Sarah Brown blogs the G8 summit

PM's wife promises behind-the-scenes glimpse into other side of meeting of world leaders – and their spouses. Sarah Brown promised today to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the other side of the G8 when she began a blog about the "spouses' summit". The wife of the prime minister and the other G8 spouses will be hosted at the three-day summit in L'Aquila by Clio Napolitano, the wife of Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, as Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, is currently going through a divorce. While the world leaders are tied up in meetings on the economy, climate change and aid, the wives – and one husband – will follow an alternative programme, including visits to people affected by the devastating earthquake that struck the town in April and an audience at lunchtime today with Pope Benedict XVI. The two most glamorous spouses, Michelle Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy's pop star wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, are expected to miss the meeting with the Pope – Obama because she and her husband have a separate meeting and Bruni-Sarkozy because she is arriving at the summit late. Continue ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/08/sarah-brown-blogs-g8