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.

Michela Wrong makes a strong case for ensuring greater accountability and vigilance when giving aid to Africa. Note: she does not say to stop giving aid or stop the reduction of debt.

Interesting similarities between the US and Iran, aupposedly one of its greatest foes.

An update on the changing American mood towards Iraq.

Strong criticism of the G8's recently-announced plan to cancel debt of poor countries comes from the Guardian's George Monbiot. Here, he denounces the plan because of the "conditionalities" applied to poor countries in order to be deemed eligible to have their debt canceled. What conditions the rich G8 countries pass off as essential for poor countries to have is actually ways that poor countries have to give up control of their general affairs to foreign insititions such as the World Bank.

Some excerpts from the article:
"Never mind that much of this debt - money lent by the World Bank and IMF to corrupt dictators - should never have been pursued in the first place. Never mind that, in terms of looted resources, stolen labour and now the damage caused by climate change, the rich owe the poor far more than the poor owe the rich. Some of the poorest countries have been paying more for debt than for health or education."

"That's the theory. In truth, corruption has seldom been a barrier to foreign aid and loans: look at the money we have given, directly and through the World Bank and IMF, to Mobutu, Suharto, Marcos, Moi and every other premier-league crook."

The article is full of facts and should cause anyone who regards the G8 countries and international institutions like the World Bank as good and saintly to take a second look at them and their policies.
Especially tragic is the case of Uganda which, as the article mentions near the end, in order to qualify for World Bank funding had to undergo privatisation of its water supplies, agricultural services and its commerical bank so that the country no longer had control over its own resources. In addition, Uganda had to impose fees on schools and health services that resulted in drops in attendance and collapse of health for the poor.

Gwynne Dyer, the renowned Canadian columnist and military expert, reviews an upcoming book on Mao that will supposedly expose the notorious Chinese Communist icon and his deceitfulness and cruelty to his people.
While I've always known that Mao was responsible for millions of deaths with his Great Leap forward program and the upheaval during the Cultural Revolution, I at least thought his Long March was heroic, not him personally but those others who marched and survived.

More aid needed though as the recent cancellation of 40b in debt was praised.

Indeed as this press release from the CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt) says, much more must be done to truly help the poorest nations.
They have a whole list of criticism on the debt cancellation which should be considered carefully before we burst out into exuberance for the 3rd world.
Two of the more valid criticisms: "Only 5 % of the inhabitants of Developing Countries live in these 18 countries"
and "The financial burden of the operation on rich countries would amount to some 2 billion dollars a year, compared to 350 billion the G8 devote to farming subsidies or 700 billion they spend in military expenditure" meaning that clearly the G8 can afford to increase their foreign aid as well cancel more debt.

3 articles from the UK's Independent.

Americans turn against Bush
The first time that a major poll of Americans has registered that the majority do not believe in their administration's reasons and rationales for going to war in Iraq. The article mentions that the poll's result derives also from growing dissatisfaction with Bush and his party's policies including social security, judicial nominees and the terrorism.

For all those who feel that giving aid to African countries is a tremendous waste and undeserved, read this.
Africa cheated by West

Mugabe's actions
Zimbabwean President or dictator Robert Mugabe ordered thousands of shacks destroyed in a move aimed at the main supporters of the opposition. The grip he has over his country is almost absolute and there is no indication that his country can improve while he's in charge. Poverty, unemployment and famine have increased sharply while Mugabe maintains a strong hold on power with his state security forces.
An astounding fact from the article is that only 800,000 of the population of 12 million have "formal" work.

I just visited Arianna Huffington's recently-started but attention-getting blogsite for the first time. This is an interesting post by one of the guest writers on the controversy surrounding the coup that led to then-Prime Minister J-B Arisitide's forced resignation. From his credible account of events, America played a significant role in causing Aristide's removal and "exile".

Interesting, huh. Or rather, sinister. Either way, this is just another way that the US has trampled upon the rights of people whether though unlawful invasions based on false accusations, illegal occupation of a sovereign nation, the torture and molesting of prisoners of war and now, the encouragement of "slavery" by offering large bounties for captured "fighters". Of course, these incidents regarding the round-up of thousands of alleged fighters and sending them off to Guantanamo has been going on for a while now.
Certainly with their government's gungho attitude to fighting the "War on terrorism" the military will resort to anything to get those "terrorists".

Another example of the US military's zealousness in waging war on the terrorists at any cost is the cover-up in the death of their most famous casualty in Afghanistan, former NFL player Pat Tillman.
After releasing statements implying that Tillman was killed while heroically leading his squad in an ambush by enemy fighters, subsequent investigations revealed that Tillman was actually killed by friendly fire, essentially by his own countrymen, in a case of mistaken identity between different American army squads. However instead of telling the family right away, the military delayed and merely told the family the original and false details of his death were "incomplete".
His parents have spoken out against the military, denouncing them for their cover-up of the truth.

Excerpt of his father's remarks:
"I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out."

Kofi Annan visited a refugee camp during the weekend in Darfur,Sudan.
He met refugees who made desperate pleas to him for protection and aid.
Clearly the Sudanese government is doing nothing substantial to halt the attacks (which they instigated to quell a local rebellion) on
the Darfurians whilst continually making false assurances and promises to Western governments including stating that they are powerless to stop the militia.

Excerpt from the article "The lack of help for southern Sudan reveals a growing gap between rhetoric and reality as the G8 industrial nations prepare for their summit at Gleneagles in July, where fighting Africa's poverty will be high on the agenda."

Famed American economist Jeffrey Sachs talks about global poverty and developement and related issues including the UN's recent release of strategies to promote developement in poor countries by a panel headed by Sachs himself. Sachs also released a book called "The end of poverty" full of ambitious ideas with the ultimate goal of eradicating poverty by 2025.
Some consider Sachs' ideas to be too broad and unclear to be effective. Sachs answers back in the talk which he does with Mother Jones magazine.

This Counterpunch article describes the forgotten state of affairs in Afghanistan. How the US has virtually ignored the country and the negative reception Afghan president Hamid Karzai got on his recent visit to the America.

Also this article if the events in it are true which they should be, gives us a good idea of why the US continues to face steady attacks from resistance and insurgent fighters. If everything the US military does is atack with full force, no wonder they can't do any good in the locals' eyes.