UK: Yeah, We Used Lame Fake Rock in Spying

Oh, the shame from the land of James Bond: A former British official admits that the nation used a fake plastic rock stuffed with hidden equipment to try to spy on Russia. Moscow actually exposed the ruse in a 2006 documentary—complete with footage of agents kicking the rock in a Moscow park when it didn't work—but the Brits had never copped to it until now, reports the Guardian.

"The spy rock was embarrassing ... they had us bang to rights," a former aide to Tony Blair told the BBC. "There's not much you can say, you can't really call up and say, 'I'm terribly sorry about that, it won't happen again.'" What's worse, Vladimir Putin apparently knew about the pseudo-rock for a while, but he saved it for just the right moment, notes AP: To justify a crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs, which increased his authoritarian power. (More espionage stories.)