Signs and symptoms

The majority of CFS cases start suddenly, usually accompanied by a "flu-like illness" which is more likely to occur in winter, while a significant proportion of cases begin within several months of severe adverse stress. Many people report getting a case of a flu-like or other respiratory infection such as bronchitis, from which they seem never to fully recover and which evolves into CFS. The diagnosis of Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome is sometimes given in the early stage of the illness. One study reported CFS occurred in some patients following a vaccination or a blood transfusion. The accurate prevalence and exact roles of infection and stress in the development of CFS however are currently unknown.

Т е к с т 4. Group of Eight

(9.000)

Canada - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, France - President Nicolas Sarkozy, Germany - Chancellor Angela Merkel (President of the G8 for 2007), Italy - Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Japan - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Russia - President Vladimir Putin, United Kingdom - Prime Minister Tony Blair, United States - President George W. Bush.

The Group of Eight (G8) is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Together, these countries represent about 65% of the world economy. The group's activities include year-round conferences and policy research, culminating with an annual summit meeting attended by the heads of government of the member states. The European Commission is also represented at the meetings.

Each year, member states of the G8 take turns assuming the presidency of the group. The holder of the presidency sets the group's annual agenda and hosts the summit for that year. The presidency for 2007 belongs to Germany, which hosts the 33rd G8 summit in Heiligendamm from June 6 to June 8.

History

The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialised democracies emerged following the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent global recession. In 1974, the United States created the Library Group, an informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany and Japan. In 1975, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to a summit in Rambouillet. The six leaders agreed to an annual meeting organized under a rotating presidency, forming the Group of Six (G6). The following year, Canada joined the group at the behest of U.S. President Gerald Ford, and the group became known as the Group of Seven (G7). The European Union is represented by the President of the European Commission and the leader of the country that holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and has attended all meetings since it was first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977.

The Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and Russia became the successor state. Beginning with the 1994 Naples summit, Russian officials held a separate meeting with leaders of the G7 after the main summit. This group became known as the Political 8 (P8), or colloquially as the "G7 plus 1". At the initiative of United States President Bill Clinton, Russia formally joined the group in 1997, resulting in the Group of Eight (G8). This was partly a gesture of appreciation from Clinton to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who steadfastly pursued economic reforms in Russia and remained neutral to the eastward expansion of NATO. This decision is not without its detractors; on February 18, 2005, United States Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain called for Russia to be suspended from the G8 until democratic reforms and political freedoms in Russia are ensured by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Structure and Activities

The 33rd G8 summit in 2007 is hosted by Germany (Angela Merkel, Chancellor). The G8 is intended to be an informal forum, and it therefore lacks an administrative structure like those for international organizations, such as the United Nations or the World Bank. The group does not have a permanent secretariat, or offices for its members. The presidency of the group rotates annually among the member countries, with each new term beginning on January 1 of the year. The country holding the presidency is responsible for planning and hosting a series of ministerial-level meetings, leading up to a mid-year summit attended by the heads of government.

The ministerial meetings bring together ministers responsible for various portfolios to discuss issues of mutual or global concern. The range of topics include health, law enforcement, labour, economic and social development, energy, environment, foreign affairs, justice and interior, terrorism and trade. The best known of these meetings is the G7, which refers specifically to the annual meeting of financial ministers from the seven member countries excluding Russia. There are also a separate set of meetings known as the "G8+5", attended by finance and energy ministers from all eight member countries in addition to the People's Republic of China, Mexico, India, Brazil, and South Africa; created at Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005, primarily to reach a consensus statement on a post 2012 Climate Change settlement. As well, representatives from the European Commission are present at all G8 meetings.

Under the auspices of G7, a special program for the implementation of the Information Society was established in 1994. The Global Information Society held meetings during February 25 to February 26, 1995 in Brussels, and during May 13 to May 15, 1996 in South Africa. In June 2005, justice ministers and interior ministers from the G8 countries agreed to launch an international database on paedophiles. The G8 officials also agreed to pool data on terrorism, subject to restrictions by privacy and security laws in individual countries.

Also in June 2005, the national science academies of the G8 countries signed a statement on the global response to climate change, joined by Brazil, the People's Republic of China and India, three of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the developing world, behind the United States which produces 20 % of all emissions. The statement stressed that scientific understanding of climate change is sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action, and explicitly endorsed the consensus of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Later in 2005, the G8 pledged more money to help fight the AIDS pandemic. The $50 billion pledge represents a doubling of the amount already allotted by the G8 to fighting the disease.

Annual Summit

The annual G8 leaders summit is attended by eight of the world's most powerful heads of government. As such, it is an international event that is keenly observed and reported by news media. The member country holding the G8 presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the year's summit, usually held for three days in mid-year.

Economic Power

The eight countries making up the G8 represent about 14% of the world population, but they account for nearly two thirds of the world's economic output measured by gross domestic product.

In 2005, the combined G8 military spending was US$707 billion. This was 71 percent of the world's total military expenditures. The US takes up the overwhelmingly largest share with US$478 billion in spending (48 percent of world total), distantly followed by the UK and France (5% each) and Japan (4%). Four of the G8 members - US, UK, France and Russia - together account for 98% of the world's some 100,000 nuclear weapons.

Criticism and Demonstrations

Protesters try to stop members of the G8 from attending the summit during the 27th G8 summit in Genoa, Italy by burning vehicles on the main route to the summit. As the annual summits are extremely high profile, they are subject to extensive lobbying by advocacy groups, street demonstrations by activists and, on rare occasion, terrorist attacks.

The most well-known criticisms center on the assertion that members of G8 are responsible for global issues such as poverty in Africa and developing countries due to debt crisis and unfair trading policy, global warming due to carbon dioxide emission, the AIDS problem due to strict medicine patent policy and other problems that are related to globalization. G8 leaders are therefore pressured to take responsibility to combat problems they are accused of creating. For example, Live 8, a series of concerts in July 2005 to coincide with the 31st G8 summit, was intended to promote global awareness and to encourage G8 leaders to "Make Poverty History." Live 8 organizers have also proposed that G8 member nations adjust their national budgets to allow for 0.7% to go towards foreign aid as outlined in Agenda 21 of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit.

Another criticism revolves around the membership of the G8. With the exclusion of the People's Republic of China, now the fourth largest economy in the world, the G8 no longer represents the concentration of economic power it did when it was created. Conversely, Russia is not one of the eight largest economies in the world. The lack of representation from the 'global south' leads many critics to label the G8 as an institution to continue western economic domination.

Of the anti-globalization movement protests, the largest was that of the 27th G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. Summits since have been hosted outside of major cities. The opening day of the 2005 summit meeting in Scotland was accompanied by a series of synchronized terrorist bombings in London, killing dozens and derailing the summit agenda. A previously unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility for the bombings.