We all profess to despise spam, but some Americans have a dirty little secret about junk e-mail: It works on them.

According to a Yahoo! Mail global survey of about 37,000 Internet users in 11 countries, 20 percent of U.S. residents admit buying products from spam purveyors. About 78 percent said they delete spam.

In Japan, by contrast, people deluged with junk e-mail are more active. Almost half of e-mail users said they send spammers angry replies to express their displeasure.

And, in a nod to how ubiquitous and popular e-mail has become, people around the world agreed that a loss of their e-mail would be more devastating for them than doing without radio or television.

An extract of prickly pear cactus could herald help for hangovers, quelling some of the wretched symptoms that strike the morning after a night out.

Taking a capsule of the extract before a night of drinking and partying significantly reduced some of the symptoms of a hangover in young adults, compared with a placebo, showed a study by US scientists.

The researchers also measured levels of a protein produced by the liver, called C-reactive protein, which is thought to be involved in the inflammation process.

The higher the levels, the worse the hangover, they found. This is the first study to show this, the team believes. Levels of this protein were also 40 per cent higher in the people who took placebo pills compared with those who took the OFI.

The European Commission has temporarily suspended an order requiring Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without media player software, just before it would have taken effect, a source familiar with the situation said Sunday.

Microsoft on Friday asked for a suspension of the sanctions for as long the case was before European courts, which could be three years or more. All filings before the court are confidential and not available to the public.

The Commission ruled in March that Microsoft had violated the law by using its dominant Windows operating system to compete unfairly against rivals.

"All the risk in suspension is to consumers and competitors, not Microsoft," the Computer & Communications Industry Association said when it made a filing with the court last week.

It said the suspension would give Microsoft time to tip the market in its favor while the case was being heard.

Gutierrez disagreed.

"Our position is that these remedies are not necessary today or in the future," he said.

Myron Tereshchuk, 42, pleaded guilty this month to a single charge of "attempted extortion affecting commerce" for demanding a $17m ransom in exchange for not broadcasting proprietary information he obtained from MicroPatent, LLC, an intellectual property firm that packages patent and trademark information for law firms.

Tereshchuk ran a small, competing patent document service that ran into trouble when he was allegedly caught removing files from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and was temporarily banned from the facility. Tereshchuk believed he was the victim of corruption at the patent office, and blamed MicroPatent, according to court records. He began penetrating the company's computers, going through its trash, and pseudonymously sending harassing e-mails to its customers and president.

Though he went to some lengths to make himself untraceable technically, past altercations between Tereshchuk and the company made him the prime suspect from the start, according to court records. The clearest sign came when he issued the $17m extortion demand, and instructed the company to "make the check payable to Myron Tereshchuk."

Email users are more likely to open attachments now than they were 12 months ago, despite the well-publicised spread of viruses MyDoom and Netsky this year.

85% of 1,162 people questioned by Tickbox.net and online marketing agency Markettiers4dc said they would open an attachment sent by a friend or colleague, compared to 84% last year.

Humorous content was cited as the top reason people opened attachments or forwarded them to friends. 83% of respondents forwarded emails to make the recipient laugh. 58% sent emails on to recommend something.

Despite reports of companies adopting stringent email policies due to the threat of viruses, only 5% of people surveyed reported being unable to open attachments.

In a move that indicated that he understood P2P technology extremely well, Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch told CNET that the problem was like 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,' where the leering 'Child Catcher' lured children into danger with false promises of 'free lollipops'.

He said that some corporations thought they can legally profit by inducing children to steal and that they can legally lure children and others with false promises of free music.

Not surprisingly the bill's candy men are the Music and Entertainment industry, which ironically have been working to catch children in a raft of writs and taking them to court for copyright infringement.

Yahoo altered its instant messaging language to stop third-party programs, such as Trillian and the slightly-less-popular Miranda from working with Yahoo's service – Yahoo says the move is meant to prevent spamming on the network.

Trillian's often under flak from the major instant messaging groups – not too long ago, Microsoft blocked Trillian access to the MSN network, however Trillian got around that block.

On the Trillian forums, "Pneumatic" was quoted as saying: "This is a known issue and the developers are working on it. When an update is available we will post it in the announcements section." Considering Trillian's ability to get around blocks in the past, it looks like the Yahoo block may not be so successful after all.

A new Beastie Boys' CD called "To the Five Boroughs" (Capitol Records), is raising hackles around the Web for reputedly infecting computers with a virus.

According to a recent thread at BugTraq, an executable file is automatically and silently installed on the user's machine when the CD is loaded. The file is said to be a driver that prevents users from ripping the CD (and perhaps others), and attacks both Windows boxen and Macs.

But assuming that the unconfirmed reports are accurate, we have here a media company infecting users' machines silently with a file that affects a computer's functionality, without first obtaining informed consent: a likely violation of pretty much every jurisdiction's anti-hacking laws. It's possible to foresee criminal charges being brought at some point: after all, having a good reason for spreading malware has never been much of a defence in court. And a file that alters a computer's functioning without the owner's informed consent is the very definition of malware.

While others may Sing the Body Electric, Microsoft has patented it. On Tuesday, the USPTO awarded Microsoft a patent for its Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body, which covers the use of the human body as a conductive medium (bus) over which power, data and control signals may be distributed.

According to NRG Maariv, Hotmail has been shutting down accounts on the basis of accusations of spam rather than any fact.

In fact all you have to do to get an enemy's email account shut down is to email Hotmail's abuse team, accuse him or her of spamming and the boys and girls at Microsoft will have their account closed no questions asked, the report said.

In two cases, spammers spoofed the sender's address so it looked like it was sent from a Hotmail account, while they were actually sent through an Israeli ISP. In both instances, the spoofed accounts were shut down.

Just to prove that the two other cases were not one off's, the hacks at NRG Maariv opened a new account with Hotmail and sent no email from it.

Then they filed a spam complaint, saying it came from the new Hotmail account. To make it look convincing they attached Internet headers from an old spam and inserted the new Hotmail address.

Within less than 24 hours, they received a message saying the new account had been shut down without appeal.