From the BBC:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosting the summit, has set what is seen as an ambitious personal goal of persuading the leading industrialised countries to commit to cutting emissions by 50% by 2050.

She also wants them to increase fuel efficiency by 20% and limit the world's temperature rise to 2C.

However, President George W Bush's senior climate adviser said on Wednesday that a number of countries - including the US - would not sign up to those commitments.

James Connaughton insisted that there had been significant progress and consensus on the issue of climate change. But he made clear the US did not believe the G8 should be the forum for setting targets.

"There is significant agreement that those should be established on a national basis, and the only area of disagreement is that the G8 should dictate the national policies of its members," he said.

The BBC and the Guardian have some articles that find holes in some potentially useful tools for reducing carbon emissions: Carbon trading and the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.

From the NYT:

The board that oversees the government’s Arabic-language satellite television network is seeking an outside review after recent broadcasts that included inflammatory language referring to Israel or Jews.

The overseers of the network, Al Hurra, have acknowledged mistakes, even as they defended the journalistic principle of broadcasting views critical of the United States or its allies. The Broadcasting Board of Governors said the review would examine Al Hurra’s programming for “journalistic integrity and adherence to the standards and principles” of the federal law chartering American-sponsored programming, said Larry Hart, a spokesman for the board.

A broadcast in December included a lengthy speech by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The network later said the speech had not been screened for anti-Israeli content before it was broadcast because no supervisor spoke Arabic.

Foraying into the volatile world of reporting on climate change has proved to be good business for the Atlanta-based The Weather Channel, but it has also brought a whiff of controversy.

From AP via Yahoo! News:

Police said Tuesday they have filed a preliminary complaint against about 200 journalists for defying a ban on rallies in the capital by protesting curbs on the media, the latest sign of government intolerance of coverage of a political crisis.

Although no arrests were made immediately, the move came a day after hundreds of journalists, lawyers and opposition supporters rallied in Islamabad to protest the imposition of an emergency ordinance by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that tightened the regulation of electronic media, including private TV channels that he has accused of anti-government bias.

In addition, more than 60 opposition activists have been detained in Lahore and five other cities in Punjab province since Monday on government orders to keep them from joining in journalists' protests and creating law-and-order problems, a senior Lahore police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make media comments.

"I have talked to senior police officials but they are not telling me under what charges the action is being carried out," said Naveed Chaudhry, a spokesman for the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party.

Musharraf's new ordinance authorizes the government to seal the premises of broadcasters or distributors breaking the law, and raises possible fines for violations from $16,665 to $166,650. An offender can also have its license suspended.

From the AP story on Yahoo! News:

Fox News Channel apologized on-air Tuesday for running tape of a different congressman while reporting Monday on the indictment of Rep. William J. Jefferson on bribery charges.

The network ran footage of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan instead of Jefferson. Both congressmen are black.

Fox blamed the mistake on a 22-year-old production assistant hurriedly grabbing a wrong videotape. Fox's Washington bureau chief, Brian Wilson, said he was mortified by the error.

On Tuesday, Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum said about the Jefferson story: "We mistakenly ran the wrong videotape accompanying that story and we apologize for that error."

The apology apparently wasn't accepted by Conyers.

"Fox News has a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes that are neither fair, nor balanced," he said Tuesday. "This type of disrespect for people of color should no longer be tolerated. I am personally offended by the network's complete disregard for accuracy in reporting and lackluster on-air apology."