"We condemn the fact that Wikileaks will continue to release this classified information," said assistant secretary of state Philip Crowley. "We do believe it continues to put both our personnel and our interests at risk. We wish heartily that they wouldn't do it, and we wish heartily that news media organizations wouldn't cooperate with them."

The White House condemned the leak, and conservative commentators argued that Wikileaks.org should be shut down by any means necessary. A Republican congressman who's a member of the House Intelligence Committee went so far as to say that the Web site's alleged source for the files, Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist who is facing charges, should be executed for treason.

About a year ago, we highlighted how the online MMO based on Dungeons and Dragons had gone free after trying to charge for a while, and showed how going free didn't mean you lost money, but it could work well as a part of a business model.

In fact, the success of this free effort was so well received that Turbine's owners agreed to let them open up the Lord of the Rings MMO as well.

In just a few months, they've doubled their revenue by embracing free.

Cranick lives outside of the city limits and he admits that he forgot to pay a $75 annual service fee that would have provided him with fire protection. Firefighters wouldn't lift a finger, much less the hoses that might have saved the house.

Cranick says he offered to pay whatever it would take. The plea fell on deaf ears. Hours later, the home was gone.

A so-called "premium" service would let consumers see movies on TV without waiting as long as the typical three to four months for DVDs or cable companies' $4 or so on-demand showings.

Time Warner Inc. Chief Financial Officer John Martin told the Goldman Sachs conference in New York last week that the company's Warner Bros. studio expects to begin tests on the service later this year. He said he expected the offering to be priced at $20 to $30 per viewing.

A free-to-play "massively multiplayer online virtual world" themed around the King of Pop is due to launch on PC next year, publisher SEE Virtual Worlds announced today.

Planet Michael is described by SEE as "a massive social gaming experience" with "collaborative in-game activities," set in "an immersive virtual space themed after iconic visuals drawn from Michael's music, his life and the global issues that concerned him."

Even though the Army approved the book, the DIA says that it did not approve the book and that it has too much confidential information. In order to deal with that, the Pentagon has apparently agreed to buy up the 10,000 copies already printed in order to destroy them.

The author has already talked about lots of stuff in the book, and review copies of the original book had already been sent to many press outlets.

Wikileaks is just weeks away from posting a huge cache of classified documents related to the US war in Iraq in what one journalist says will be history's biggest military leak.

Newsweek has said the Iraq material "portrays US forces being involved in a 'bloodbath,' but some of the most disturbing material relates to the abusive treatment of detainees, not by Americans but by Iraqi security forces."

A 70cm (27-inch) tall Colombian has been named the world's shortest living man by Guinness World Records.

Edward Nino Hernandez, 24, weighs only 10kg (22lbs). His mother said he had not grown since he was two years old.

"It bothers me that people are always touching me and picking me up."

The biometric ID cards store a scan of a user's fingerprints along with a six-digit PIN that can be used to digitally sign official forms. Hackers from the Chaos Computer Club, however, were able to use home scanners that work with the cards to extract personal information including a fingerprint scan and the six-digit PIN from RFID the chip embedded in the cards.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, interviewed on the show, said there was no reason to alter the technology or postpone a roll-out of the cards.

The foundation recently bought about 500,000 shares of the giant biotech company, according to another financial website.

Civil society is worried that Gates' interest in Monsanto will worsen the conditions of small farmers in developing countries, and might represent a conflict of interest, according to the Community Alliance for Global Justice.