G8 Leaders in L'Aquila, Italy AP Photo
The eight member nations who will meet from July 8 through July 10, are the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Italy, Russia, France and Germany. They will be joined by leaders from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Egypt, and South Africa.
The leaders will meet in L'Aquila, Italy where a major earthquake occurred in April, killing nearly 300 people. There is an evacuation plan in place because the area is still experiencing tremors.
China's president, Hu Jintao has had to bow out of the summit to fly home to Beijing due to protests in China's western province between groups of Uighur and Han Chinese. 156 people have been killed in clashes there over the weekend.
The other G8 leaders will meet to talk about climate change, food security, the economy and more.
According to the BBC, a top geologist has predicted there will be more tremors in the earthquake ravaged area this week but says the summit venue should be safe. Plans are in place that will take all the leaders to tents where they will be rescued by helicopter.
Security is expected to be high at the summit because of the G8 summit held in Genoa in 2001 where a protest turned violent and Italian police were charged with misconduct.
The agenda is expected to focus on addressing the growing global economic crisis as well as global warming but leaders haven't come to an agreement to a time frame on which to act on the climate crisis.
Comments
I hope a few earth-shaking resolutions are made.
I would like to hear how they plan to address food shortage and economic aid. How do we prevent warlords and corrupt governments from stealing the aid?
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