US Edition 
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange crowned 'Rock Star of the Year' by Italian Rolling Stone
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has been named "Rock Star of the Year" by the Italian edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
The magazine said it decided to feature the Australian whistle-blower on its front cover because although he is not a musician, he "is the person who best embodied a rock'n'roll behaviour" during 2010.
He is portrayed bare-chested and bathed in a mysterious white light in front of a bank of television screens.
Rolling Stone said Assange's decision to publish tens of thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables made him a cross between a James Bond baddy, a Marvel comics superhero and a character from The Matrix films.
The magazine also compared him to David Bowie's character in the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which Bowie plays a humanoid alien who is sent to Earth to secure water for his dying planet.
It hailed Assange, 39, as "the exterminator of secrets held by the world's great powers", describing him as "the pop leader of the end of diplomacy and imperial security".
Last year Rolling Stone chose Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, as its rock star of the year, saying "Rod Stewart, Brian Jones, and Keith Richards in their prime were novices compared to him."
A brightly-coloured illustration of the smiling media tycoon dominated the cover of the magazine against a backdrop of the red, white and green Italian national flag.