Global soccer test for 3D TV

Hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are likely to get their first taste of live 3D viewing during this year's World Cup, the vast majority of them in cinemas rather than at home, according to football body Fifa, reports Reuters.

Together with partner Sony, Fifa plans to supply 25 World Cup matches in the immersive 3D technology made popular in cinemas by blockbuster movie Avatar and expected to spread to living rooms around the world this year.

Viewers with 3D television sets who live in a country where the broadcaster with World Cup rights also has 3D capabilities will be able to watch live in 3D at home, if they are not put off by the need to wear special glasses.

The UK government's controversial e-Borders programme has been dealt a blow by the European Commission. It has warned that passengers entering the UK from other EU countries will not be bound by the scheme if it breaks their own data protection laws, reports Computing.co.uk.

The £1.2 billion e-Borders scheme was originally conceived as a way to control illegal immigration and terrorism by gathering information electronically on all travellers entering or leaving the UK.

However, it has been criticised in the past for various technical and logistical problems, as well as raising privacy fears surrounding the intrusive monitoring of EU citizens.

An IT worker at Bank of America has been charged with hacking ATM systems so that machines handed out cash without recording his transactions, reveals The Register.

Rodney Reed Caverly, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was charged with a single count of computer fraud over the alleged creation of malware that infected bank computers and ATMs.

He used his inside knowledge as a member of staff responsible for designing and maintaining computer systems and cash machines to carry out the crime, prosecutors charge.

Regulators have warned that large parts of a US plan to give its citizens high-speed Internet access are threatened by a court ruling involving Net neutrality, says the BBC.

On 6 April, a court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission had no authority to sanction cable firm Comcast for slowing some Internet traffic.

Advocacy groups said this ruling put the US broadband plan in legal limbo.