ON THE G8 AGENDA

1. Climate change.

2. Energy; Nuclear energy.

3. Dialogue with emerging countries.

4. Achievement of millennium development goals.

5. Negotiations on climate change.

6. Development of Africa -- 4 issues education, water, food and agriculture, peace support.

7. Intellectual property.

8. Heiligendamm Process. (The Heiligendamm process is an initiative that will institutionalize high level dialogue between the G8 and the five most important emerging economies, known as the O5 (Outreach 5) composed by China, Mexico, India, Brazil and South Africa; and the establishment of a common G5 + G8 platform at the OECD.)

9. Outreach and expansion.

UN BEGINS PROBE INTO BENAZIR BHUTTO KILLING

A UN commission appointed to investigate the assassination of Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.The panel, which has a six-month mandate, is being led by the Chilean ambassador to the United Nations, Heraldo Munoz, and includes an Indonesian ex-attorney general and an Irish former police official.

Bhutto, the first woman to become prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed on December 27, 2007 in a gun and suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL EXTENDS DARFUR MISSION BY ONE YEAR


The UN Security Council extended its peacekeeping mission in the Darfur region of Sudan by one more year. In a unanimous resolution, the Security Council called for the UN to set out a plan so it can measure whether the mission is making progress towards achieving its mandate. The 15-membered body stressed the importance of protecting Darfur's civilian population and ensuring humanitarian workers have unhindered access to those in need.
SOMALIA'S HARDLINE SHEBAB MILITIA HAD BANNED THE ACTIVITIES OF THREE UN ORGANISATIONS IN THE COUNTRY CONSIDERED "ENEMIES OF ISLAM AND MUSLISMS.


 The group singled out the United Nations Development Programme, UN Department of Safety and Security and the UN Political Office for Somalia.

 According to this Islamists movement "The above foreign agencies have been found to be working against the benefit of the Somali Muslim population and against the establishment of an Islamic state in Somalia,"

MAHATMA GANDHI PEACE AWARD CONFERRED ON AUNG SAN SUU KYI

The pro-democracy Myanmar leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been felicitated with the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation in Durban South Africa The award was bestowed by the South African-based Mahatma Gandhi Foundation at a function at the Durban. Burmese Prime Minister in exile Thien Win received the award on her behalf, the award was being given on July 20 because it represents the 20th anniversary of Ms. Suu Kyi’s house arrest by the military junta in her country. “The award is in recognition of her strong commitment to non-violence, justice and peace.