NEW YORK (AP) _ Verizon's FiOS TV service doesn't make for a brighter picture, the advertising industry's self-regulatory body said, urging the company to drop some of the claims it makes in its advertising.

National Advertising Division Council of Better Business Bureaus made the recommendation Tuesday after it examined the ads because of a challenge by Verizon competitor Cablevision Systems Corp.

Claims in question included statements about the service's speed, picture quality, and color, and the testimony that FiOS is "so much more bright." The brightness of a TV picture depends on the settings of the TV, not on the signal.

Verizon has already stopped using some of the claims in question, including one that quoted technology Web site CNet. While the site did use the phrase "a near flawless TV experience" in a story about FiOS, it was in a news article, not a review, and pointed out that it was important for Verizon to provide such an experience.

The advertising watchdog group noted that it "did find that certain superior sound and picture quality claims made by Verizon were substantiated." For example, audience tests gave a "reasonable basis" for the company's claim that it offers the "the best TV picture, period."

In a statement, Verizon said while it was pleased with that conclusion, it also "respectfully disagrees" with some of the findings.

"However, in the interest of the self-regulatory process, Verizon will take the NAD's recommendations into consideration in future advertising," the company said.

?Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer.

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Guyana to close Net cafes that offer cheap calls

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) ? The South American country of Guyana plans to close hundreds of Internet cafes that it accuses of bypassing the telephone company system to offer cheap international calls.

The Revenue Authority accuses the cafes of tax evasion because they do not charge sales tax or other fees for calls made through Internet-based phone services like Skype, Vonage and Packet8.

The tax agency says cafes are multiplying so fast that "their collective impact on the national revenue is too significant to ignore."

It says callers who use phone companies Digicel and the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Co. account for 16 percent of the country's sales tax revenues.

GTT spokeswoman Allison Parker praised the move on Wednesday and said the agency has long complained about the cafes' effect on revenue. GTT is owned by Salem, Mass.-based Atlantic Tele-Network Inc.

Several countries have made moves to block or stifle phone calls over the Internet because they bypass taxation and local phone monopolies. Software that sniffs out phone calls has been used in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and China among others. U.S. regulators prohibit the blocking of Internet calls.

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Army to spend $50M on video games ? report

NEW YORK (AP) ? The U.S. Army plans to invest $50 million over five years to develop video games for use in training soldiers for combat, according to a report in Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper.

The money will fund a "games in training" program beginning in 2010, the newspaper reported Sunday. It will watch trends in commercial video games and look for technologies that can be used in training ? but it does not plan to compete with the industry.

The Army's gaming unit also plans to buy a "state-of-the-art" commercial game it can modify for use in training. Called "Game After Ambush," it will replace the Army's current shooter training game, "DARWARS Ambush," the newspaper said. The new game, unlike the old one, will let trainers modify terrains, scenarios and missions during play.

Video games are already widely used in recruiting and training soldiers, with the best-known example being "America's Army," a game released to the general public in 2002 to help with recruitment. Earlier this year, the Army opened a 14,500 square foot "Experience Center" in a Philadelphia mall ? featuring gaming stations, video installations and a replica command-and-control center ? in an attempt to give the public a glimpse of military life.

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