Remote hotel in Austrian Alps on lockdown for secret Bilderberg meeting - but what will they discuss?
Secret meeting allows world leaders in politics, business and academia to freely exchange ideas.
It's in the Alps and it involves powerful people hobnobbing. But this is not the G7 or Davos, it's the highly exclusive Bilderberg meeting, an altogether more discreet affair.
Held in an Austrian luxury hotel cordoned off by armed police and with military choppers overhead, this four-day pow-wow, which began yesterday, brings together around 140 movers and shakers from politics, high finance, business and academia.
They include several prime ministers, a host of bankers, technology gurus, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the head of Nato and top executives like Eric Schmidt of Google and Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary.
Critics deplore the fact that unlike last weekend's Group of Seven meeting in nearby Bavaria, no press are allowed, giving rise to accusations of secrecy and suspicions of dishonest goings-on.
But organisers say that since the gathering in Telfs-Buchen - last year it was in Denmark - is away from prying eyes it allows those attending to talk freely about the hot-button issues of the day.
The event, founded in 1954 and aimed at "fostering dialogue between Europe and North America", is held according to the so-called Chatham House Rule, according to the Bilderberg website.
This means that "participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor of any other participant may be revealed".