Newsline, Wednesday 8 July 2009: MEND rebels defend their actions; the G8 summit opens in Italy and a new fuel cell plane that is eco-friendly.

MEND rebels in Nigeria defend attacks:
Nigeria’s most prominent militant group has admitted to sabotaging oil pipelines operated by Shell and Agip. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has scaled up attacks in Bayelsa state in recent weeks, despite the offer of an amnesty from the country’s president. A MEND spokesman defends their position.
Listen to a member of MEND explain the rebel group's aims.

Growing chaos at G8 summit:
As the G8 Summit gets off to a chaotic start in L’Aquila, Italy, the Food Security Plan is at the top of the agenda, with the United States calling for 15 billion dollars in farming investments to help poor countries. But as new economies play an ever more important role on the global stage, is the G8 still a viable organisation?
 

Eco-friendly aeroplanes?
The world's first piloted hydrogen fuel-cell aircraft has been successfully tested in Hamburg – could the ‘Antares’ be the first plane with zero CO2 emissions?

Cockpit hotel
A Dutch entrepreneur turns a former East German jet into a luxury hotel.

Listen to an interview with Andreas Friedrich of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), speaking to Newsline from the airport runway in Hamburg.