G8 cancels debt of the world's poorest countries

The world's richest countries will assume the debt burden of 18 of the world's poorest countries—about $40bn (£22bn; €33bn)—after a final agreement reached in London last weekend by finance ministers meeting ahead of next month's summit of the G8 (the world's most industrialised countries) in Scotland.

The deal will include all debts owed by the qualifying countries to the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Fourteen of the countries included in …