Thursday, July 7
Leaving Edinburgh, London attacks
It is Thursday morning and all hell is breaking loose around here. As you know, I was at Live 8 last night with 50,000 Scots for the final concert.

We are currently at the Edinburgh Airport. Protesters have been going nuts at the G-8 Summit. We are all sitting in the airport watching the news about the terrorist attacks on the buses and tube station in London. We are watching this especially close because we are flying to London in a few minutes. Does not seem like we will be able to get in to downtown tonight. As we are watching the news, the sirens in our airport are going off and one section of our airport is being evacuated.

Okay, the siren just went off.

Well, I have to get on my plane. Just wanted to keep you all up to date.

Update: We have safely landed in Heathrow. No problems. The buses and underground are closed into downtown London. The news of the four terrorist bombings throughout London this morning eclipsed the announcement of the G8 leaders regarding their pledge to spend about $25 billion more a year on Africa and double total aid for all developing countries, boosting it by about $50 billion a year by 2010.

“We speak today in the shadow of terrorism but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. “The purpose of terrorism is not only to kill and maim the innocent, it is to put despair and anger and hatred in people’s hearts.

“It is, by its savagery, designed to put all conventional politics in darkness.”

Blair has been the point man for the aid package for Africa. Although disappointed that he did not get everything that he and his finance guru Gordon Brown had hoped, Blair maintained that it was real progress.

“We came here in solidarity with the continent of Africa and we have come here to announce a plan for action in partnership with Africa,” Blair stated. “It isn’t the end of poverty in Africa but it is hope that it can be ended. It isn’t all that everyone wanted, but it is progress, real and achievable progress.”

Of course, Bono stated the sentiments with much more dash and sparkle by commenting, “If an Irish rock star can quote Churchill, this is not the end of extreme poverty, but it is the beginning of the end,” he said.

“A mountain has been climbed here only to reveal higher peaks behind,” the U2 frontman so eloquently put it.

Live 8 mastermind Sir Bob Geldof called the summit a "qualified triumph." He furthered: “Time will only tell if this has been historic or not. What is true is that never before have so many people forced a change of policy onto the global agenda and today that policy has been forcefully addressed.”

"The world spoke out and the politicians listened," Bono said. "Now, if the world keeps an eye out, they will keep their promises."