Zurab Zhvania, the Prime Minister of Georgia, died of carbon monoxide poisoning last night. He had gone to visit the deputy governor of Kvemo Kartli (the region of Georgia with a strong Azeri population); his bodyguards became concerned when they realised he'd been in the apartment for a long time and wasn't replying to phone calls; and they eventually broke in and found both men dead.

I only met Zhvania once, but he was a jolly and intelligent man, an essential voice of maturity and experience in what was otherwise a young and excitable government. Georgia is trembling on the brink with South Ossetia anyway, and the international border monitoring mission has just been killed off by the Russians.

This is not good news. You heard it here first.