US Navy books vast Pacific firing area five days running The American military has issued further warning notices to aircraft and shipping in the Pacific, offering further opportunities for US warships to destroy a malfunctioning secret spy satellite before it descends to Earth. Meanwhile, NASA has cleared the space shuttle Atlantis to land as scheduled in Florida this afternoon, allowing the first satellite shot to be attempted above the Pacific
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Cunning plan to combat binge drinking A health adviser to the government has formulated a cunning plan to tackle the UK's binge drinking epidemic which some claim has seen this green and pleasant land converted into a booze-fuelled version of a bad Saturday night in the Democratic Republic of Congo - simply ban the sale of alcohol in supermarkets.?

Inclusive 'cohere or scram' scheme for migrants Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today put forward a scaled-down version of a 'points for passports' citizenship scheme floated last summer. Under plans announced to Parliament today, non-EU immigrants would be faced with a pre-citizenship probationary period involving a deal of conspicuous joining in, and they may not have a lot of choice if they want to stay in the UK after their visa expires.?

Bum note Musicbrigade, a Swedish company that provided websites including Channel4.com with music video content, has gone titsup.com.?

Result? Fire, cuffs, etc A South Korean man suffering from a bad case of the booze-fuelled munchies decided his landlady's Chihuahua would do nicely as a post-session snack, but ended up part-flambéd and cuffed for his trouble.?

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Jonathan Weinberg writes... In the race to be the best, and capture the masses, cool firms often make one crucial mistake - lowering their standards so far that eventually it backfires. Apple's decision this week to make an iPod Shuffle available for just £32 strikes me as being one of those. There's no doubt the US giant is one of the coolest companies in the tech sphere. It makes products that look good and have you salivating over them. Who el
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Your HD DVD player just got that little bit lonelier today, as Universal announced its dumping of HD DVD support in favour of Blu-ray. Following HD DVD maker Toshiba's announcement of the death of HD DVD today, Universal wasted no time in jumping fully on the Blu-ray wagon from the burning wreck of the HD DVD debacle...

US military prepares to shoot down probe tonight amid criticism Pentagon is militarising space

Chinese energy company to open chemical plant to make synthetic diesel, dubbed 'Nazi fuel'; campaigners say process will worsen global warming

A loose DVD in a pocket saved a South Carolina man from injury after he unwittingly got involved in a firearm fracas outside a fast-food joint. Fire chief Barry McRoy was leaving the Waffle House restaurant at the weekend in the town of Walterboro when he got involved in a gun battle between two men.McRoy, a Fire and Rescue Director for Colleton County Fire Service, didn't notice he had been shot until later, when he spotted a bullet hole in his
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According to the Wall Street Journal, the get-body-conscious Nintendo Wii Fit will launch on May 19 in the US. Meanwhile, we just got an european Nintendo press release pointing to an April 25 release. [Kotaku and Nintendo Press Release]

DIY gadgeteer Nate True has come up with a home-brew LED watch alternative to those Tokyoflash wristwatches that are all the rage. A mashup of a binary clock and one of those nifty persistence-of-vision displays, Nate's device even packs in a super-bright flashlight mode. You can follow his instructions to make your own, or if your soldering is as bad as mine you can buy a pre-built one for $189, and one lacking the enclosure for $89. [cre.ations
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We've had X-Wing Fighters that go up and down; here's an X-Wing that just goes down. The venue was Minneapolis' Powderhorn Park, and the event was Minneapolis' annual Art Sled rally. Photographer Tony Nelson took pictures of the day, including a rather spanky la-la double robot one, which you can see below, alongside another shot of the X-Wing after its tumble in the snow. You can see the full set on the Minneapolis/St Paul link. [Minneapolis/St
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One fifty-eighth of the size and much less than one fifty-eighth of the price of the real thing, these infrared remote-control Real Drive Nano Ferraris are so detailed they even have blinking turn lights. You can also race the officially-licensed three-inch Enzo, Testarossa, F430 and 512BB against each other as they all have different channels. Four little cars, see how they run in the short video. Be careful with the Turbo Boost button, you woul
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