Gaddafi and his date with 700 Italian women

So many questions. How did Silvio Berlusconi and Colonel Gaddafi become friends in the first place? Even more pressingly, how did Muammar Gaddafi - expeller of Libyan Italians, aggressive-wearer of sandals, unelected thug, deployer of hit squads, scourge of civil rights - how did this man come to refashion himself as a great friend to the females of Europe? 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. Before we start thinking this is just a pact of weirdness between two profoundly weird men, it is not the first time Gaddafi has extended the hand of friendship to the ladies of Europa (I do not mean the convenience store chain; I am romanticising the continent, trying to get into the mind of the mighty dictator). Two years ago in Paris, he met 1,000 French women. His message was clear: he wanted to "save European women".

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/11/colonel-gaddafi-silvio-berlusconi-italy