Thousands of protesters are expected on the streets of Belfast to urge G8 leaders to act on global poverty, although the issue looks likely to be overshadowed by concerns over the Syria conflict.
Police in the Northern Ireland capital expect 10,000 people to join two demonstrations organized by trade unions and campaigners against global hunger ahead of the G8 summit tomorrow and on Tuesday.
The British-controlled province, still suffering sectarian violence despite a peace deal in 1998, has organized its biggest-ever police operation for the talks, with 8,000 officers deployed.
Photo: AFP
They will be split between Belfast and the luxury Lough Erne resort where the G8 leaders, including US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will be staying.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is hosting the summit, is pushing for agreement on his three G8 priorities of trade, tax and transparency.
In a newspaper interview published yesterday, he revealed plans to require companies in Britain to register their ultimate beneficiaries to make it harder to avoid taxes, and said he would urge his G8 colleagues to adopt a similar approach.
There was progress late on Friday toward what he has admitted would be the biggest prize of the summit — the start of formal negotiations between the EU and the US on a free-trade agreement.
EU trade ministers finally thrashed out a deal on how to negotiate for a deal, after meeting a French demand to exclude the key audiovisual sector.
However, the Syrian conflict looks set to dominate the talks after Washington upped the ante by pledging military aid to rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The White House said for the first time on Thursday that the regime had used chemical weapons, notably sarin gas, on multiple occasions against the opposition — crossing what it has described as a red line.
The issue of Syria topped the agenda of an hour-long pre-summit videoconference on Friday between Obama and the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Italy.
“They discussed the situation in Syria and how G8 countries should all agree to work on together a political transition to end the conflict,” a spokeswoman for Cameron’s Downing Street office said.
Officials said Washington would increase military support to the rebels, a move welcomed by Britain and France, who successfully pushed for a lifting of the EU arms embargo on Syria last month.
Damascus rejected the US accusations as “lies,” while Moscow, a key player because of its long-standing support for al-Assad, said they were “unconvincing” and hurt efforts to make peace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Cameron in London for pre-summit talks today and then hold a bilateral with Obama in Belfast on Monday.
The US and Russian leaders will kick-start the G8 discussions on Syria, which British officials hope will get all parties in the conflict closer to the negotiating table.
Moscow and Washington have jointly proposed a peace conference in Geneva, building on a similar meeting last year, but no date has yet been set.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including