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Live 8 Update

Today's Live 8 News:

The 86-year-old former South African president hosted the concert, which was sponsored by the Norwegian parliament, as part of his "46664" anti-AIDS campaign -- named after his prison number during his 27 years in jail under apartheid.He appealed to the G8 group of industrialized nations to take the lead in helping to end disease and poverty in Africa at their summit in July. "They have an historical opportunity to open the door to hope and the possibility of a better life for all," he said.

Bob Geldof and other anti-poverty campaigners have hailed an agreement by the world's richest nations to cancel the debt of more than 30 poor countries as "a victory for millions". Geldof said: "Tomorrow 280 million Africans will wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny from the burden of debt that has crippled them and their countries for so long - money we didn't even know we were owed and never wanted in the first place, and money they could never pay." Yet Geldof, who has campaigned to alleviate African poverty for more than 20 years, said the deal was "just a beginning".

Irish rock star and activist Bono welcomed the agreement but said much more needed to be done. "There's more to go to really make this an end to extreme poverty, of course," he said, speaking from the German city of Cologne where his band, U2, is on tour. "But this is one of the three asks that we have - debt (relief), a deal on an increase in aid flows, and a deal with the unfair trading that goes on between the richest countries and the poorest."

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    Re: Live 8 Update (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:00 PM EST
    Aside from the concerts themselves, the coolest thing to come out of this is Waters and Gilmour getting back together. via Stage Tech Personnel out of Orlando I was on the PF crew on the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour in Tampa Stadium when the judgement came down about the division of PF trademarks. The Flying Pig was deemed to be Waters' property. But Waters' pig was a male, (complete with Rocky Mountain oysters;-), so my crew performed a radical chainsaw bris and 'he' became 'she'. I'll always be proud of the moment when the sow reached new heights;-) Ahhh, good times, good times.