EC wants increased ICT funding

The European Commission (EC) has submitted new proposals designed to kick-start investment in technology, and encourage member states and their enterprises to use IT to lower carbon emissions at the same time, reports Computing.co.uk.

Backed by Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media, the new ICT Research and Innovation Strategy has three principal elements.

First is an increase in funding. Europe should double its research investments in IT and innovation over the next 10 years, according to the EC, which said it will increase the annual funding available for projects from 1.1 billion euros in 2010 to 1.7 billion euros by 2013.

American weaponry giant Raytheon has been awarded a contract by the US military to improve the state-of-the-art in microwave blasters for ground troops, offering "lighter-weight, non-lethal" ray-guns as an alternative to deadly force, says The Register.

The company announced a deal with the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate to provide "a gallium nitride solid-state source for use in non-lethal weapons" this week.

The US forces already have microwave weapons - most famously the crowd-frying Active Denial System, intended to play a beam of millimetre-wave across riotous mobs. This is supposed to heat up the outer layer of the targets' skin, causing intense pain, but no lasting harm.

Europe is set to launch one of its most challenging space missions to date, reports the BBC.

The Goce satellite will map minute variations in the pull of gravity experienced across the planet.

Scientists will use its data to improve their understanding of how the oceans move, and to frame a universal system to measure height anywhere on Earth.

Apple's build quality has been called into question as fresh lawsuits blame the company for an iPod touch that caught fire, as well as the widely-known vertical line defect on iMac displays, says Apple Insider.

The first of the lawsuits, filed on Wednesday, in a Southern District of Ohio court, claims Apple negligently built the second-generation iPod touch, incorrectly referred to as an "iTouch" through the entire complaint, with a flaw that ultimately caused serious burns.

In the 14-page suit, Lynette Antrobus, of Cincinnati, describes buying a 16GB iPod in November that, just two weeks later, exploded in her son's pocket and not only set his pants on fire, but "melted" through to his leg, causing second degree burns.