My Mobile Life

Okay, Have heard it and was less than impressed. Considering the media were raving about it and claiming it was going to be this generation's "Thriller", I am decidedly underwhelmed. Perhaps it will grow on me but at this point, sorry lovey, it's more like filler than thriller! I have no doubt it will go straight to the top of the charts worldwide through pure hype alone, plus the fact that they have been very canny in releasing the song the moment it went to air on radio.

To be honest, I see this being the future of music releases. Gone are the days when artists plugged there music with non stop promo tours and radio play prior to release. In the digital age of music piracy, the wham bam hit them fast and hard approach seems to be the only weapon left in combating illegal downloads. It's certainly working for Gaga.

My crazy cat, Will. Always cheers me up when I am feeling a bit low and behaves like a dog at times.

MI5 has not "directly" asked the government to extend the time limit for holding terror suspects without charge, to 42 days, Jacqui Smith has said.

But the home secretary told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show the security service had been "clear about the growing scale of the threat" to the UK.

She added that she hoped the government would not lose a crucial Commons vote on the issue on Wednesday.

The Conservatives, Lib Dems and up to 30 Labour MPs oppose the plan.

The opposition parties argue the proposed pre-charge detention limit will infringe civil liberties, but ministers argue it is necessary to deal with increasingly complex terror plots.

Ms Smith said extending the limit for terror suspects from 28 days to 42 days was a "safeguard, not a target", and that it was a "reasonable maximum".

It would allow suspects "through the criminal justice system in the most effective way", she added.

Questioned as to whether MI5 had asked for extended detention powers, Ms Smith said: "No, not directly, but nor did they ask for the extension from 14 to 28, nor did they ask for the extension from 7 to 14."

Asked whether the 42-day plan, part of the Counter-Terrorism Bill, would get through Parliament, she replied: "I certainly hope it does, because I believe it is the right thing to do."

The Tories have previously said MI5 is not privately pressing the case for 42 days.

Shadow home secretary David Davis told BBC One's The Politics Show: "The question I have to ask every time is will this save lives?

"Will this actually achieve what we are trying to achieve, or will it do the opposite? In my view, very plainly, it will do the opposite."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "MI5, the director of public prosecutions and senior police officers think that this is an unnecessary extra power.

"The reality is that the 42-day proposal is entirely arbitrary."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written to all Labour MPs, seeking their support for the plans.

He said new safeguards would mean suspects were held for six-weeks only during "a terrorist crisis situation".

But the combined opposition to the plans raises the prospect of Mr Brown suffering his first Commons defeat since becoming prime minister last year.

Ministers are hoping the fears of potential rebels have been assuaged by an address to the Parliamentary Labour Party by Ms Smith last week, in which she proposed new safeguards to prevent arbitrary use of the new powers.

The home secretary said there was "absolutely not" an agreement to provide £200m of extra funding to the administration in Stormont in exchange for the backing of the Democratic Unionist Party's nine MPs.

She added: "This is not about doing deals. This is about doing the right thing by the country, and this country's security."

Mr Brown, who has a working majority of 65 in the Commons, has made it clear that he does not regard Wednesday's vote as a matter of confidence in his premiership.

Senior police officers have backed the 42-day plan, but the director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald said that Ms Smith's safeguards had made no difference to his belief that the change was unnecessary.

Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights dismissed the new safeguards as "inadequate" and said the case had not been made for justifying the longer period.

Binmen have put two fingers up to common sense by issuing an astonishing warning to council-tax payers.

'If we can't pull your wheelie bin using just two fingers it is too heavy - and won't be emptied.'

Bins that need three or more fingers, they claim, constitute a health and safety risk as they could fall from the lorry while being emptied.

The edict from binmen is the latest salvo in a continuing battle between householders and bureaucracy.

It comes only days after the news reported how widowed pensioner June Kay, 79, had been told to drag a 360-litre wheelie bin more than half a mile down a steep hill if she wanted it emptied.

The two-finger policy was discovered by Katie Shergold in the historic market town of Warminster, Wiltshire.

Kate Shergold couldn't believe it when she heard the barmy rule

She watched in disbelief as binmen stuck a 'too heavy to move' sticker on her bin of grass cuttings, just 6ft from their lorry.

Yet 5ft 4in Mrs Shergold, 26, had wheeled the bin round to the front of her house without any difficulty.

British scientists are working on a drug which they say can destroy the most virulent strains of superbug MRSA.

Researchers at Brighton-based Destiny Pharma are testing the drug in the hope it can be used in hospitals by 2011.

Official figures show in the last three months of last year there were more than 1,000 cases of MRSA in England.

Campaign group MRSA Action cautiously welcomed the new findings and urged the government to provide more funding for research into fighting infections.

Pharmaceutical company Destiny Pharma believes its compound - codenamed XF-73 - could be a "breakthrough" in the battle against the hospital superbug.

A study of the new drug, which is applied as a gel into patients' noses, showed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) did not develop resistance to the compound despite being exposed to it 55 times.

The company's chief executive, Dr Bill Love, told the Independent on Sunday that if the drug passed its clinical trials, it would be a "completely fundamental breakthrough".

"The potential is really quite amazing," he said.

He added that he hoped NHS strategic health authorities would back the drug if it won the approval of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

The firm presented its findings to the European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona last month.

The XF-73 compound managed to destroy the five most common strains of MRSA in tests, the company said.

Derek Butler, chairman of MRSA Action, said he was interested in "anything in the development of cures or treatment for MRSA" and was hopeful the research would prove beneficial.

But he added: "I think more tests need to be done on it. We need to be careful in saying we have beaten the resistance problem.

"Bacteria have a habit of being able to get round any treatments we develop."

A Department of Health spokesman said "a close watch" would be maintained on all emerging findings regarding the superbug.

The latest official figures show recent drops in the number of new MRSA infections seem to have stalled.

Cases in England rose by 0.6% between October and December 2007 to 1,087, the Health Protection Agency said last month.

It comes after a series of continuous drops in infections since April 2006.

Last September, Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered all hospitals to deep clean, to tackle the spread of infections, such as MRSA.

But the Conservatives said the programme was a shambles as not all the money promised to cover the costs of cleaning had materialised.

Cleaning firms said ministers should instead have properly funded day-to-day cleaning.