The European Union has launched a legal challenge against Canada at the World Trade Organization to protest against provincial backing for solar and wind energy projects, the bloc's executive said on Thursday.

Cisco Systems rose as much as 13% in late trading after profit and sales beat analysts' estimates, the first time in six quarters that the shares gained after results.

Seagate has shipped its one millionth solid state hybrid drive for laptop PCs after launching the product - Momentus XT - in spring 2010. Major computer makers including Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Sony and Toshiba now offer laptops powered by the 2.5-inch drive.

Bridgelux expects to begin making LED chips on silicon wafers in about two years, a technology transition which promises to slash LED lighting costs.

Centrotherm Photovoltaics AG (CTN), a German maker of production equipment for the solar industry, rose the most in almost three years, buoyed by surging sales in Asia.

Despite a significant increase in sales in the second quarter of 2011, Q-Cells has warned that losses reached ??95.8 million in the first half of the year, due to price declines, inventory write-offs and other one time issues.

SanDisk has implemented the new SATA 繕SSD specification into its SanDisk iSSD product line of postage stamp-sized embedded SSDs.

Rioters in London apparently set Sony's Enfield-based DADC (Digital Audio Disc Corporation) facility ablaze last night, reducing the disc distribution center to flames and smoke. The massive multi-story, 20,000 square meter building would have likely contained stock tied to multiple mediums, ranging from music labels to video games to movies and more.

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve did not offer ailing markets the short-term salve they were looking for Tuesday with an announcement of additional asset purchases in a bid to stimulate US growth, but the central bank did signal that its accommodative interest rate policy will remain in place until at least mid-2013.

The prime minister has returned early from his holiday to discuss the unrest, which first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of a man by police.

Gold prices hit another record on August 9, slicing through the US$1,750-a-troy-ounce milestone as a massive sell-off in global equity markets drew safety-seeking investors to the metal.

Monday's announcement that China is to introduce a national photovoltaic feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme was received well by many in the industry, however analyst opinion is that the Chinese tier-one manufacturers stand to gain the most.