President Obama has convened G-8 leaders at Camp David to debate the best way out of Europe's debt crisis. But he's also grappling with Afghanistan, the focus of the NATO summit he's hosting in Chicago starting Sunday. (May 18)

President Barack Obama is putting Camp David, the presidential hideaway, on full display for this weekend's summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations, the largest gathering of foreign leaders ever to assemble there. (May 18)

An Anchorage seafood restaurant heralded its grand opening Friday by mimicking Alaska Airlines' splashy salmon show in Seattle. It received a 30-pound king and a seven-pound sockeye salmon for its grand opening, hours after Seattle did. (May 18)

Digital media companies like YouTube and Yahoo have yet to see how much they will have increased their ad base by upping the quality of their video content recently.

But as monthly video data released by comScore shows, both companies have managed to significantly increase the amount of time viewers spend watching video on their respective channels.

Also read: TV nets wrap upfront week: “The biz still goes through us”

According to comScore, viewers spent an average of 434.8 minutes in April watching video on Google channels, a grouping the mainly includes the assets of YouTube. That represents an uptick of 55 percent over April 2011.

On Yahoo channels, meanwhile, viewers spent an average of 73.7 minutes in April watching video, nearly double the 37.5 minutes they averaged in April 2011.

While time spent viewing these leading digital channel operators has increased dramatically, total unique viewers watching them has not.

Tabulating 157.7 million unique video users in April, Google sites experienced only an 11 percent increase over April 2011′s tally of 142.7 million.

Yahoo, meanwhile, was virtually flat, counting 53.6 million uniques in April compared to 53.2 million during the same period last year.

These year-over-year benchmarks for the leading internet video providers follow trend lines of the broader online video industry.

For the entire online video universe, comScore tabulated 180.8 million unique viewers in April, up just 5 percent over April 2011. However, total minutes spent watching online video increased 46 percent to an average of 1,307.7 (I know, who are the people with all this time who are top-weighting these averages?).

Even with the uptick in consumption, YouTube and Yahoo’s rise in usage has come at a cost to others.

Vevo traffic continues to slide

Music video giant Vevo, for example, saw its unique viewers plummet 10 percent to 49.5 million over the same period, while its average viewership time declined by 41 percent to 57.9 minutes. (The comScore report doesn’t track mobile usage, so it’s hard to tell how many viewers are migrating to mobile platforms.)

Also, Viacom digital, the leader among traditional media companies in the digital video realm, saw its average viewer time drop 27 percent to 58.9 minutes (unique viewers were flat year over year at 41.2 million).

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It’s still mum on how its subscription base in Japan is developing, but Hulu did confirm that it has hired a new managing director to run its operations in the region, Buddy Marini.

Previously heading Avex Asia Limited, a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Group, Marini (pictured) will report to Hulu senior VP of international Johannes Larcher.  He’ll lead all strategy and operations for Hulu’s business in Japan, which opened shop in September.

A Hulu representative would not respond to our queries as to how this would change Hulu Japan’s executive infrastructure other than to say he’s reporting to Larcher.

Marini, who oversaw Asian film investment for Avex, started his career in the U.S., working as an agent trainee for Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor and later as a creative executive for Universal Pictures.

So what’s he walking into? Tough to say, since Hulu is reluctant to release usage data on the region.

Last month, the streaming video company announced that it had lowered its subscription price in Japan from ¥1480 (about $18.20) to ¥980 ($12.10).

While not offering an update on its Japanese operations, a Hulu rep said the company has increased its content partnerships to 21 from the six it had in the region at launch. Also, the estimated number of devices in Japan that are “Hulu-enabled” has reached 29 million.

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A 14-year-old boy struggling to stand on 2 broken legs pleads with an instructor to "please help me" as laughter from classmates drowns out his cries. Video obtained by the AP shows some of what the boy experienced at St. John's Military School. (May 18)

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Washington to join other world leaders of the G-8 for a summit. The arrival comes after a decision by President Vladimir Putin that he would skip the gathering and send Medvedev in his place. (May 18)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived at Washington's Dulles International Airport. She joins other world leaders of the G-8 for a summit covering a range of issues including the economy and Afghanistan. (May 18)

On Friday, thousands of protesters have gathered in downtown Chicago leading up to a two-day NATO summit that is expected to draw even larger demonstrations. Many office buildings were closed as workers were warned to stay home. (May 18)

Here's the latest news for Friday, May 18, 2012 : Facebook stock climbs then evens out in public debut; French leader sticks to Afghan pullout timetable; Thousands of protesters gather for pre-NATO rally; Jackie Chan goes out fighting

Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada arrives at Washington's Dulles International Airport. He joins other world leaders of the G-8 for a summit covering a range of issues including the economy and Afghanistan. (May 18)

With the release of a trove of investigation documents in the death of Trayvon Martin, a legal expert says the 2nd-degree murder case against George Zimmerman is still possible, but more difficult. (May 18)

It's Facebook's big day. The site, which was born in a dorm room eight years ago and has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people, is making the most talked-about stock market debut in years. (May 18)

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was briefly interrupted by an anti-abortion heckler during a graduation speech at Georgetown University. A school official says the protester was escorted off campus by police and released. (May 18)

It's Facebook's big day. The site, which was born in a dorm room eight years ago and has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people, is making the most talked-about stock market debut in years. (May 18)

Inside the heavily secured Chicago City Hall, Mayor Rahm Emanuel sat down for a lengthy interview with The Associated Press. The mayor spoke about security and the economic boost the NATO summit will provide Chicago. (May 18th)

Police said Friday they have arrested a suspect in two fatal highway shootings in Mississippi that prompted warnings a fake officer might be pulling over victims. Authorities said the fears of an impostor turned out to be unfounded. (May 18)

We work hard to ensure that our commitment to diversity is built into everything we do—from hiring our employees and building our company culture to running our business and developing our products, tools and services. To recap our diversity efforts in 2011, a year in which we partnered with and donated $19 million to more than 150 organizations working on advancing diversity, we created the 2011 Global Diversity & Talent Inclusion Report. Below are some highlights.

In the U.S., fewer and fewer students are graduating with computer science degrees each year, and enrollment rates are even lower for women and underrepresented groups. It’s important to grow a diverse talent pool and help develop the technologists of tomorrow who will be integral to the success of the technology industry. Here are a few of the things we did last year aimed at this goal in the U.S. and around the world:

• We held our third annual HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Faculty Summit at Google New York, hosting 50 professors and administrators from 16 HBCUs, who came together to collaborate, share insights and engage with Googlers.
• We helped 100,000 students and faculty at 22 HBCUs in the U.S. “go Google;” they now use Google Apps for Education.
• To date, 3,000 students in 77 countries have received Google scholarships and we also expanded our scholarship programs for women in technology.
• We piloted the Top Black Talent U.K. program to help the U.K.’s top black engineering and business students transition into the tech industry. We also partnered with the African Caribbean Society to offer 100 students workshops and mentoring with Googlers from engineering, sales and marketing.

We not only promoted diversity and inclusion outside of Google, but within Google as well.

• We had more than 10,000 members participate in one of our 18 Global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Membership and reach expanded as Women@Google held the first ever Women’s Summit in both Mountain View, Calif. and Japan; the Black Googler Network (BGN) made their fourth visit to New Orleans, La., contributing 360 volunteer hours in just two days; and the Google Veterans Network partnered with GoogleServe, resulting in 250 Googlers working on nine Veteran-related projects from San Francisco to London.
• Googlers in more than 50 offices participated in the Sum of Google, a celebration about diversity and inclusion, in their respective offices around the globe.
• We sponsored 464 events in 70 countries to celebrate the anniversary of International Women's Day. Google.org collaborated with Women for Women International to launch the “Join me on the Bridge” campaign. Represented in 20 languages, the campaign invited people to celebrate by joining each other on bridges around the world—either physically or virtually—to show their support.

Since our early days, it’s been important to make our tools and services accessible and useful to a global array of businesses and user communities. Last year:

• We introduced ChromeVox, a screen reader for Google Chrome, which helps people with vision impairment navigate websites. It's easy to learn and free to install as a Chrome Extension.
• We grew Accelerate with Google to make Google’s tools, information and services more accessible and useful to underrepresented communities and diverse business partners.
• On Veterans Day in the U.S., we launched a new platform for military veterans and their families. The Google for Veterans and Families website helps veterans and their families stay connected through products like Google+, YouTube and Google Earth.

We invite you to take a look back with us at our 2011 diversity and inclusion highlights. We’re proud of the work we’ve done so far, but also recognize that there’s much more to do to. These advances may not happen at Internet speed, but through our collective commitment and involvement, we can be a catalyst for change.

Posted by Yolanda Mangolini, Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion/Talent & Outreach Programs

President Barack Obama says the G-8 economic summit will target both management of the European debt crisis and a 'strong growth agenda.' Obama spoke following his first meeting with new French President Francois Hollande. (May 18)

The U.S. Mint at West Point is making medals that help raise funds for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan. (May 18)