To the Point

The G8 Middle East Democracy Initiative

Despite the striking absence of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, world leaders at the G-8 Summit in Georgia have signed on to President Bush-s latest plan for democratizing the Middle East, one which modifies America's strategy of searching for -stability- by supporting Arab governments that repressed their people and denied human rights. But in the region itself, the US is suspect as an imperialist ally of Israel that wants to take Arab oil and torture Muslim prisoners. Does the US have the credibility to push for reform? Does real change depend on peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Has the President watered down his plan to guarantee allied support before November-s election? Warren Olney looks at the latest plan with experts from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and former policy assistants to President Clinton and UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Making News: Tensions Simmer at the G8 Summit The world's leaders gathered this week at Sea Island, Georgia for the annual G8 Summit. Although they passed President Bush's latest Middle East peace plan, old divisions were still very much in evidence. Glenn Kessler, who's covering the summit for the Washington Post, updates the curious sidestepping of a discussion over NATO's role in Iraq, and the Bush-Chirac diplomatic debate over "missionaries for democracy." Reporters Notebook: Study Finds That Dogs Understand Language Dog owners who think they have to spell words like -bath- or -walk- may be right that their pets really do understand language. One such Border Collie is the subject of a report in the latest issue of Science magazine. Rico caught the attention of a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Julia Fischer says she has proved scientifically that Rico can understand more than 200 words.