Blair, Bono Win One for Africa | csmonitor.com:
"It's been a long campaign of persistent persuasion by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish rock star Bono. But finally, on Saturday, they won a victory for the world's poorest continent.
The finance ministers of the G-8, the wealthiest nations, decided to forgive 18 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, more than $40 billion of debt owed to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the African Development Bank.
The deal means G-8 taxpayers will be obligated by up to $8 billion to those finance institutions. It's a small price to pay to keep Africa from further backsliding into poverty, disease, and violent chaos.
President Bush could hardly say no to the deal. Many of the 18 nations can't pay their debts anyway. Also, because of a new US strategy to try to keep impoverished nations from becoming terrorist havens, Africa is prime turf. Most of all, Bush couldn't resist the pleas of Mr. Blair, who chairs the G-8 this year, because the US recently won about $33 billion in debt relief for Iraq from 19 nations."