Monday, November 16, 2009 ROME: A UN summit on the plight of the planet's one billion hungry opens here Monday, with activists warning it risks being a waste of time as leaders of the world's wealthiest nations are to be conspicuous by their absence. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader from the Group of Eight industrialised countries expected to be among the 60 heads of state and government who attend the "Hunger Summit" that runs through Wednesday. Pope Benedict XVI will be among the inaugural speakers at the meeting at the Rome headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Also expected at the summit are Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Moamer Kadhafi of Libya, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.As delegates gathered Sunday in Rome, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) made an early pledge of one billion dollars for joint projects with the FAO, the UN agency said. More than 400 delegates from around 70 countries will attend the forum.
Monday, November 16, 2009 ROME: A UN summit on the plight of the planet's one billion hungry opens here Monday, with activists warning it risks being a waste of time as leaders of the world's wealthiest nations are to be conspicuous by their absence. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader from the Group of Eight industrialised countries expected to be among the 60 heads of state and government who attend the "Hunger Summit" that runs through Wednesday. Pope Benedict XVI will be among the inaugural speakers at the meeting at the Rome headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Also expected at the summit are Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Moamer Kadhafi of Libya, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.As delegates gathered Sunday in Rome, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) made an early pledge of one billion dollars for joint projects with the FAO, the UN agency said. More than 400 delegates from around 70 countries will attend the forum.
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