(June 4, 2004) Big business called on African governments quickly to get to work on its peer review system, warning that the continent’s mutually agreed instrument of self-monitoring was in danger of losing its impact.

(July 2, 2004) Jubilee USA announces campaign to persuade the Bush administration to press international financial institutions to cancel the debt of the world’s 50 poorest nations.

(January 25, 2004) A Russian parliamentary delegation will be formed soon for a trip to Iraq, Chairman of the Federation Council’s International Committee Mikhail Margelov told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

(June 18, 2004) Caught in an African bribery case and facing possible blacklisting by the World Bank, one of the great names in Canadian engineering, Acres International Ltd., has quietly accepted a takeover by a larger Ontario firm.

(June 14, 2004) The leading industrial powers plan to help Africa by developing an anti-Aids vaccine and training thousands of new peace-keepers, but did not come up with the hoped for breakthrough on forgiving debt for the world’s poorest countries, almost all of them African. The announcements came as part of an "Africa Outreach" at the final session of the G8 summit that was attended by six African heads of government. Debt of the 42 poorest and most indebted countries totalled $35 billion, Irungu Houghton, an Oxfam spokesman said. "If G8 leaders are willing to write off $90 billion for Iraq, why not a third of that for Africa?

(June 11, 2004) Religious leaders called on the Group of Eight industrial nations to cancel all multilateral debts owed by heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC), fueling speculation that G8 leaders might forgive a majority of Iraq’s $120 billion debt.

(June 10, 2004) Group of Eight (G8) leaders on Thursday issued a day pass for their rich nations club to counterparts from Africa, on the last day of an annual summit clouded by new transatlantic squabbles.