You got your chocolate, your waffles, a Government, and Smurfs. Well Belgium, three out of four ain't bad.

The Smurfs turn 50 today, having been created in 1958 by some Belgian guy who I assume was bugged out on some sort of hallucinogenic drug. The impish blue-skinned little turds that annoyed the world during the 80's are half a century old and looking to make a comeback. They have now morphed into Belgian politicians and are even more annoying.

This article offers nothing really interesting, like how the creator had drawn several thousand pages of crudely-animated Smurf porn, but eh, it’s Smurfs.

(Note: Avoid 50 years of blue balls joke)

Anyway Belgium will break out the celebrations.....what else is their to do here, and The Smurfs are celebrating their 50th birthday today complete with parade, smurfberry cake, and sasparilla juice. Can't wait to miss that!

READ STORY IN TIME MAGAZINE

Mafia is Italy's biggest commercial business

The Mafia is now the biggest business in Italy, with organised crime netting Mob bosses more than £63bn a year, or 7 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, from drugs, extortion and prostitution.

Tano Grasso, the head of Italy's anti-racketeering commission, said the Mafia made £21bn from extortion last year, with 160,000 businesses, mostly in southern Italy, paying up. As a result, only one in 10 foreign investors set up companies in the south, he said. READ ON