Renewed allegations about past cocaine use by now-U.K. Finance Minister George Osborne are weighing heavily on a Conservative government that's already seen more than its fair share of controversies.  Former madam Natalie Rowe said she saw Mr. Osborne take cocaine back in 1994 when he was in his early twenties, during an interview with Australian channel ABC1. 

Ms. Rowe said she had jokingly warned a young George Osborne that "when you're prime minister one day I'll have all the dirty goods on you."  She added that "he laughed and took a big fat line of cocaine."   When these allegations first surfaced in 2005,  Osborne confirmed knowing Rowe - who ran an escort agency called Black Beauties - but said that allegations that he took cocaine with her were "defamatory and completely untrue."

Some of these allegations were published in the Rupert Murdoch tabloid, News of the World, while Andy Coulson, who later became Cameron's director of communications, was editing the tabloid.  Coulson quit Downing Street earlier this year after new allegations emerged of phone-hacking during his time at the News of the World.

Again, the cocaine allegations come on the heels of earlier reports of illegal phone hacking that involved the News of the World newspaper and several U.K. politicians - including Prime Minister David Cameron.  The U.K. Parliament has been investigating matters with the Murdochs and others, which include charges that the newspaper illegally hacked the phones of celebrities, politicians, victims of terrorist attacks and dead British soldiers, among others.    [CNBC, 9/12/11]