IBS

AFP/EPA

• LEADERS of the G8 countries meet on June 6th in Germany for two days of what are sure to be heated discussions. Protestors will ensure that the atmosphere around the venue is just as combustible. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and host, wants to focus on tackling global warming and has proposed ambitious cuts to emissions. George Bush in advance of the meeting, has also called on big economies to join together in setting greenhouse-gas emission targets but without setting any targets or time-scale. Aid is also on the agenda, as the G8 countries appear to be slipping on the promise to double foreign aid promised in 2005.

• RUSSIA’s regulators will now decide the fate of BP’s investment in the Kovykta gas field after the G8 conference—the government had previously seemed likely to order the confiscation of the field on June 1st. The British oil firm’s Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, is likely to lose its licence to develop the giant source of natural gas in Siberia. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has gone off foreign investment in energy. Last year, under duress, Royal Dutch Shell and its partners agreed to sell a majority stake in a big oil and gas project called Sakhalin II to Gazprom, the state-owned gas firm.

• THE French head for the polls again, shortly after electing a president, to vote in the first round of parliamentary elections on June 10th. The Union for a Popular Movement, led by the new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is in command. And he will need a clear majority in parliament to fulfil his recent campaign promises. Meanwhile, the defeat of Ségolène Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate, has left that party in fratricidal disarray. François Bayrou, a centrist, finished a strong third in the race for the presidency. But his newly formed party, the Democratic Movement, has failed to enthuse French voters this time.

• LEWIS “SCOOTER” LIBBY will be sentenced on June 5th. The former chief of staff to America’s vice-president, Dick Cheney, was known by some as “Cheney’s Cheney”. He was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in a complicated case involving a CIA agent, Valerie Plame. Democrats say Mr Libby intentionally outed her as revenge for her husband’s criticism of the Iraq war. No such charge was proven. Instead, Mr Libby’s story of his role did not square with many other witnesses’ version of events and he was convicted of lying to the FBI. Conservatives think Mr Libby has been treated unfairly, and want George Bush to pardon him. The prosecutor has asked for a three-year sentence.