Fidel Castro turned 81 today. Fireworks exploded over Havana Bay in celebration. Hundreds of people stood on the Malecon sea front just after midnight to watch the fireworks marking Castro’s birthday and the end of Havana’s annual summer carnival.

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Apparently, the Italian Political Class are living a life of luxury and it isn’t pleasing the Italian masses.

Italy’s President has ordered the presidential palace to make sweeping budget cuts in a bid to appease public opinion.

The Palazzo del Quirinale costs €235m a year to run – twice as much as the White House and four times as much as Buckingham Palace – this is mainly salaries for more than 2,000 civilian and police employees.

The Italian parliament voted to cut their pension privileges and cancelled an annual grant of €3,100 for “travel and research abroad”, an amount paid to all Member of Parliament whether they travelled or not!

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