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Poor Nations Get G8 Promise of $20 Billion Toward Food Security
Plan announced at the end of the Group of Eight summit in Italy centers on agricultural development to help fight world hunger. Transcript of radio broadcast:
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
Leaders of the world's wealthiest nations have promised twenty billion dollars to increase food security in poor countries. The promise came Friday on the third and final day of the Group of Eight summit meeting in L'Aquila, Italy.
A statement noted that while food prices have decreased from their peak last year, they remain high in historical terms. And the economic crisis has only pushed even more people into poverty.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization welcomed the announcement. But some activists say they are waiting for more details. Aid groups have been calling on the G8 nations to honor past promises of food and development assistance.
The G8 summit also dealt with the world recession. President Obama said the leaders agreed that full recovery is still a long way off.
Another issue was climate change. G8 leaders met with partners from major developing economies, including India, China and Brazil. All agreed that global temperatures should not rise by more than an average of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
G8 members promised to work toward an eighty percent cut in heat-trapping pollution by two thousand fifty. Developing nations have committed themselves to negotiating cuts, but have not yet agreed on details.
Still, President Obama said the results were "historic" and helped improve the chances for international negotiations later this year. But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the targets are too far in the future and that more needs to be done sooner.
Other issues included Iran, North Korea and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.
Chinese President Hu Jintao did not attend this week's meeting. He returned home because of the ethnic violence in Xinjiang province in northwest China.
The summit was moved from an island to the area in central Italy where a powerful earthquake struck just three months ago. Nearly three hundred people were killed and tens of thousands lost their homes. Many of the world leaders visited some of the worst-hit areas.
At L'Aquila there was also much talk about the future of the G8. The eight are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the most recent addition, Russia. President Obama visited Russia on his way to Italy. Some leaders, including Mister Obama, agreed that the group must expand to deal with today's world.
The president also met Friday with Pope Benedict at the Vatican. Then he headed for a final stop with his family -- Ghana. His father came from Kenya. But the White House says he chose Ghana for his first presidential visit to Africa south of the Sahara because of what he considers its strong democratic system.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
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Dong Yuanyuan, a Han Chinese woman whose husband is missing after they were injured during ethnic clashes involving the Uighur minority in Urumqi, western China. Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP
Real ID: States chase moving target
But technology, like politics, contains its own conflicts and cross purposes. Ongoing uncertainties surrounding the four-year-old Real ID Act are making it hard for many states to reach the law’s goal of launching new technologies by the end of 2009 to secure driver's licenses against fraud and terrorist activities.(Full Story)
RFID Provider Backs Legislation To Prohibit Forced Implantation
VeriChip, a provider of radio frequency identification systems for the health care industry, has gone on record in support of a bill in Pennsylvania that would prohibit the forced implantation of identification devices in people, Healthcare IT News reports.
Scott Silverman, chair of VeriChip, said, "VeriChip, like any other medical device, should be an election by the patient or his or her physician, loved one or guardian," adding, "As long as legislators understand the primary application of VeriChip and the benefits it can provide, we support -- in fact we started -- the voluntary nature of implantable RFID."
Pennsylvania state Rep. Babette Josephs (D), sponsor of the legislation, said, "Any positive impact that an implanted device could have would be eclipsed by the potential damage that could be done if the information was accessed by an outside party not intended to have the information."
On June 24, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill. The legislation now is under consideration in the state Senate.
California, North Dakota and Wisconsin already have passed bills prohibiting forced implantation (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 7/6).
The Fed Must be Stopped
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