Interesting Facts

The G20 and G8 meetings being held in Canada are costing a staggering US$1.1bn (£730m) to host. (90% of the summits' budget is for security. I wonder if the world leaders realise that hosting an online meeting on iVisit or Google Talk would be a lot cheaper.)

When photographing a group of heads of state, protocol decrees that the host should stand in the centre at the front and next to him should be the longest-serving leaders. (At the recent G20 summit, Gordon Brown, as host, stood front and centre, with the dignitaries radiating out from him in order of seniority and length of service, meaning the positions on either side of Brown were reserved for the heads of state who had been in harness the longest - President Luis "Lula" Ignacio de Silva of Brazil and Hu Jintao of China. As the new kid on the block, Barack Obama was shuffled slightly off centre.) Source - The Guardian

There are only 19 countries in the G20. (There are actually 20 members of the G-20, but these include the finance ministers and central bank governors of only 19 countries. So who gets double billing? Well the 20th member is the European Union, which is represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank.)