G-8 Debt Decision Welcomed.

United Nations officials on 21 June welcomed the previous weekend's announcement at the G-8 Summit in Cologne, Germany, that up to $70 billion in external debt of developing countries would be cancelled. In recent months, the United Nations has urged the seven leading industrialized countries and the Russian Federation to provide relief for the world's heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), arguing that the crushing debt burden and world financial crisis have returned millions of people to poverty and reversed decades of economic development. A spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan (whose letter in this regard appears on pages 42-43) said that the UN leader welcomed the "very significant commitments" made at the Group of 8 meeting. "He expresses the hope that financial resources will be made available shortly to implement the proposed measures", his spokesman said.

In Nairobi, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme...