Photo Gallery Protesting the G-20
In his first foreign trip since spring, US President Barack Obama will arrive in Cannes, France on Thursday morning for the G-20 summit, and one thing is already clear: The most powerful man in the world will not be the center of attention here.
"The surprising announcement of Greek referendum and the potential of Greek government collapse will completely overshadow the summit as the specter of default grows by the hour," says Heather Conley, former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.
Gearing up for the Group of 20 summit in France on Nov. 3 and 4, scores of demonstrators took to the streets of Nice and began heading to Cannes, where the summit is to be held.
Security promises to be tight in Cannes on Thursday and Friday when leaders from the world's strongest economies gather there on Thursday and Friday. Here, two officers patrol on a bridge in Cannes.
The placard above these two children reads, "Not for sale." Protesters in the French city of Nice came with an array of complaints of the current global financial system, including what they regard as unfair labor laws and insufficient taxes on the world's highest earners.
Protesters were out in Nice, France on Tuesday, urging representatives of leading rich and developing nations to devote fewer efforts to helping major banks and corporations and more to ensuring a fairer distribution of wealth. But while some protesters took a more colorful approach...
...others, like these activists from Oxfam, made their voices heard in little more than their underwear and green Robin Hood caps.
Nice, France saw festive crowds march along the sunny coast on Nov. 1, unfurling banners with slogans like "Peasants Before Finance" or "Life, Not the Market."
While much of the G-20 protesters' dissatisfaction with the current capitalist system parallels that of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread to cities around the world, the activists in Nice have not latched on to the Occupy name.
A man cycles past a tractor-trailer bearing images of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (left), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (second from right) and messages reading "I'm Hungry" ahead of a demonstration in Nice, France on Nov. 1.
Drawing thousands of people from various activist groups, protesters' demands ranged from taxes on financial transactions to better environmental protection.
The summit's host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has made clear that he is in favor of imposing a financial transaction tax.
This week's meeting, however, will focus primarily on efforts to prevent a Greek default while keeping Europe financially stable as it combats a debt crisis that has rocked markets around the world.
Security, as always, is a major concern at this year's summit in Cannes and more than 12,000 police and security officers are deployed. Here, riot police look on as a protester chalks a message on the pavement.
Another demonstrator wearing a clown nose and matching makeup faces heavily-armored policemen. An additional 2,500 police officers were brought in for the summit.
With police speedboats patroling the waters along the French Riviera, explosive experts and a diver inspected luxury yachts moored in Cannes harbor on Nov. 1.
Their colleagues already buzzing up and down the pictoresque coastline in boats, French policemen also patrolled the beaches and closed off parts of the famed Boulevard de la Croisette in Cannes with steel fencing.
