Muscovites are dying from extreme heat and smoke faster than their bodies can be stored, cremated or buried

Morgues are overflowing and one crematorium in the Russian capital is working around the clock in three shifts

“The cheapest coffin costs 6,700 roubles ($225) but there are only a few left,” a funeral service attendant said.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan

Twelve million [yes, 3 times NZ] are affected [by floods] in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, while a further two million are affected in Sindh.

Not to mention China getting a beating

China is battling the worst flooding in a decade

In related news, Climate change talks go backwards

Global climate change talks have moved backwards since last year, say negotiators from both rich and poor nations at discussions in Germany.

Great, just great.

An angry Russian beach volleyball player has refused to acknowledge losing to Georgia, claiming her rivals were really Brazilians in disguise.

(How do you disguise a Brazilian volleyball player as a Georgian volleyball player?)

Maybe Georgia should have spent more time recruiting Brazilian soldiers rather than volleyball players? Or better still spent more time playing volleyball and less time warring with a large superpower.

Georgia has had the bulk of the good will in the international media to date – probably because people in the West remember fondly Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003.  But that does not fairly reflect the shared desire by both sides to warmonger.

On the other side Russia has again shown that the five permanent members of the Security Council do not have the necessary balance and lack of bias to be exercising the role that they do.  Russia’s involvement in this conflict means that we cannot expect the United Nations to respond in the way that will save the most lives and lead to long term peace.  This is a shame because compromises like that give bodies with less democratic ideals, such as NATO, added legitimacy.  Which possibly brings us back to where we started?

Sue Bradford: Does the Minister agree that this decision will mean that New Zealand taxpayers give Russian-owned Nutritek some $12 million over the next 5 years to cover the Kyoto Protocol cost of its greenhouse emissions; and would it not be better to keep our dairy industry in New Zealand hands, and to have the industry pay its own way instead of receiving taxpayers’ subsidies?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: The owners of this business will be subject to exactly the same laws as any other owner of any primary sector business within New Zealand.

Hmm, that’s good to know given the way the government is currently bending over backwards for so many primary sector business lobbies to accommodate their desire to pass on the cost of their climate pollution to taxpayers.

But I thought the most telling exchange was in response to this later patsy from Jim Anderton:

Hon Jim Anderton: Does the Minister have any information about the assets that Fonterra, as a representative of the New Zealand dairy industry, is purchasing in other countries, and what would our reaction be if Fonterra were stopped from purchasing those assets?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: Fonterra has acquired assets in China, in Chile, in other South American countries, I believe, and in Australia. Indeed, it is engaged in a major expansion of its international organisation. It is very hard for us to say to foreign-owned companies that they cannot buy any part of the New Zealand dairy industry, when the largest single player and trader in dairy products in the world is busy trying to buy up milk supply in other countries.

So, in return for Fonterra taking its model of industrial dairy, river pollution and carbon emission to the world we give up our right have our own locally owned businesses.  But that’s the unfettered free market at work, and I guess the end result for us consumers  should be cheaper milk… oh, wait a minute…