Brown and Obama to meet in March

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

Downing Street has confirmed Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be visiting US president Barack Obama on 3 March. It will be the first time the two have met face-to-face since Mr Obama was elected last year. A White House statement said the US and UK had a "special partnership" and the president wanted to work closely with Mr Brown on "common global challenges".

The leaders are expected to discuss the global financial crisis and strategy in Afghanistan, among other issues. These include an economic summit in London to be held in April and the upcoming 60th anniversary NATO summit in Strasbourg-Kehl.

=snip=

BBC political correspondent Reeta Chakrabarti said Mr Brown's visit was important because many people would be monitoring the personal relationship that might develop between the two leaders. She said that there had been no reaction from Downing Street earlier this year when former prime minister Tony Blair visited Mr Obama in Washington.

Mr Obama and Mr Brown last met in person when the then presidential candidate visited London last July. Then, Mr Obama said he shared a desire with Mr Brown to strengthen the trans-Atlantic relationship to solve problems that could not be tackled by countries acting on their own. He also spoke of a "deep and abiding affection for the British people in America and a fascination with all things British".

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7903907.stm

[Turborama]

1. Brown flies to meet President Obama for economy crisis talks

Source: The Independent on Sunday (UK)

Mini-summit announced as George Soros says ‘the world financial system has disintegrated’

By David Randall and Jane Merrick

Gordon Brown will fly to Washington next week for his first meeting with Barack Obama since he became President. He will discuss an economic crisis whose seriousness was underlined yesterday when the renowned economic guru George Soros said in a speech that the world financial system has “effectively disintegrated”, with turbulence more severe than during the Great Depression.

Mr Brown’s visit, on 3 March, will prepare the ground for April’s G20 meeting in London, which is intended to draw up concrete measures for international economic recovery. Mr Soros, whose words and actions have moved entire markets in the past, told attendees at a conference dinner at Columbia University: “We witnessed the collapse of the financial system. It was placed on life support, and it’s still on life support.”

His words are stronger than his previous statements: at Davos a month ago, he said the financial system was merely “dysfunctional”. He now compares the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union and added: “There’s no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom.” Another speaker, Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Fed and now adviser to President Obama, said that, while he felt capitalism would survive, “I’m not so sure about financial capitalism”.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/brown-flies-to-meet-president-obama-for-economy-crisis-talks-1628927.html

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Barack Obama meeting Gordon Brown during
a visit to Britain he took last June as the
presumptive Democratic candidate for the presidency

[Captain Hilts]

2. July. Obama was in London in July. nt

[Turborama]

3. Good point, hadn't noticed that. I copied and pasted it from the Independent's site.

Sloppy error on my part and theirs.

Edit to add :argh:

[No Elephants]

4. The first line of the story says it will be their first meeting since Obama became President.

The headline does not say it will be their first meeting, only that they will have a meeting. I am not seeing any error.

[Turborama]

5. They got the month wrong under the photo...

[No Elephants]

6. Oh, thanks.

[Captain Hilts]

7. I was in London then and was disappointed there were no public events. nt