It was billed as the day they would bring the eight most powerful nations to their knees by sitting in the road, but by 9am the idealists, anticapitalists and anarchists had already been forced to take a hike. James Foley (22), a student from Glasgow, Scotland, had risen at 7.15am at the tent city in Rostock to join thousands of anti-G8 demonstrators marching on the luxurious Baltic spa resort of Heiligendamm, where world leaders were gathering.
The Group of Eight (G8) club of industrialised nations said on Friday it would back ”further measures” against Iran and Sudan if they continued to reject United Nations Security Council demands on both countries. As expected, the members said they regretted the fact that Tehran had ignored three UN Security Council resolutions.
World leaders agreed on Friday a -billion pledge to fight HIV/Aids and other killer diseases ravaging Africa. ”The issue is now fixed. The text is agreed,” a diplomat from a Group of Eight (G8) member country told Reuters on the final day of a summit of the club of industrialised nations.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday hailed a pledge to tackle climate change by leaders of the Group of Eight (G8), describing it as a ”major, major step forward”. ”The possibility is here, for the first time, of getting a global deal on climate change with substantial cuts on emissions, with everyone in the deal,” he said.
Protesters led a two-pronged assault on the Group of Eight (G8) summit on Thursday as boats from Greenpeace intruded into a maritime exclusion zone and protesters tried to block roads on land. As leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations began talks on limiting climate change, two Greenpeace boats raced across the Baltic Sea pursued by police vessels.
Anti-capitalist protesters clashed with police on Wednesday, injuring eight, as they tried to blockade routes to a summit of major powers in northern Germany. Police used water cannons to push back demonstrators. Delegates from several Group of Eight (G8) countries said the protests were limiting their ability to move around at the summit venue.
Six years after they first met and United States President George Bush reported gazing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s soul, the two leaders face some tense talks at the Group of Eight (G8) on Thursday. Bush’s strong personal ties with Putin have been at the heart of US-Russian relations since a summit in Slovenia in June 2001.