Zoe Williams on Colonel Gaddafi and his date with 700 Italian women

The highlight of Gaddafi's trip to Rome is a meeting, personally requested by the Libyan leader, with 700 women from the worlds of "politics, industry and culture". So Berlusconi got down his Bumper Catalogue of Hot Stuff, got rid of any that were over 25, discarded those with a loud voice or body hair, and whittled down the rest by ballot until he got to 1,000, whereupon the disappointed remainder that didn't get to meet Muammar were given a senior post in his cabinet or a mini-break in his fancy villa with the pools and the elephants.