings.

Blair's bombs
Behind the tragic occurences of England's first and second suicide bombings lies the even more tragic and ongoing chain of bombings and conflict in Iraq. And thoughout this horror is the continuing fact of terrible suffering inflicted on Palestinians, Iraqis, and Afghans.
While the deaths and injuries suffered by innocent London bomb victims is terrible, it should be realised that powerful countries cannot continue to advantage and oppress weaker countries without suffering severe consequences.

More on the concerts, the G8 summit and its plans on poverty.
Here the writer Raymond Garcia in Swans, harshly criticises the G8's plan to fight poverty as well as the inability of the media specifically American to present the real facts concerning African poverty.
Not only do the rich/ G8 countries hoist conditions onto the poor countries to receive aid, but the IMF will be put in charge of it, in other words they're asking the fox to guard the chickens.

Excerpt from the story:
"And the sorry fact is that Sir Bob and the future Sir Bono contribute to maintaining this fiction by signing on to the programs of the G-8, which will continue to legitimize the corporate exploitation of the resources of poor countries."

As well, here's reflection on the G-8.

G8 summit-A fraud and a circus
so claims John Pilger in this article in the New Statesman. And indeed his claims do make a lot of sense. Amidst all the hype and cheer coming from the G8 summit (before the London bombing) and announcements by UK PM Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown on debt relief and further measures to save Africa, the reality is that much of the aid and relief is inconsequential and trivial.
A few examples include: Under a section headed "G8 proposals for HIPC debt cancellation", it says that debt relief to poor countries will be granted only if they are shown "adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount given": in other words, their aid will be reduced by the same amount as the debt relief. So they gain nothing.
and The second unmentionable is that debt payments are due to rise sharply from next year, more than doubling by 2015. This will mean not "victory for millions", but death for millions.
and One British arms client is Malawi, which pays out more on the interest on its debt than its entire health budget, despite the fact that 15 per cent of its population has HIV. Gordon Brown likes to use Malawi as example of why "we should make poverty history", yet Malawi will not receive a penny of the "victory for millions" relief.

Combined with the history of exploitation that European countries inflicted on Africa, with each major and even minor power controlling colonies across the continent, the control that western countries and corporations have over many African countries make it almost impossible for the countries to pull themselves up from the dire mess many of them are in. This other Zmag article states the means that western governments esepcially UK use to maintain their control over African nations to prevent them from truly becoming more self-sufficient and less poor.

All this just means that we should not be fooled into complacency and forgetfulness by the grand statements and good feelings generated by pop stars and G8 leaders, but that we realise that the road to eradicate poverty in the world is still a long way untravelled.

With regards to the Live8 concerts and Bono and other organisations' efforts to bring global poverty to the spotlight, there were many who felt that it was a grand spectacle with good intentions and spirit but excluded the very people who they were trying to help, in terms of sparcity of African participation in the concert performers as well as seeking the opinions of Africans themselves, as Cameroonian journalist writes in the NY Times.(you need to sign up to read this and other articles)

In Iraq, bombings there continued with high casualties caused near Baghdad by a suicide bomber in a fuel truck. There were reports of deaths being as high as 98 from Reuters, and over the weekend there were at least 12 suicide bombers.

While the recent terror attacks in London were very unexpected and the first major attack to hit England since 911, Iraq has also seen a large share of terror attacks for the month of June.

It's easy to realise why there's great sympathy and attention towards the English now but people must realise that throughout the world there's many who're also suffering from violence and wars.
One issue that many including myself didn't realise was the effects of the UN embargo on Iraq done to punish Saddam and his regime,but which exacted a huge cost on the population.
This article from New Internationalist magazine describes the toll of the embargo.

A series of blasts rocked London, England, as 3 subway stations and a double decker bus suffered bomb explosions. At least 37 people were killed and many hundreds wounded. Absolutely tragic.

However though the authorities quickly blamed the bombings on Islamic extremists and memories of 911 resurfaced as well as the importance of the "war on terror", it's important for the general public to not jump to conclusions but to consider all the relevant facts or details and use our minds carefully.
Already PM Blair and his analysts believe they have solved this attack as Blair "firmly blamed the series of London bombings on Islamic radicals".

I haven't been very productive recently with this blog as I've been caught up in other things. The Live8 concerts stirred up plenty of attention and debate over the G8 meeting, the G8 plans to fight poverty, what the intended strategy should be, the protests, and the concerts themselves.

This is an update on the situation in Afghanistan.

250,000 flock to Edinburgh for a largely peaceful protest for world poverty as the G8 leaders met to discuss issues including poverty itself. English Chancellor Gordon Brown made a speech about the "greatest moral crusade of our times" to a selected audience and doubtless other politicans including UK PM Tony Blair will speak out on the importance of ending poverty as well.
Of course, the Live8 concerts provided an optimistic backdrop to the G8 meetings that major action will be taken to help poor especially African countries but many are not convinced that the actions will be significant enough or that they will be mainly to benefit the G8 countries themselves.
George Monbiot of the UK's Guardian again expresses strong skepticism and criticism over the real agenda and effectiveness of the G8 talks and the results, in his latest article on the planned role of corporations to end poverty.