In the news...

From the Telegraph, we learn that Guy Fawkes had too much gunpowder:

The makers of a television programme built a full-sized replica of the 17th
century House of Lords before following Fawkes's meticulous plans and detonating
36 barrels of explosive beneath it.
Filmed inside the mocked-up chamber -
packed with sensors and crash test dummies to represent King James I, peers,
bishops and MPs - the documentary shows in graphic detail what would have
happened if Fawkes had been successful.
The programme, which cost £1 million
to make, shows that the massacre would have succeeded with half of the amount of
gunpowder that was in place in November 1605.

Now, that sounds like good TV - educational and a big explosion!
The Telegraph also reports on the American magazine Don Diva which is aimed at the gangsta (ahem!) demographic:

An American magazine about gangster life that was originally aimed at
prisoners is selling so well that it is to go on sale in major stores.
To the
alarm of those working in crime prevention, Don Diva, which calls itself "the
original street bible", has become required reading in many inner cities.
It features interviews with convicts, and includes tips on where to hide
drugs and buy the best diamond-studded gold teeth and money-counting
machines.
Critics say the glossy quarterly - which carries the warning,
"Parental Advisory: Gangsta Content" - glamorises and promotes violent gangland
lifestyles. Its supporters say the coverage reflects the reality, and
consequences, of crime: perpetrators end up in prison or dead.
(snip)
Initially, nearly all its subscribers were in prison. Today only 10
per cent of its readers are inmates, and the magazine will soon be on
sale at large retail outlets such as Tower Records and Borders.

The Guardian reports on Berluscioni's continuing mixed-messages about Iraq:

Silvio Berlusconi, one of George Bush's closest allies, says he repeatedly tried
to talk the US president out of invading Iraq, in comments to be broadcast
today.
In the television interview, which goes out on the day the Italian
prime minister flies to Washington to meet Mr Bush, Mr Berlusconi says he even
enlisted the help of the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadafy, in
behind-the-scenes efforts to stop America going to war.
"I have never been
convinced war was the best way to succeed in making a country democratic and
extract it from an albeit bloody dictatorship," he says. "I tried on several
occasions to convince the American president not to wage war."

The Corriere della Sera's English page reports on a former Communist mayor who is now an enclosed nun.