MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Live 8 stars send “message to world”

The eyes of the world will be on Live 8 - the biggest event in music history.
The Hyde Park concert will kick off with a line-up which includes Madonna, Coldplay, Sir Elton John, Joss Stone, Robbie Williams and U2.

Other concerts are taking place in Philadelphia, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Johannesburg, Moscow, Barrie in Canada and the Eden Project in Cornwall.

The event will be beamed to an audience of billions around the globe.

Live 8 comes 20 years after the original Live Aid concert which raised millions for the starving in Africa. The aim this time around is not to raise money but to raise awareness of Third World poverty in the run-up to the G8 summit in Gleneagles on July 6.

Bob Geldof said: "This is without doubt a moment in history where ordinary people can grasp the chance to achieve something truly monumental and demand from the eight world leaders at G8 an end to poverty.

"The G8 leaders have it within their power to alter history. They will only have the will to do so if tens of thousands of people show them that enough is enough. By doubling aid, fully cancelling debt, and delivering trade justice for Africa, the G8 could change the future for millions of men, women and children."

An open letter from Live 8 organisers to G8 leaders published in The Times warns that failure to achieve a "historic breakthrough" at Gleneagles would be a betrayal of the world's poorest people.

The letter says the organisers and performers at the shows "are gathering for you the largest mandate for action in history" to end poverty that is killing 50,000 people every day.

Delaying extra G8 aid until 2010 would leave a 100 billion dollar (£56.5bn) black hole, while 55 million children die from poverty, Oxfam said.

In his Commission for Africa report, Prime Minister Tony Blair called for the doubling of international aid to Africa, to 50 billion dollars (£28.2bn) per year by 2010.

America, the EU, Canada and Japan have all agreed to double their aid budgets to the continent within five years.