For the next two days, the world's G8 leaders will be meeting in Italy to discuss the world economy whilst all around is in ruins. Quite literally, actually, as host city L'Aquila was hit by a devastating earthquake in April.

So, as a thoughtful gesture, after the quake, they moved it to the city to "stimulate the economy". Call us old-fashioned, but we tend to think the best way to help people recover from an earthquake is to rebuild their homes: not to host an opulent umpteen-course banquet for our leaders there.

[caption id="attachment_585" align="aligncenter" width="289" caption="Man, that must have been a good party last night..."][/caption]

On the plus side, last year, they spent £142m on policing, as the world's molotov-throwing communist fruitcakes anti-globalisation protesters hit the streets of the host city. Bet the homeless people of L'Aquila can't wait.

The Chinese government has stamped down - hard - on protests in the city of Urumqi, capital of the central Asian Muslim-majority East Turkestan region. At least 140 people have been reported to have been killed.

In all the violence, the Chinese news agency had this to say:

"Oops! Not again!" was almost the universal response when news of the unrest came Sunday night, when blood tainted Urumqi, with at least 140 lives lost and more than 800 others injured.

"Fiddle-di-dee, looks like we just killed 140 people. How clumsy of us..."

I think most people's reaction was stronger than that.