A case in point: News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch, at the quarterly presentation of his media conglomerate's results, explained why he wouldn't be investing more in Putin's Russia. "This is purely me, I’m sorry: the more I read about investments in Russia, the less I like the feel of it. The more successful we’d be, the more vulnerable we’d be to have it stolen from us, so there we sell now." (Incidentally, that was a Superbowl championship ring that kleptocratic Russian president Vladimir Putin was trying on in this photo with Murdoch from last year—and not the ring that the media mogul lost this year in Sun Valley.)

Of course, the Australian media mogul was equally outspoken about China, suggesting that western-style media would undermine the supremacy of the country's Communist regime. And he's spent years eating his words.

The Dreams and Daemons blog claims that Harnden sent them a copy of the story as originally filed. It's written in journalistic future tense, i.e. "Saddam Hussein will spend his last moments hooded" etc. The barely unstated accusation turns round on Telegraph editorial, making it seem as though they rehabbed Harnden's article into authoritative past tense, complete with inaccurate headline ("Humiliated and hooded, the tyrant faces his fate on the steel scaffold"). Rather than answer resulting questions, the Telegraph instead issued a memo instructing staff not to blog about the paper or their jobs. Unfortunate memo phraseology alert: "Think carefully before blogging about journalistic 'tricks of the trade'." It's a little gauche to file a forward-looking "this will happen thus" story just to beat a deadline, but it's naive to think yanking an "incriminating" in-house blog post looks any less contemptible than yanking the actual news story that spawned it.

Humiliated and hooded, the tyrant faces his fate on the steel scaffold [Telegraph]
Telegraph executes Saddam blog [Guardian]
What Toby Harnden actually said.... [Dreams and Daemons]
Telegraph gets tough with bloggers [Guardian]

Knives out for D&G [Guardian]

Among the 140 guests were Ian McKellen, Geri Halliwell, Rufus Wainwright, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Monica Lewinsky.

Alan Cumming, boyfriend make it official [AP]

Whores for Low Rent [VeeCee via Adrants]

XMAS AT AMAZON [Cool Hunter via Boing Boing]

[Photo: Getty]

Related: Whole rabbit carcass on Amazon [Boing Boing]

Brazil transfixed by 4th anorexia death [AP]

Frangelico Gets Sticky, Sexy, Somewhat Uncomfortable [Adrants]

"I think this city is going to become a sadder, duller place," said Dalton Silvano, who cast the sole dissenting vote and is in the advertising business. "Advertising is both an art form and, when you're in your car or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom."

Streets Are Paved With Neon's Glare, and City Calls a Halt [NYT]
[Photo: 45street]

So speculation, such as it is, centers around which American spy agency would be keeping tabs on Princess Diana. "American secret service" is rather nonsensical; the actual U.S. Secret Service works security for the President (and veep) and has a minor stake in counterfeiting, so they wouldn't likely care, unless Diana was plotting to assassinate Bill Clinton. The CIA claims innocence, even going so far as to call the idea "rubbish" in a very British turn of phrase. This sort of thing was always more the FBI's bag since J. Edgar Hoover days, but they wouldn't have much reason to work in Paris, much less on a nonentity like Diana, as who really cared about her anti-land-mine philanthropy. Of course, Bill Clinton didn't want the land mines out of the Korean demilitarized zone, so perhaps Diana had motive to take him out, thus earning her a Secret Service bug after all. Tune in Thursday for more warmed-over details on the death of some lady.

Media probe mystery of possible U.S. spying on Diana [Reuters]
[Photo: Getty Images]

A prosecutor told the South Jakarta District Court that Erwin Arnada oversaw photo shoots and published revealing pictures of female models in underwear, some showing partially exposed breasts.

"The models also had inviting expressions on their faces," said Resni Muchtar, adding that the magazine included lascivious and lustful comments.

Playboy editor goes on trial in Jakarta [AP]
[Photo: Getty]

Rocker Pete Doherty Spared Jail Time [AP]
[Photo: Getty]

Earlier: If It's Sunday, Pete Doherty Must Be on Crack

If you're going to have a weird malfunctioning-robot fainting spell, it's probably best to do it away from the news cameras. Recently ousted Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had his TMZ moment at a rally this weekend, appearing to blow a fuse while speaking at a Milan rally celebrating his own self. Observe as a handler pries Berlusconi's hands off the lectern, then as the two are surrounded by a mob of security goons/technicians. Berlusconi is said to be recovering nicely, though his camera sense has significantly degraded since his virile days of banging the meter maid.

Heart scare won't stop Berlusconi in politics [Reuters]

Monday Outlook [Daily Nightly]

Concordia Children's Services - Piglets [I believe in adv]

Douglas Photo Battle Goes to Top Court [AP]

Rocker Pete Doherty Released on Bail [AP]
[Photo: Getty]

Look east [Guardian]

Angelina Jolie Gets on Full Mumbai Train [AP]
[Photo: Getty]

Earlier: The Academy Shall Not Overlook the Caucasian Sacrifice

appeared in court wearing a black coat and clutching a black trilby hat. He told the court he could not pay the fine Wednesday because he had only 50 cents with him.

He apologized for the incident, but called [kick recipient and BBC journalist Trudi] Barber part of the 'harassing scum of press.'

Doherty Fined for Assaulting Journalist [AP]
[Photo: Getty Images]