HTC faces US ban

The long-standing legal battle between Apple and HTC could make some real headway with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) set to issue a key ruling next week that could potentially ban HTC products from coming to the US, reveals Cnet.

For more than a year, the companies have been tussling over the illegal use of each other's technology.

The battle represents a microcosm of Apple's larger complaint against Google's Android operating system. As such, the ITC ruling could have serious ramifications on all of Google's Android partners, many of which are engaged with Apple in their own suits.

Patricia Dunn, former chairman of HP, died on Sunday at the age of 58, after a long fight with cancer, writes The Register.

Dunn was appointed to the top job at HP in 2005 after joining the board in 1998. She lasted barely a year before being forced out and charged with hiring a team of private investigators to tap the phones of journalists and board members in a bid to stop corporate information leaking: the so-called “pretexting” scandal.

Some of the methods used by the investigators hired by HP were found to be illegal, even though Dunn insisted she had been told that no laws were being broken.

Alleged hack attacks have struck political sites in Russia during the country's parliamentary elections, according to the BBC.

Radio stations, election monitors and newspapers said they came under sustained attack. The sites' owners said they were bombarded with data in an attempt to overwhelm their computers and knock them offline.

Some of the organisations involved have blamed the assault on state-sponsored “criminals”.

The first computer chip made out of a substance described as a "promising" alternative to silicon has been tested by researchers, reports the BBC.

The Switzerland-based team used molybdenite (MoS2) - a dark-coloured, naturally occurring mineral.

The group said the substance could be used in thinner layers than silicon, which is currently the most commonly used component in electronics. It said MoS2 could make smaller, more flexible chips that used less energy.