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Another one yoinked form Yahoo! news:

Bono, Geldof welcome G8 aid deal for Africa

GLENEAGLES (Reuters) - Rock musicians Bono and Bob Geldof, who have spearheaded a global push to tackle African poverty, broadly welcomed a pledge on Friday by rich nations to double aid to Africa.

"If an Irish rock star can quote Churchill, this is not the end of extreme poverty, but it is the beginning of the end," Bono said after the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) nations at Gleneagles, Scotland.

"Six hundred thousand people will be alive to remember this G8 in Gleneagles who would have lost their lives to a mosquito bite," the U2 singer said, referring to the difference he said the extra aid would make to fighting malaria.

Geldof, who organised this month's Live 8 concerts to put pressure on the G8, said the summit was a "qualified triumph".

He gave the leaders 10 marks out of 10 for their pledges on aid and eight out of 10 for debt relief.

"A great justice has been done," he said. "We are beginning to see the lives of the poor of Africa determined not by charity but by justice."

The Irish stars said there was much still to do. They urged people who attended or watched the Live 8 concerts and supported the Make Poverty History coalition of charities, churches and other groups to make sure the G8 leaders stick to their pledges.

"The world spoke out and the politicians listened," Bono said. "Now, if the world keeps an eye out, they will keep their promises."

Article here.

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Yoinked from Yahoo! News:

GLENEAGLES, Scotland - World leaders on Friday concluded an economic summit shaken by terrorism, offering an "alternative to the hatred" — a $50 billion aid package for Africa and up to $9 billion in additional support for the Palestinians over the next three years.

"We speak today in the shadow of terrorism, but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve," British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the summit host, said to close the three-day gathering.

"It is in the nature of politics that we do not achieve absolutely everything we hope to achieve, but nonetheless I believe we have made very substantial progress indeed," Blair told reporters at a closing news conference.

With a last-minute pledge from Japan, Blair won a key victory, announcing that aid to Africa would rise from the current $25 billion annually to $50 billion by 2010. The United States did not make any additional pledges beyond Bush's announcement last week that he would seek to double U.S. aid to Africa by 2010.

Blair lost his push to get all summit countries to commit to boosting foreign aid to an amount equal to 0.7 percent of national income by 2015. Instead, a summit document said the European Union had agreed to that support but did not mention the United States.

President Bush had refused to be bound by the 0.7 percent target. The United States is currently giving 0.16 percent of national income, the smallest percentage of any of the G-8 countries.

Blair ticked off a list of accomplishments from a meeting that nonetheless produced less than he hoped going in. The major failure was in the area of global warming, where staunch opposition from Bush thwarted Blair's efforts to get a U.S. commitment to firm targets for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for warming the earth's atmosphere.

He noted all the G-8 leaders took the unusual step of signing the final summit communiques as a way of demonstrating their determination to meet the new goals.

"If we implement this, we will make poverty history," Blair told reporters.


Not bad though!

(Full article here.)