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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Cable companies will offer high-speed Internet service to low-income families at around a fifth of the national average price, the top U.S. communications regulator will announce on Wednesday.

Families who qualify for free school lunches will be able to sign up for $9.95 a month high-speed Internet services from top cable providers.

Further, families eligible for free or reduced school lunches will be able to buy low-cost computers from leading technology companies.

Specifically, households need at least one child that participates in the National School Lunch Program to be eligible for the reduced high-speed Internet service.

The initiative is part of the Federal Communications Commission's effort to extend affordable broadband Internet access across the United States.

A third of Americans, some 100 million people, do not have high-speed Internet services in their homes, with cost being among the top barriers to broadband adoption.

"We think we're going to move the needle on the broadband adoption gap," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said of his hopes for the new commitments made to the Connect to Compete initiative launched last month.

Connect to Compete had already garnered commitments from nonprofit groups and companies including Microsoft Corp and Best Buy Co to help boost digital literacy and computer skills.

Now the public-private initiative will see cable providers, including Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems Corp, offer Internet service at a fraction of the national average of $45 a month price, an FCC official said.

Eligible families will be able to sign up for the service during a three-year sign-up window starting in the spring in some areas with the offer going nationwide by next September to coincide with the school year.

"Providing our children with a quality education requires much more than the teaching and learning that takes place inside of the classroom," said Michael Powell, head of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

Families can enjoy the discounted rate for two years.

The FCC estimates the retail value of the discounted high-speed Internet service being made available to roughly 25 million Americans at around $4 billion.

Redemtech Inc will offer a $150 refurbished laptop or desktop with monitor to eligible families. Microsoft has committed to building a new series of $250 laptops and desktops for low-income students and families.

Morgan Stanley also joined the Connect to Compete initiative, offering to help develop a microlending program to help families with the upfront costs of PC ownership.

(Reporting by Jasmin Melvin, editing by Bernard Orr)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111109/media_nm/us_usa_broadband_adoption

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45244972#45244972

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Belkin is set to release a remote camera shutter controller for the iPhone according to information found in an FCC filing. The small accessory will work over a Bluetooth connection to your iPhone and it can activate the camera shutter or trigger video recording remotely. The camera...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/UTZ9eOouZwQ/story01.htm

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(Reuters) ? Pediatricians in the United States write more than 10 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions every year for conditions such as the flu and asthma, contributing to potentially dangerous drug resistance, a study said.

Researchers looked at a nationally representative sample of almost 65,000 outpatient visits by children under 18 during 2006 to 2008, with findings reported in the journal Pediatrics.

In total, doctors prescribed an antibiotic at one in every five visits, with most dispensed for children with respiratory ailments such as sinus infections and pneumonia.

Some of those infections were caused by bacteria, warranting antibiotics. But almost one-quarter of all antibiotic prescriptions were given to children with respiratory conditions that probably or definitely do not call for antibiotics, such as bronchitis, the flu, asthma and allergies.

That translates to more than 10 million antibiotic prescriptions each year that likely won't do any good but might do harm, said study leader Adam Hersh of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

"One reason overuse occurs is because the diagnosis is often unclear -- this is common with ear infections. The decision is made to prescribe an antibiotic even though the diagnosis isn't certain, just to be on the safe side," he said.

Half of all the antibiotics prescribed were "broad-spectrum" drugs, which act against a wide range of bacteria -- killing more of the good bacteria in the bodies as well and perhaps setting the child up for more serious infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria later on.

"Antibiotics are wonderful. There are times when you really need them, the question is just being judicious about when we use them," said Betsy Foxman, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, who was not involved in the research.

In addition, giving antibiotics to children when they aren't needed raises the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections in both the children themselves and society as a whole, she said.

"We think of antibiotics as being wholly beneficial, but they are not very specific, they hit everything in your body. By making our microbes that are supposed to be with us disappear, we can be causing other health problems we don't know about."

And to avoid over-prescription? Hersh said that one way might simply be to wait several days and check the child again.

"If the diagnosis is still a little unclear, ask if it would be safe to wait a day or two with close follow up rather than starting the antibiotic right away," he added. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/cxXOG

(Reporting from New York by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111108/hl_nm/us_prescriptions_children

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FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2011 file photo, U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy make statements to reporters after their meeting at G20 Summit in Cannes. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has labored to improve French relations with Israel, said he "can't stand" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called him a liar in a conversation with President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

PARIS (AP) ? French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has labored to improve French relations with Israel, said he "can't stand" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called him a liar in a chat with President Barack Obama.

The conversation between Sarkozy and Obama was overheard by reporters last week at the Group of 20 summit in southern France, via headsets that were to be used for simultaneous translation of an upcoming news conference.

Obama, whose remarks were heard via a French translation, was not heard objecting to Sarkozy's characterization of Netanyahu. Through the interpreter, Obama was heard asking Sarkozy to help persuade the Palestinians to stop their efforts to gain U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state.

Several French-speaking journalists, including one from The Associated Press, overheard the comments but did not initially report them because Sarkozy's office had asked the journalists not to turn on the headsets until the press conference began, and the comments were deemed private under French media traditions.

A French website that analyzes media coverage of current affairs, Arret sur images, reported the fragments Tuesday.

Sarkozy's office would not comment Tuesday on the remarks, or on France's relations with Israel. The White House and Netanyahu's spokesman also said they had no comment.

In the remarks Thursday in Cannes, Sarkozy said: "Netanyahu, I can't stand him. He's a liar."

According to the French interpreter, Obama didn't object, responding only: "You are sick of him, but I have to work with him every day."

The journalists heard only fragments of the leaders' conversation.

Since becoming president in 2007, Sarkozy has strengthened French ties with Israel while also seeking to use France's traditional good relations with Arab allies to encourage peace talks.

His latest comments reflect what his increasing frustration with Netanyahu, and may complicate French efforts toward Mideast peace.

France's government has not said so officially but appears to see Netanyahu as partially responsible for the deadlock in peace talks. France has repeatedly urged Netanyahu to stop building Jewish settlements in the West Bank and come to the negotiating table, to little avail.

"I think all this must not make us lose sight of the basics ? which is to say there's not a minute to lose to continue to work on the Israeli-Palestinian issue," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters Tuesday.

The overheard remarks by Sarkozy and Obama were prominently covered in Israel, where Sarkozy ? whose maternal grandfather was Jewish ? is widely perceived as a friend, in striking contrast to some of his predecessors, including Jacques Chirac, whom Sarkozy replaced in 2007.

Israel has had a fraught up-and-down relationship with France. The country was an early supporter of the Jewish state, selling it arms and planes and helping it develop a nuclear reactor. But the relationship soured under Charles de Gaulle, perceived as having abandoned Israel before the 1967 war.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, is a controversial figure even at home. He is widely seen as divisive, and is regularly pilloried by the center-left opposition for preferring settlement construction in the West Bank to peace talks with a relatively moderate Palestinian leadership.

"Obama is wrong," wrote one reader on the Israeli newspaper Haaretz's web site. "We're the ones that have to deal with him every day."

The often blunt Sarkozy has shown little patience with Israeli hard-liners, and two years ago urged Netanyahu to fire his outspoken foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman. In a private meeting, Sarkozy told Netanyahu that "you must get rid of that man," according to two officials.

This September, the French leader tried to head off the Palestinians' request for membership in the United Nations with a last-minute effort to revive peace talks.

But France then surprised Washington and other observers by voting last week in favor of membership for Palestine in UNESCO, the U.N. cultural and educational agency.

Remarks overheard by journalists have embarrassed world leaders in the past. At a Group of Eight summit in 2006, an open microphone caught then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair appearing subservient to President George W. Bush, who greeted him by shouting, "Yo, Blair!"

___

Jamey Keaten in Paris and Joe Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-08-EU-France-US-Israel/id-8006b8b14a4243c4816afc655b283191

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KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Rebels in Sudan's main oil-producing state claimed on Saturday to have destroyed four tanks during fighting near the state's capital, drawing a denial from the country's army.

Fighting has raged across the South Kordofan border state since June, stoking tensions between Sudan and its old civil war foe South Sudan and complicating talks over the oil industry, the disputed Abyei territory and other unresolved issues.

Qamar Dalman, spokesman for the insurgent Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in South Kordofan, said rebel fighters engaged Sudan's army on Friday near the town of al-Hamra in an area about five kilometers (3 miles) from the state capital, Kadugli.

"The SPLA (in South Kordofan) destroyed four modern tanks and a large number of military vehicles in fighting throughout the day yesterday in the area of al-Hamra," he said in an emailed statement.

Al-Sawarmi Khalid, Sudan's army spokesman, denied the claim, saying the area was quiet. "There is not any fighting in the al-Hamra area," he said.

Both sides claimed to have killed hundreds of their opponents in heavy fighting near the town of Taludi further to the south on Monday.

Sudan's army said it repulsed the attack, while the rebels have claimed to continue to advance on Kadugli -- a potentially major prize for the insurgents if it is taken.

Events in the state are difficult to verify independently because access for journalists is limited.

STRAINED TIES

Thousands of fighters in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile border states sided with the south during Sudan's decades-long civil war, but were left north of the border when South Sudan became independent in July.

Both Khartoum and Juba have accused the other of backing rebels on their side of the border, and both have denied the others' claims.

Sudan's army pushed rebels out of their Blue Nile stronghold of Kurmuk on Thursday, although insurgents there vowed to continue fighting.

Dalman also accused Khartoum of arming tribes to fight rebels in South Kordofan, echoing accusations in other Sudan conflicts such as the western Darfur region that the government has denied.

South Sudan seceded after voting overwhelmingly for independence in a January referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended one of Africa's longest and deadliest civil wars.

Border violence since then has worsened ties between Sudan and Western powers. U.S. President Barack Obama extended trade sanctions this week that have been in place since 1997.

(Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz and Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111105/wl_nm/us_sudan_rebels

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