Man pleads not guilty to hacking celebrity e-mails

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Florida man pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to hacking into e-mail accounts to access and distribute nude photos and other personal information of numerous celebrities including actress Scarlett Johansson.

Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, Florida was arrested on October 12 after an 11-month investigation dubbed "Operation Hackerazzi" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Chaney was charged with 26 counts of cyber-related crimes for hacking into e-mails of "The Avengers" star Johansson, along with actress Mila Kunis ("Black Swan") and singer Christina Aguilera. Other victims were identified only by their initials, which included B.P. and J.A., among them.

The photos of 26-year-old Johansson showed her topless and in a towel with an exposed backside. She revealed in a Vanity Fair magazine interview they were taken for her now ex-husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, when they were still married.

Leaked photos of Kunis showed her in a tub filled with bubbles, showing only her face.

The day after he was arrested, Chaney told a Jacksonville, Florida TV station that he became addicted to prying into the affairs of celebrities and apologized.

"I was almost relieved months ago when they (the FBI) came and took my computer ... because I didn't know how to stop, he told the TV station.

On Tuesday, a Los Angeles judge set a trial date of December 27 and freed Chaney on a $110,000 bond. He will be allowed to return home, but must wear a court monitoring device.

If convicted of all the crimes, Chaney faces up to 121 years in jail.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Alaska publishes Palin emails, media hunts nuggets (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Journalists and others began Friday rifling through thousands of emails by or to Sarah Palin, published in response to a freedom of information request into her correspondence as Alaska governor.

The northwestern US state released the mails in print form to a number of media outlets, keen to find nuggets as speculation grows that the Tea Party favorite and former Alaskan governor will run for the White House next year.

More than 24,000 pages of emails were published, although 2,415 pages the state deems privileged, personal or otherwise exempt will remain under wraps.

The media are not the only ones seeking nuggets in the Palin emails: the New York Times has asked its readers to help it sift through the huge mass of mostly banal material.

For anyone who wants to help in the hunt search engines were set up, including at http://palinemail.msnbc.msn.com/palin2011/allList.html.

News outlets including CNN and the Anchorage Daily News asked for Palin's emails to be released in 2008, after Palin became the surprise running-mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

At the time officials said they could not be released because of the antiquated electronic databases they were stored on, complicated by the fact that Palin commonly used a Yahoo account to conduct state business.

The release comes as speculation mounts over whether Palin will run for the Republican nomination in next year's election against Democratic President Barack Obama.

Palin has kept the media guessing, including during a "One Nation" bus tour when journalists had to scramble to follow her, with no details given in advance about her travel plans.

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