To the Point

Aftermath of the London Bombing and the G8 Summit

The death toll from yesterday's bombings has reached 50, but Londoners are back riding trains and buses and telling reporters that "life must go on." Investigators say the explosives were set off by timers, not suicide bombers, and that the perpetrators are probably still at large. Meantime, the G8 Summit in Scotland has wrapped up with Prime Minister Tony Blair getting his pledge of new money for Africa and an agreement to disagree on global warming, but not his desired target reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions, largely because of US objections and its insistence that India and China should be included. Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced a partial pullout of troops from Iraq to begin in September. We have updates from London and Gleneagles, from journalists, experts in Africa and Europe and two former US State Department officials. Making News: Update on the London Bombing Investigation Late this afternoon, London time, Police Commissioner Ian Blair summarized the investigation into yesterday's four deadly bombings, discounting the suggestion that the attacks were the work of suicide bombers or a single perpetrator. Gordon Corera, security correspondent for the BBC, has more on the ongoing investigation. Reporter's Notebook: Will Cities Survive Terrorism? Mayor Ken Livingstone today praised the resilience of Londoners in the aftermath of yesterday's bombings, observing that that this year, for the first time, a majority of the world's people live in cities. Even though cities are the centers of contemporary civilization, history demonstrates that cities that rise can also fall. Joel Kotkin, author of The City: a Global History, considers the future of cities in the Age of Terrorism.