President Barack Obama arrived and was met by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who changed the location of the G8 summit from the luxury Mediterranean seaside resort of La Maddalena off the Sardinian coast to the earthquake flattened city of L’Aquila, where 300 people were killed on April 6. This was a 6.3 earthquake, about a thousand times “weaker” than the Indonesian tragedy which set off a world-wide tsunami. In this Italian city, most of the 68,000 inhabitants are still homeless. Berlusconi hopes to gain additional reconstruction aid through this shift.
It first started as a G5, when the first session was convened by Presidente Valery Giscard d’Estaing of France, attended by Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The following year, Italy and Canada made it the G7, with Russian added in 1997. The President of the European Commission has been formally invited since 1981, making this a heavily European gathering.
Already, 36 people have been arrested in Rome, and 15,000 police officers have been deployed to L’Aquila. Berlusconi is expected to provide the jacket pictured to the right to the participants. The three day
meeting started today and will continue for three days. Tomorrow it will be the G8+5, with Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. According to Berlusconi, they will focus on the world economy, energy issues, sustainable development and climate change.
President Hu Jintao, of course, earlier left to look into the riots in Xinjiang. The problem is that this far western region, about three times the size of Texas, has 9 million Muslim Uighurs, and Han Chinese have more recently moved in, partly to develop oil. The new Chinese feel that the Sunni Islam religion does not tolerate cooperation. It is reported that from 150 to 1000 people have been killed, mostly in the capital city of Uramqi.
Next year, the 36th G8 summit will be held at the Deerhurst Resort in Hungsville, Ontario, Canada. France will host in 2011 and is expected to recommend China to make them the Group of Nine. President Barack Obama is scheduled to be the host for the 38th summit in 2012.
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The Dow Jones Industrials edged up 15 to 8178, recovering 70 during the final hour and a half. World Markets were mostly down. Crude oil dropped again and gold fell $14/toz to $908.
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At 30 MPH, Blanca is now a Tropical Depression, moving west-northwest, and should continue to weaken.
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