President Bush meets Bono You can stop staring hopefully at that phone, Bono. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not be calling. The Irish rock star turned poverty activist met U.S. President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of a Group of Eight summit but was told Harper was too busy to talk to him. Harper, a somewhat wooden figure regularly mocked for his lack of flair, told reporters on Thursday that meeting Bono was not a priority. "I've got to say that meeting celebrities isn't kind of my shtick, that was the shtick of the previous guy," said Harper in a dig at his Liberal predecessor Paul Martin, who met Bono regularly. "I hope we do it at some point but my principle in public policies is not kind of to meet celebrities," added the prime minister, a Conservative. Activists say Canada is trying to block a deal that ensures western nations live up to promises to boost aid to Africa. For the record, though, Harper said he liked the music of Bono's band U2. 點擊查看更多雙語新聞 (Reuters)

波諾，別抱希望了，電話鈴不會響。加拿大總理史蒂文·哈伯不會給你打電話。 這位愛爾蘭的搖滾歌星（U2樂隊主唱）對貧困問題一直很關注。在八國集團峰會期間，他受到了美國總統布什和德國總理默克爾的接見，但卻被告知加拿大總理哈伯太忙，無法接見他。 有些木訥的哈伯總理因品味問題常受到（媒體的）嘲笑。他昨天接受記者采訪時說，接見波諾可不是他的首要任務。 而哈伯的前任--自由黨人士保爾·馬丁在任期間卻常常接見波諾。哈伯嘲諷他說："我想說的是，愛見名人不是我的風格，我的前任倒是比較熱衷于此。" 身為保守黨人士的哈伯說："以后有機會，可以見一下。但我在公共政策方面的原則并不是會見名人。" 一些活躍人士稱，加拿大正試圖對一項保證西方國家履行向非洲提供援助的承諾的協議進行阻撓。 不過，說到唱片，哈伯說他還是很喜歡波諾的U2樂隊的音樂的。 （英語點津姍姍編輯）