WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has not independently confirmed reports that Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, has been captured, a State Department official said on Saturday.

“We have seen the reports but cannot independently confirm them,” the official said.

Saif al-Islam, 39, was poised to succeed his late father, Muammar Gaddafi, as leader of Libya until rebels toppled the government earlier this year. Gaddafi’s British-educated son had vowed to die fighting in opposition to the revolution.

Reports from Libya say he was seized in the southern Libyan desert by fighters who vowed to hold him in their mountain town of Zintan until there was an administration to hand him over to.

“His capture and trial would be another step away from a 40-year dark chapter in Libyan history and help move the Libyan people toward the peaceful and democratic future they deserve,” the U.S. official said.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam on charges of crimes against humanity.

“The international community has been very clear that he should be held accountable for his actions,” the official said, adding that Libyan authorities have been urged to treat all prisoners in custody in line with international standards.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Google Inc warned U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that proposed legislation to crack down on foreign websites selling pirated U.S. movies, music or other counterfeit goods goes too far and could depress investment.

The legislation has pit Internet giants, consumer groups and first amendment advocates against the U.S. copyright industries, including Hollywood studios and record labels, who have long argued for tougher protection.

A U.S. House of Representatives bill would allow a private party to go straight to a website’s advertising and payment providers and request they sever ties.

“A corporation, a copyright ‘troll,’ or anyone with an axe to grind could send a notice… without first involving law enforcement or triggering any judicial process,” Google policy counsel Katherine Oyama told a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

She urged lawmakers to instead work on legislation that cuts off revenue to rogue sites via the courts and avoids the “collateral damage” built into the current form of the bill.

Google was the only witness against the bill on a six-person panel at the hearing.

Google, Yahoo! Inc, Facebook, Twitter, eBay Inc and other Internet companies ran full-page advertisements in major newspapers on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to rethink their approach.

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Google Inc warned U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that proposed legislation to crack down on foreign websites selling pirated U.S. movies, music or other counterfeit goods goes too far and could depress investment.

The legislation has pit Internet giants, consumer groups and first amendment advocates against the U.S. copyright industries, including Hollywood studios and record labels, who have long argued for tougher protection.

A U.S. House of Representatives bill would allow a private party to go straight to a website’s advertising and payment providers and request they sever ties.

“A corporation, a copyright ‘troll,’ or anyone with an axe to grind could send a notice… without first involving law enforcement or triggering any judicial process,” Google policy counsel Katherine Oyama told a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

She urged lawmakers to instead work on legislation that cuts off revenue to rogue sites via the courts and avoids the “collateral damage” built into the current form of the bill.

Google was the only witness against the bill on a six-person panel at the hearing.

Google, Yahoo! Inc , Facebook, Twitter, eBay Inc and other Internet companies ran full-page advertisements in major newspapers on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to rethink their approach.

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – New U.S. Internet traffic rules cleared a hurdle on Thursday, surviving an attempt by the U.S. Senate to block them from taking effect later in the month.

President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats in the Senate blocked a Republican-backed resolution to disapprove of the Federal Communications Commission’s rules on “net neutrality.” The vote was 52-46 against the resolution.

Adopted by a divided FCC last December, the rules forbid broadband providers from blocking legal content while leaving flexibility for providers to manage their networks.

The rules still face a court challenge. Lawsuits by Verizon Communications Inc and others have been consolidated before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The Senate resolution was championed by Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, and had 42 co-sponsors, all Republican. A similar measure passed the Republican-led House of Representatives in April.

Regulations to mandate the neutrality of the Internet — in terms of content, sites, platforms and types of equipment that may be attached — have been the subject of fierce debate for the last 10 years.

The dispute pits content providers, who seek protection against the blocking or degrading of their services, against Internet service providers who often supply rival content and fear their networks could be overwhelmed.

Nov 9 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pledged to veto a congressional measure that would overturn new U.S. Internet traffic rules, his staff tweeted to his Twitter account on Wednesday.

Adopted by a divided Federal Communications Commission last December, the Internet rules forbid broadband providers from blocking legal content while leaving flexibility for providers to manage their networks.

Republicans have criticized the rules, slated to go into effect Nov. 20, as needless government regulation of the Internet that represents an unprecedented power grab by the FCC.

A Senate resolution to disapprove the rules is being debated on the Senate floor on Wednesday. A vote on the measure is expected on Thursday.

A similar measure passed 240-179 in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives in April.

Analysts have said it is unlikely the measure will move out of the Democrat-led Senate.

The Obama administration and Democratic lawmakers have argued that the so-called net neutrality rules bring certainty and predictability to the broadband economy.

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (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.

Nov 3 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Charles Grassley is threatening to block two nominees to the Federal Communications Commission if the agency fails to produce documents he demanded about broadband start-up LightSquared.

“I will object to proceeding to the nomination because the FCC continues to stonewall a document request I submitted to the FCC over six months ago,” the Republican senator from Iowa said in a statement submitted to the Senate record.

Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone’s LightSquared has come under fire after testing showed its original plan for a high-speed wireless network would interfere with global positioning system devices that are used by the military and in civilian applications ranging from aviation to agriculture.

LightSquared in June unveiled a new plan for deploying its network that it said addressed many of the interference concerns and has since partnered with GPS firms to develop solutions to the remaining problems.

Deployment of the network depends on regulatory approval from the FCC, which is conducting additional testing to ensure GPS operations would not be affected.

Grassley, unhappy with the perceived fast tracking of the company’s licensing process, and later concerned by reports of questionable e-mails between the company and senior White House aides, requested a copy of all communications between the FCC and LightSquared stakeholders.

The FCC in July denied Grassley’s request, citing Congress’ own guidance on document requests from lawmakers, because the request did not come from a committee chairman with jurisdiction over the agency.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican lawmakers on Wednesday said they planned to introduce legislation narrowing U.S. communications regulators’ authority over mergers.

Republicans, who over the past year have criticized what they view as an overreach of power by the Federal Communications Commission, are pushing to standardize FCC practices and eliminate what they feel is poor decision-making that jeopardizes the public’s confidence in the agency.

The bill, which comes as the FCC weighs AT&T Inc’s proposed $39 billion takeover of Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA, would replace the FCC’s “public interest” standard for reviewing mergers with a more narrowly tailored standard based on merger-specific harms.

Unveiled by House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden and Senator Dean Heller, the bill would limit conditions the agency could place on merging companies.

The FCC would also have to identify a specific market failure or consumer harm before adopting new rules and justify any burden put on industry with cost-benefit analyses.

Further, the agency could only consider voluntary commitments made by companies in exchange for approval of their transaction that fall into the realm of the FCC’s rulemaking authority — it could not dictate conditions beyond merger-specific harms.

These changes would continue Republicans’ efforts to limit the Obama administration’s ability to closely regulate business.