Americans win Cyber Games

Five Americans took home the gold medal and $50 000 in the Counter-Strike PC game competition at the World Cyber Games held in the US over the weekend.

Team3D defeated the Titans of Denmark on Sunday in the counter-terrorism-themed game where operatives stake out ramshackle buildings with sniper rifles and other weapons to take out their foes, reports Associated Press.

Organisers said about 30 000 people attended the championships and outdoor festivities over the five days.

This was the first time in its four-year history that the World Cyber Games has been held outside of South Korea.

The French government has approved a decision to allow cinemas, concert halls and theatres to install cellphone jammers on condition that emergency calls can still get through, reports Associated Press.

Industry minister Patrick Devedjian gave the go-ahead on Friday, backing a decision by the Telecommunications Regulation Authority to allow jammers.

Devedjian specified that emergency calls and calls made outside theatres and other performance spaces must not be affected.

The consumer electronics arm of the Virgin Group has announced a portable music player with a 5GB hard drive.

Associated Press reports that the Virgin Player is smaller than a deck of cards and Virgin hopes it will rise as the top competitor to the Apple Computer iPod player.

"No one else has the same sort of brand energy that Apple or Virgin has. Plus, our heritage is music," says Greg Woock, chief executive of Virgin Electronics.

"Apple is dominating, yes, but the market share that it has today is not going to last."

China`s police ministry is handing out rewards of up to $240 to people who report pornographic Web sites in a campaign to stamp out online smut, according to Associated Press.

Some 445 people have been arrested and 1 125 Web sites shut down with the help of public tips since July.

China encourages Internet use for education and business but bans sexually-oriented content on its own Web sites and tries to block access to foreign sites deemed pornographic or subversive.