From the BBC:

Leaders of the G8 nations have agreed to a compromise deal on tackling climate change, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

"We agreed... that CO2 emissions must first be stopped and then followed by substantial reductions," she said.

Reports said the leaders agreed to hold talks on a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol within a UN framework.

Mrs Merkel had been pushing for a 50% cut in emissions by 2050. The US had resisted calls for targets to be fixed.

She said G8 leaders had agreed to consider her target, but there was no suggestion that a final agreement would include any mandatory commitment to major emissions cuts.

Richard Sambrook, head of global news for the BBC, gets that networked journalism religion. I offer some thoughts in response (Updated June 10, but not done yet).

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."

Kevin Marsh of the BBC College of Journalism holds forth on The Editors blog about some of the  grimier aspects of Brit journalism and steps being taken to address the situation.

From the BBC:

President Pervez Musharraf has signed into immediate effect measures to increase control over the media.

Current regulations related to television have been extended to the internet and mobile phones.

So, who's going to blink? Neither China or the U.S. are prepared to cut GHG emissions if it means even slowing down the economy. Yet they're running neck and neck for the title of world's top carbon emitter. What's a planet to do?

This NYT story gives a little insight into how the Google search magicians think -- and how they're trying to solve problems like huckster websites.

From the NYT:

Although quite a few journalists in Canada have worked for Mr. Black at some point, Maclean’s (which Mr. Black never owned) has two important connections with him that complicate its role as an impartial chronicler of his predicament.

Mr. Black’s wife of 15 years, Barbara Amiel, is a well-known conservative columnist who has worked for Maclean’s for 30 years, and Ken Whyte, Maclean’s publisher and editor in chief, is a former employee of Mr. Black’s who remains a close friend. ...

Mr. Whyte said that readers of Maclean’s were informed of the potential conflicts. “When I decided to answer the subpoena I disclosed to our readers that I would appear as a witness in my capacity as a former Black employee,” Mr. Whyte said. “Ms. Amiel’s relations to the defendant have been abundantly disclosed, as has Mr. Steyn’s former employment in the Black empire.” ...

Mr. Whyte said that Maclean’s had not given Mr. Black any special treatment. “In the pretrial period,” he said, “Mr. Black sued me and Maclean’s over coverage he considered unfavorable. In fact, he’s sued two of my columnists over our coverage of his affairs.”

I don't blog very much about celebrities, but because I've been giggling for a few hours about Sarah Silverman's thermonuclear one-liner aimed at Paris Hilton at the MTV Movie Awards, I feel compelled to record it here.

A veteran Canadian media analyst challenges the CBC's interpretation of its ratings from this past year.

From the BBC:

The holes in Samantha Wilson's lungs are getting bigger.

There is no cure for her illness and if it continues to get worse it will eventually kill her.

Samantha is 37 and has emphysema, a progressive condition normally associated with older people who have smoked tobacco regularly throughout their lives.

Samantha's doctor, Dr Onn Min Kon, a consultant physician of respiratory medicine at St Mary's Hospital in London, believes her cannabis smoking may be to blame for her condition.

Dr Kon said he had several other young patients who smoke cannabis and have lung diseases normally seen only in older tobacco smokers.

He said: "I've got a collection of young people who have lungs that look like they're 65-year-olds."

And I pronounce it good. It put a smile on my face, a buzz in my head and wonder in my soul the way a particularly perfectly decorated Christmas tree does. The Crystal makes Bloor Street look much more 21st Century.

(And if anyone expects me to say, "It makes Toronto world class!," I'm not going there)

Christopher Hume, the Toronto Star's architecture critic, attempts to answer the question Has the cultural renaissance begun? -- or, more accurately, attempts to suck people into buying Sunday's and Monday's editions of the Star for the answer.

However, there are some useful links to follow within it.

From the Observer:

BBC news is preparing to axe hundreds of jobs as part of the plans by director-general Mark Thompson to cut the corporation's budget.

Flagship shows including The 10 O'Clock News and Newsnight could be affected, according to insiders, and many of the BBC's renowned foreign bureaux are likely to be scaled down or closed.

Senior executives are currently deciding which jobs will go, but one source said: 'Many hundreds of jobs are under threat in news and there are serious questions over whether the quality of programmes like Newsnight and The 10 O'Clock News can be maintained.'

The BBC's news division, which employs around 2,000 journalists, has been asked to find savings of 5 per cent a year for the next five years, according to senior sources.

Thompson is demanding the cuts following the government's decision in January to award the corporation a below-inflation licence fee increase, starting from April this year, instead of the inflation plus 2.3 per cent settlement the BBC asked for.

Nancy Cleeland spent 10 years as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times. She writes in the Huffington Post why she was glad to accept a buyout and leave: (h/t to Getting It Right)

The Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt has a big feature on Ultimate Fighting in Saturday's paper. Being the elitist that I am, having got some college and all, I found this sentence particularly amusing:

When I attended one of those early shows in Buffalo, the fights seemed remarkably crude and pointless, and the audience seemed drawn from a demographic that would have found pro wrestling as challenging as Shakespeare.

My first and only introduction to Ultimate Fighting came about five years ago in a scuzzy Scarborough bar frequented by my uncle -- plus a few who could have been Goodfellas extras, plus a few more from the Larry The Cable Guy demographic.

I was obviously repulsed by what was happening on screen. One of the sub-humans noticed this. With eyes glittering, he turned and asked me in an eerie voice: "Whatsamatter man? Too real for you?"

Yes! Exactly!

The full story might not be available online for non-subscribers to the Globe, but it's worth a read if you can access it by whatever means necessary.

From the NYT:

The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta on Wednesday officially began sales of a bound collection of articles and commentary by Anna Politkovskaya, its special correspondent who was killed last year, and renewed its demand for an honest investigation of the crime.  ...

Why, Street View is so zoomable, it can present you with a recognizable picture of your cat! That has the cat's owner freaking out about privacy considerations, and Google saying they take privacy very seriously.

Seriously, they mean it.

Several U.S. gossip news sites in the past few days have reported that Rachel Marsen has "left the building" of Fox News (h/t to Rusty Idol). However, reports that the ex-stalker went kicking and screaming have been refuted from a first-person witness:

The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin wasted no time getting to the heart of the matter: "The White House yesterday showed that it still knows how to play the American press like a harp."

The BBC's Alan Johnston -- snatched in Gaza back in March -- appears in a video released by the Army of Islam. While it isn't clear when the video was recorded, it provides some tangible evidence he may still be alive.

Here's the BBC story.

Opens today in Toronto! I saw it at TIFF and really liked it.

If you're in the mood for Hostel-lite meets The Office, check it out.

Note: The Toronto Star's Rob Salem also made a Hostel/Office comparison, but I didn't see his review until after I wrote the above sentence. :)

The Star and Globe both give Severance three stars out of four, as does Now -- which also has an interview with director Christopher Smith (with some audio clips). The interview, alas, is from TIFF (a standard Now trick).