The man known as Italy's Great Seducer may have finally lost his charm.

Silvio Berlusconi, the country's scandal-plagued prime minister, survivor of some 50 confidence motions over the years and twice thrown out of office, says he will exit from the Italian political scene now that the nation's parliament has passed an austerity package.

That resignation could come as early as this weekend, although there has been speculation that Berlusconi could hang on until as late as February, when new elections are expected to be held.

Mexican authorities say Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake Mora, "the highest ranking official in the country after the president" and the person in charge of the fight against drug cartels, has been killed in a helicopter crash, The Associated Press reports from Mexico City. Seven other people also died, according to the Mexican government.

Reuters says that local media are reporting that the minister's helicopter went down south of Mexico City.

A Middle Tennessean will join Danny Glover, Cicely Tyson and several other celebrities when they pick up awards tomorrow at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

The 2011 National Freedom Awards are being presented this year to civil rights pioneers in several fields, including education, sports, the arts, and activism.

Special awards for what the museum calls “icons” of the American civil rights movement will also be presented.  The museum’s Gwen Harmon says Middle Tennessee’s John Seigenthaler will be among seven Icon recipients.

A variety of hair-straightening products used in professional salons can expose both hairdressers and their customers to formaldehyde, an independent study finds. And the chemical can be really irritating, literally.

 Music media guru Ian Rogers was in Murfreesboro last night to give a presentation at Middle Tennessee State University.

 The CEO and founder of Topspin, talked about launching his music media career, the music industry, and what it takes to succeed.

Rogers built his first online community during the early 1990s while running a fan site for the music group, "The Beastie Boys."

Now, 20 years later, he runs the leading direct-to-consumer marketing and retail software outlet for recording artists.

Since 2008, Topspin has grown to service more than 4000 artists.

The Albert Gore Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University is conducting a veteran’s oral history project in cooperation with the Library of Congress.

The Center has interviewed several hundred Middle Tennessee vets to date and has 50 more on a list waiting to be interviewed.

Center Director, Dr. Jim Williams, says it’s important to get the stories of older vets recorded quickly. He notes statistics indicating that World War II vets are now dying at a rate of 6,000 per day.

The spectacular collapse of the brokerage unit at MF Global has now cost all 1,066 employees their jobs.

Russians are feeling pretty gloomy after spending days trying to contact a spacecraft aimlessly orbiting Earth.

The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was destined for one of Mars' moons. As we reported earlier this week, it was supposed to scoop up some rocks and return home with its specimens, but one of its boosters failed to ignite and now its stuck.

This interview was originally broadcast on October 13, 2011.

Improvements in medical care and equipment mean fewer troops are dying on the battlefield. But more troops are returning home severely wounded, with injuries that require lifelong care and cost millions of dollars in medical bills.