Jenjie

That was no fun!!! I wanted them not to fix the computer and see if it blew up. :angry: Jack's just a big wuss really! :o What's with the woman who was dropped in the pit? Are the Others the tail people?

well maybe if I had realised I was in the Coldplay section & not the News & Sport section it would have been!!!! :P

Brazil has joined the select group of countries with the capability of enriching uranium as a means of generating energy. A new centrifuge facility was formally opened on Friday at the Resende nuclear plant in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian government says its technology is some of the most advanced in the world. The official opening follows lengthy negotiations with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. Brazil has some of the largest reserves of uranium in the world but until now the ore has had to be shipped abroad for enrichment - the process which produces nuclear fuel. In future some of that enrichment will take place in Brazil. The government says that within a decade the country will be able to meet all its nuclear energy needs. Brazilian scientists insist their technology is superior to that of existing nuclear powers. They claim the type of centrifuge in use at Resende will be 25 times more efficient than facilities in France or the United States. Safeguards Sensitivity over that technology led to a standoff two years ago with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog. Keen to protect its commercial secrets, Brazil was reluctant to give inspectors full access to its facilities and politically the negotiations were complicated by simultaneous concerns about Iran's nuclear plans. But in the end Brazil and the IAEA agreed a system of safeguards to ensure that the new facilities would not be channelled into weapons production. Friday's opening at Resende is being hailed as a major step forward in Brazil's development and it comes amid renewed concerns about energy supplies in South America. Last week Bolivia announced plans to nationalise its gas reserves, prompting fears of price rises. As a big importer of Bolivian gas, Brazil sees nuclear energy as one of several strategic alternatives. http://www.bbc.co.uk

nah!! the ending was very good. quite relgious & profound. also explained how they got to Silent Hill in the first place

A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence. Hamas’s military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said. Abbas, who became president of the Palestinian Authority last year after the death of Yasser Arafat, was formally warned of the danger by the Israelis and cancelled a planned visit to the territory. The murder plan is the clearest sign yet of the tensions inside the Palestinian Authority between Hamas, which swept to power after elections in January, and Abbas’s Fatah movement. Hamas leaders, who refuse to recognise the state of Israel, suspect Abbas of obstructing their attempts to govern, which have been hampered by a financial boycott from donor nations. “Hamas considers Abbas to be a barrier to its complete control over Palestine and decided to kill him,” said a Palestinian source who was an adviser to Arafat and is a close acquaintance of Abbas. It is understood that the attack would also have targeted Mohammed Dahlan, Abbas’s strongman in Gaza. The sources were unable to say who in Hamas’s secretive leadership had given the order to kill Abbas. But an indication of its hostility towards Abbas came last week. In a statement to Al-Jazeera, the Arab television news network, Mohammed Nazzal, one of its leaders, accused the president of being party to “besieging and isolating the Hamas-led government”. Abbas, who is guarded by his own security men, divides his time between his Gaza and Ramallah offices. While in the West Bank he is relatively safe, but Gaza — stronghold of Hamas and numerous rogue terrorist organisations — is a dangerous place. Shortly after his election to the presidency Abbas narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the Gaza Strip. A recent request to the Israeli government to let him bring in new weapons for his presidential guard was rejected by Shaul Mofaz, the outgoing Israeli defence minister. However, the Israelis could not ignore intelligence information regarding the imminent threat to Abbas’s life. “We monitor every movement of Hamas in Gaza,” said an Israeli intelligence source. “So when we learnt that Abbas’s life was in danger, we made sure to inform him without delay.” Matti Steinberg, a former adviser to the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, said he would be surprised if any decision to kill Abbas had been taken by Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, or Khaled Mashaal, the Damascus-based Hamas leader. “However, such an action by the military wing of Hamas is very plausible,” he added. While Hamas is struggling to maintain power, and Abbas to remain relevant, economic chaos is spreading in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. For the second month in a row 160,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority have not received their salaries. http://www.timesonline.co.uk

the plot thickens http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article362553.ece

Several tickets for next weekend's FA Cup final between Liverpool and West Ham have been stolen from a Royal Mail delivery van. They were taken from the vehicle in Liverpool city centre on Friday, Merseyside police say. The stolen tickets have been cancelled and Merseyside police are warning fans not to buy match tickets from unauthorised sellers. The match takes place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Saturday. A spokesman for Merseyside Police said: "Fans are advised, tickets stolen on 5 May from a Royal Mail van in Liverpool have been cancelled and will not be accepted for the game." Merseyside Police said more details about the theft and the number of missing tickets was expected to be released on Monday. Liverpool Football Club also issued a warning to fans not buy Cup Final tickets on the black market following the theft. A club spokesman said: "We urge our supporters not to buy tickets from unauthorised sources as they run the risk of not being allowed into the Millennium Stadium and of being arrested for being in possession of stolen property. "However, all tickets had been sent by special delivery so we will have an exact record of the individual seat numbers. "We will be working over the weekend to identify the missing tickets." Allocation reduced The stadium holds 74,000 with Liverpool and West Ham allocated 24,436 tickets each for the game, with the rest going to the FA. The match should have been the inaugural FA Cup final to be held at the new Wembley stadium - which will hold closer to 90,000, but it was not built on time. It meant the number of tickets allocated to each club was reduced. Many Liverpool fans will be travelling to Cardiff hoping to buy tickets from touts outside the ground. Pop concerts In a separate development in Liverpool, thieves have also stolen £80,000 worth of tickets for Take That and Girls Aloud pop concerts. Police say four teenagers broke into the Radio City box office at the base of St John's Tower in the city centre. Thousands of tickets with a value of up to £142 each were stolen. Merseyside Police said the tickets have been cancelled by the ticketing agent, and the stolen tickets are now "worthless". They warn anyone using them at an event will not gain entry and may face questioning about where they bought them. Anyone with information about the ticket thefts can contact police or Crimestoppers. http://www.bbc.co.uk

how could you sit in a tank of water all day with nothing to do but look at your hands which are falling to pieces? would you not be a lot concerned?

European diplomats say the US is blocking a plan to resume direct financial aid to the Palestinians. The European Commission is considering plans to send funds to the office of the president, bypassing the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Under the proposal, money for basic services such as health and education, could go to Mahmoud Abbas' office. The commission's report said the plan might "avert or delay" a collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Direct aid to the authority was cut off following Hamas' election victory. The United Nations estimates that a quarter of the Palestinian population depends on government salaries. The PA employs some 165,000 people. But the severance of donor funding has meant that the government has been unable to pay wages for March and April. Maintaining pressure BBC Middle East analyst Roger hardy says the Bush administration wants to maintain the economic pressure on the Hamas-led government. The official view in Washington is that if Hamas refuses to recognise Israel, and eventually collapses, it will have no-one to blame but itself. But, our correspondent says, many in Europe feel that wielding the big stick against Hamas will be counter-productive, and that it is in no-one's interests for Gaza and the West Bank to descend ever deeper into poverty and lawlessness. Also on Friday, thousands of Palestinians took part in demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza in support of the Hamas government. 'Averting collapse' Hamas beat Mr Abbas' Fatah faction in January's election, but has faced a severe financial crisis since forming a government. International donors say they cannot pass funding to a government led by a group they designate as a terrorist organisation and are hoping to pressure Hamas into recognising Israel and renouncing violence. A European Commission report on the proposal says: "With current or even substantially increased levels of funding, the EU will not be able to stave off a crisis but might be able to avert or delay a collapse." Under the European plan, which is similar to one proposed recently by France, donors could set up a pool for funds in co-ordination with the UN, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. The Arab League and Hamas have been trying to find a way to pay PA employees directly from abroad. Hamas accused the US of blocking this deal. Sweden and Hamas In a separate development, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson has defended his country's decision to grant a visa to a Palestinian cabinet minister, Atef Odwan, who is a member of Hamas. Mr Persson said the Swedish government considered Hamas to be a terrorist organisation but said this did not mean that individual members of the group could not be granted visas. Mr Atef is expected to visit Sweden on Saturday to attend a conference in the southern city of Malmo. Earlier this week, Sweden rejected visa applications from two other Palestinian officials belonging to Hamas. http://www.bbc.co.uk

Molten lava has begun flowing from a volcano on the Indonesian island of Java which has been showing increased signs of activity over recent weeks. Scientists are warning that Mount Merapi is likely to erupt, but say they cannot predict the exact timing. The area around the volcano has been on official alert for at least two weeks. Despite the latest developments, the threat level has not yet been raised to the highest alert - a move which would trigger a mass evacuation. 'Inadequate preparations' The scientists monitoring Mt Merapi's rumbling have been on the lookout for specific signs, including flows of lava and evidence of burning around the crater. Both have now been confirmed, suggesting the pressure within the volcano is reaching a critical point. There is now a growing consensus that an eruption is imminent - but no one can say precisely when or how powerful it is likely to be. Thousands of people, mostly the elderly and mothers with young children, have already evacuated their homes on Mt Merapi's fertile slopes. Emergency shelters have been set up away from the danger zone, but some reports suggest that supplies of food and sanitation facilities are inadequate. Thousands more people are staying put for now, reluctant to leave their belongings and livestock behind. But if the volcano's pyrotechnics become more threatening still, they may yet be forced to go. http://www.bbc.co.uk

Illusionist David Blaine, who is spending seven-days submerged in a water-filled sphere, is to receive medical treatment. Blaine's spokesman Pat Smith said the 33-year-old's peeling skin and overall condition was worrying doctors. But he added Blaine was "determined" to complete the "human aquarium" stunt at Lincoln Center in New York. A mask and an air line are keeping Blaine alive, and he is also getting liquid nutrition fed via a tube. World record But prolonged submersion in water poses a number of hazards, including nerve damage, blackouts, sleep deprivation and skin problems. Blaine has said his skin is causing him pain "like constant pins and needles" after five days in the acrylic sphere. Mr Smith said: "Doctors are concerned that he's weakening. They are going to work with him through the weekend, trying to stabilize both his diet and his training regimen. "His skin is peeling very badly on his hands. Those are our biggest concerns right now." Blaine will end his challenge on Monday with an attempt to break the world record for holding breath under water, which currently stands at eight minutes, 58 seconds. He has said for the record attempt he would come out of the sphere to be handcuffed, wrapped in 150lb (68kg) of metal chains and dropped back inside. Blaine has undergone intensive training for the challenge, shedding 50lbs (23kg) in body weight since January to improve the efficiency with which his body uses oxygen. http://www.bbc.co.uk

I'm reading Kelley Armstrong's Broken

I don't think I can leave Ian on his own whilst I go to work anymore. He's obviously thinking about this whole Lost thing far too much!!

I forgot it was on :cry:

this was the view from the front rows!! chesh1recat posted it on the Take That Board.

think the rain was to cool the stage down!!! they did Relight My Fire before that and set the stage on fire. I think if you were on the front row you would have got scorched, you could feel the heat from the balcony at the back. Definitely would have needed cooling down after that

nutter!

On a warm spring morning earlier this week, a burly English labourer cut an unlikely figure as he stood in front of the high, wrought-iron gates of a French country estate. Hands in pockets and cigarette hanging from his lower lip, he shook his head as he surveyed the broken letterbox, malfunctioning intercom, crumbling walls and rusting wire fence. Further up what was once a splendid half-mile driveway, terraced gardens lay untended, sculptured fountains were switched off and what should have been a vast swimming pool was slowly stagnating into an oversized green-brown pond. The Italianate-style buildings were similarly neglected and empty. There was just an eerie silence, punctuated only by the occasional clatter of odd-job men carrying out basic maintenance. Clearly, Domaine Saint-Vincent, once one of the most impressive estates in the Var-Provence region of the South of France, is now a pale shadow of its former glory. For anyone with some knowledge of the area's proud history this would be sad enough, but considering the current owners of the 19th-century manor are David and Victoria Beckham - together worth an estimated £78 million - the neglect appears unpardonable. It is exactly three years since the couple paid £1.5 million for the property after "falling in love" with it on a flying visit in 2003. Yet since then, they have not spent a single night there. On their visits to the South of France they stay at the home of Elton John in the hills behind Nice. What is it about the Domaine Saint-Vincent that has made the Beckhams stay away? Could it be that the couple - as locals believe - are simply frightened to stay there? Violent death For what David and Victoria did not know when they bought the property was the extraordinary story of the violent death of its previous owner, and that his ghost is said to haunt the house. Leslie Duck, a former European Union diplomat, and his Swiss wife Catherine De Tscharmer bought Domaine Saint-Vincent in 1986. The retired couple, then in their 60s, divided their time between the South of France and their main home in Geneva. Estate agent Jean-Louis Lagadou, who is based in the nearby village of Bargemon, sold them the property and 250 acres of forest and meadow. He said: "They maintained it beautifully. I sorted out a geological survey for them which revealed there were five separate mineral water sources on the estate, which they used to create beautiful pools and fountains. "They had friends and family visiting them all the time. Their style was very upmarket. You'd always hear classical music and interesting conversations going on, just as you would have done at Saint-Vincent throughout the centuries. "Leslie was an Ernest Hemingway-type character who had travelled all over the world. Like Hemingway, he had a big, bushy white beard and used to sit in the cafes of Bargemon sipping Pastis. "He told extraordinary stories, often about Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, the French admiral at the Battle of Trafalgar, who also came from this area. Leslie said he felt close to him as a historical character." Vice-Admiral Villeneuve's family home is less than an hour's drive from Bargemon, at Tourette-sur-Loup. Humiliated at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 by Nelson's smaller British fleet, Villeneuve was shipped to Britain as a prisoner-of-war but later returned to France. Took his own life It was in the Hotel de Patrie at Rennes in April 1806 that Villeneuve took his own life with his naval dagger. Duck was particularly impressed with the sense of honour which prompted Villeneuve to kill himself after the shame of his defeat. But there was nothing to suggest anything similar would darken his own life - after all, as the couple's lawyer Godfrey Sparks said of Leslie and Catherine: "They were comfortable and happy at Domaine Saint-Vincent." But then Duck - who was a keen swimmer and walker, and used to go hunting in the nearby fields - fell victim to a muscle-wasting illness. A neighbour said: "He believed in the Greek ideal of a healthy body leading to a healthy mind. Accordingly, any kind of physical illness affected him enormously. It was all too much. 'Catherine told us that his body was deteriorating and we all assumed he had multiple sclerosis. He was in a very bad way at the end and couldn't take much more." Local estate agent M. Lagadou added: "Leslie's mind was as alert as ever, but his body was not what it was. He became very frustrated and upset that he could no longer do the things he once had." One day in 2001 - perhaps inspired by his hero, Villeneuve - Duck retired to his book-lined study with his shotgun and killed himself. A close family friend said: "Like Villeneuve, Leslie saw suicide as an honourable end to it all. He was suffering from a crippling disease and didn't want to become a burden on anybody, least of all his wife, and just thought it was the right thing to do." As Domaine Saint-Vincent was a place where Leslie had once been truly happy, Catherine interred his ashes in a wall of the estate's private chapel. Over the ensuing months, she found the mansion increasingly lonely and was seen there less and less. Then rumours began to circulate in the village of an apparition. A local said: "It was just a few months after Leslie's death that the reports of his ghost wandering around started. He would never harm anybody - he just mumbles a bit, going on about naval battles and other historical events which he was passionate about. "A couple of French estate workers have seen the white-bearded apparition. Leslie was unmistakable, so it would certainly have been him. "As well as a diplomat, Leslie was a keen historian and he was always trying to find a link between Villeneuve and Bargemon. He is sure Villeneuve used to spend time here in between wars. It was perhaps Leslie's great unfinished work, which is the reason he's such an unsettled spirit." However, the rumours clearly didn't reach the Beckhams. By 2003 the property was on the market, and the pair made a flying visit and paid the full asking price. Certainly, at first glance, Domaine Saint-Vincent appeared to be the ideal holiday home for the Beckhams (David was then still playing for Manchester United before his move to Real Madrid). Made up of two separate 2,500sq ft buildings separated by a 30ft pool, the main residence is a manor house with four bedrooms, a loft conversion, a living room and dining room (both with open fires) and a fully fitted kitchen, all "packed with original features". The second building is a four-bedroom barn conversion. Dense woodland surrounding the house is populated only by roe deer and wild boar, ensuring that prying eyes can be kept well away. The land also borders the Canjuers military base, which has a training ground where live ammunition is used, making it even more unattractive to potential intruders. Despite being just 20 miles inland from the Cote d'Azur resort of St Raphael, the countryside around Domaine Saint-Vincent is a world away from the Ferrari and Porschepacked coastline beloved of supermodels and racing drivers. The tree-lined hills of Var-Provence are better known for their poets, writers and retired diplomats. A medieval fortress town, Bargemon (population 1,228) has just a handful of traditional French restaurants. There are certainly no casinos or nightclubs and only one clothes shop, Petit Provence, which does not stock a single designer line, specialising instead in T-shirts and staid lace tops. M. Lagadou said: "Victoria fell in love with the property the moment she saw it. She insisted they sign the paperwork straight away. Sadly, none of us have seen her or David since. We've been waiting for a party at Chateau Beckham from day one." A source close to the couple admitted that they found out about the haunting only after they had completed the purchase. "Victoria's seriously spooked and can't bear the place now," said the source. "She likes things to be neat and in their place. She loves buying property as much as Dior handbags, but ghosts don't fit into her view of the world." Since hearing about the ghost story, David and Victoria have spent all their Riviera holidays at Castel Mont-Alban, Elton John's £5 million "Pink Villa" near Nice. Apart from the disappointment of the villagers of Bargemon that their famous neighbours have never stayed in their own house, there is also growing anger at the suggestion that Victoria is bringing in a team of British workers to renovate Domaine Saint-Vincent before sellingit. M. Lagadou said: "This kind of work should be going to local tradesmen who have been working on these kinds of houses all their lives. We are all very worried about what she's doing to that lovely estate." Asked about future plans for Domaine Saint-Vincent, the labourer seen wandering around its grounds this week would only say: "There's a lot of work to be done, but everything is in hand. I'm sure people will be happy enough when they see how it all turns out." But Leslie Duck's lawyer Mr Sparks believes the Beckhams' retreat may need spiritual as well as physical renovation. 2Maybe they need to bring in an exorcist," he says. Daily Mail

THE screams were half an octave lower, the clothes were a bit bigger and the hands were clutching plastic beakers of wine instead of homemade banners. Since the people they had come to see last played together they had left school and gone out to work. But when, towards the end of last night's show, Take That announced they would be walking into the audience, they were screaming girls again. The group strolled in, looked at each other, and must have realised their comeback tour had just turned into a phenomenon. "People used to wave cigarette lighters in the sky," said a wonder-struck Mark Owen, still frozen at 10 years old. "But if you hold your mobile phones up it looks like stars." The version of Babe he sang was great. And whatever you think of Pray, It Only Takes A Minute and A Million Love Songs, updated arrangements brought them back to life. And as an earnest Gary Barlow sat at the piano and belted out his solos, he seemed to be living out the massive pop career everyone predicted but never happened. What about the other two? Well, they showed up and enjoyed themselves. Grinning in his velvet suit, Howard Donald was Keith Richards meets Father Jack. Jason Orange now looks like a catalogue model dad. The pair seemed delighted by the scale of the show around them, which included two stages, a huge cast of acrobats and dancers, death-defying stunts, a daft Beatles medley and a hologram of absent Robbie Williams, singing Could It Be Magic. The moves were looser, and more tongue in cheek. Obviously, Gary hasn't spent the last few years taking dancing lessons, and a funny section on how to manufacture a boy band poked fun at his awkward persona. After support act Beverley Knight joined them for Relight My Fire, the heavens opened and the band got soaked for Back For Good. An army of assistants frantically dried the stage, and they were back for Never Forget, an hour and three quarters after they came on. It was an eye-popping show and, as long as they don't milk this tour for too long, it will be remembered as pretty-near perfect. Liverpool Echo

you would have liked the conert then. when they sang Back for Good last night they had artificial rain, and they got wet (as did the people in the front rows :D )

the book is already out its a novel which was released last year. and no, I don't think its a publicity stunt. no one does that sort of thing for publicity.

because it was my turn to choose :D

forget the Coldplay concerts, Take That are back!!! Its been 12 years since I last saw a Take That concert, but they were just as good as they ever were if not better. All the hits, the Beatles megamix, the new one from the Greatest Hits album. They danced, they sang, they were exceptional. now lets hope they really are Back for Good :D :D :D

TAKE THAT!!!!!!! they're as hot as they ever were, and can still put on an amazing show