Protests:A spectacular boat chase worthy of James Bond himself set hearts racing yesterday at the G8 summit on Germany's Baltic coast. Shortly after 11am, three motorised dinghies from Greenpeace, the environmental campaigners and masters of event PR, roared right into a 20km (17 mile) sea exclusion zone surrounding the Heiligendamm resort.
On board: 24 campaigners, a banner reading "G8 - Act Now" and a petition calling for greater efforts from G8 leaders on climate issues.
After 10 minutes of thrills, shown live by TV stations' helicopters, German marine boats surrounded the boats, knocking four people into the sea and injuring two.
The campaigners might have been seven kilometres (four miles) from their destination, but they finished right in front of the press centre having dodged 51 marine boats and three military ships patrolling the coast. "There will be arrests, but we don't know how many," said a Greenpeace spokesman.
The anti-G8 protest show rolled on all over the Baltic coast area yesterday. But after the boat chase, demonstrators were forced to go to ever greater lengths to interest the increasingly protest-jaded 4,000 journalists covering the event.
Protesters blocked approach roads to the Heiligendamm resort, even setting fire to some blockades, but hardly anyone noticed.
Upping the summit stakes, 14 men and women wearing nothing except the slogan "Naked without Violence!" on their backs, strolled along the €12 million security fence around Heiligendamm resort.
Five minutes into their stroll, police escorted them back to their clothes. "We want to counter the media's fixation on violence among the demonstrators," said Julia, one of the naked marchers, wearing nothing but sunglasses propped on top of her glowing pink dreadlocks.
The violence that plagued the days before the summit appeared to have abated yesterday, though standoffs continued between police and protesters.
Police said that 20 people were injured in scuffles, a small number among the 5,000 people gathered around the security fence.
Yesterday afternoon they used nine truck-mounted water cannon to disperse demonstrators who went home wet but happy.
"This is a true success," said Lotte Kemper, spokeswoman for the Block-G8 movement. "We said we would use decentralised blockades to surround and blockade them, impede their infrastructure and enclose them within their own fence. We have achieved all our goals."
In nearby Rostock, rocker-activists Bono and Bob Geldof headlined a six-hour concert of music and messages, calling on G8 leaders to keep their 2005 aid promises to Africa. The U2 singer said he had a "huge row" with Chancellor Merkel's staff and accused them of trying to give less aid money than promised in 2005. "The chancellor has asked us to trust her - and we are tempted, but we cannot risk being let down by the G8 again," said the U2 singer.
A spokesman for his African advocacy group Data said yesterday: "The chancellor agrees with us that aid to Africa must increase dramatically by 2010 . . . but so far [ she] has not come up with a robust plan on how to reach it."
With the African aid issue looming large today, her spokesman said: "They're asking us to commit money for the next five years that we aren't legally entitled to do."
