"Tony Blair is giving advice to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and has told him how to win the next election, Cherie Blair has said.

Her disclosure is made in an interview with the Times newspaper to coincide with its serialisation of her autobiography, Speaking for Myself.

In one extract from the book, she reveals how her husband suffered a crisis of confidence over the Iraq war.

But she writes he decided to stay on as PM to fight for his domestic legacy."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7393530.stm

"A Vietnamese man in Norway lost around 35,000 dollars after he was led to believe that mixing the cash with a special liquid would double its value, Norwegian media reported Saturday."

"The victim of the con, who was not identified, was reportedly told by the Frenchman to leave a mixture of real cash with blank bills to marinate in a special liquid overnight, and the next morning he would have double the amount of cash at his disposal.

But when he showed up the next morning to collect his prize, both the cash and the suspected con-artist, whose name was not revealed, had disappeared."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080510/od_afp/norwayvietnamfrancecrimeoffbeat_080510134259

"Data from Columbia disk drives survived the shuttle accident"

""When we got it, it was two hunks of metal stuck together. We couldn't even tell it was a hard drive. It was burned and the edges were melted," said Edwards, an engineer at Kroll Ontrack Inc., outside Minneapolis."

"After cleaning the platters with a chemical solution, Edwards used them in a newly built drive. The process — two days from start to finish — captured 99 percent of the drive's information."

"And to drive home just what a long shot his recovery had been, he later had no success with two other drives found in Columbia's wreckage. Blasted by the unfathomable furnace of entry into the atmosphere, their metals had lost the ability to hold a magnetic charge."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080510/ap_on_sc/shuttle_recovered_data

"Japanese MPs have backed plans to scrap rules restricting the use of military technology in space.

Lawmakers say Japan still opposes putting weapons into space, but claim the rules drawn up in 1969 have stifled innovation by Japanese firms.

Some supporters of the bill say it could open the way to Japan launching spy satellites.

Tokyo was alarmed last year when China conducted a test and shot down one of its own weather satellites.

The bill is backed by government and opposition MPs, making it almost certain to become law in the next few weeks. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7392544.stm

"The Australian military says it is probing allegations that its soldiers mistreated prisoners in Afghanistan."

"The Australian Defence Force did not give details of the nature of the allegations, but Australian Public Radio reported they centred around mistreatment of four alleged Taleban insurgents.

The four men were taken into custody after LCpl Jason Marks was killed in a battle on 27 April."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7391575.stm

"The rate of farmer suicides in India's Maharashtra state has gone up in recent years despite expensive relief schemes, a government report says."

"Thousands of farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra in recent years, saddled by debts they could not repay."

"Some 10,000 farmers a year are estimated to commit suicide in India."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7383662.stm

>>	Junior Field Reporter 08/05/08(Thu)09:19 No.6456   File: 1210263567439.png -(196828 B, 530x599) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. >>6453 They do. Communist insurgency is a major problem in India.

Two men and a juvenile are accused of digging up a corpse, decapitating the body and using the head to smoke marijuana, according to court documents.

Matthew Gonzalez and Kevin Jones have been charged with the misdemeanor offense of abuse of a corpse, said Scott Durfee, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorneys Office.

According to documents filed in the case, Gonzalez, Jones and an unnamed juvenile on March 15 went to an Humble cemetery, dug up a man's grave, left with the head and turned it into a "bong."

Gonzalez told authorities about the incident Wednesday, and showed officers the defaced grave, including a 4-foot hole. Because of a heavy rain, officers were unable to determine whether the casket or the body had been disturbed.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5764886.html

IRAQ: The elusive Iranian weapons

There was something interesting missing from Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner's introductory remarks to journalists at his regular news briefing in Baghdad on Wednesday: the word "Iran," or any form of it.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/05/iraq-the-elusiv.html

>AN adventure park offers a journey back to the Soviet Union with KGB interrogation methods and "beatings" with a leather belt.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23095635-5014090,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDVzCz4W8dg

Soviet nostalgia?! nothing! Are they nuts?

…I love them. They are so crazy that I can't understand at all.

"Counterfeit products are a routine threat for the electronics industry. However, the more sinister specter of an electronic Trojan horse, lurking in the circuitry of a computer or a network router and allowing attackers clandestine access or control, was raised again recently by the FBI and the Pentagon.

The new law enforcement and national security concerns were prompted by Operation Cisco Raider, which has led to 15 criminal cases involving counterfeit products bought in part by military agencies, military contractors and electric power companies in the United States. Over the two-year operation, 36 search warrants have been executed, resulting in the discovery of 3,500 counterfeit Cisco network components with an estimated retail value of more than $3.5 million, the FBI said in a statement. "

http://www.news.com/2100-7348_3-6239221.html