US secret services allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama has claimed.

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange was on the sharp end of some unwelcome exposures himself yesterday as a former ally spilled the beans on the controversial Australian and his whistle-blowing organisation.

WHISTLE BLOWER website WikiLeaks has posted a mysterious encrypted “insurance file,” prompting speculation about what it contains.

GOVERNMENT and private sector power-brokers who have recognised the challenge posed by organisations like WikiLeaks and Cryptome are probably appalled by the publication of classified documents on the Afghan war.