Orange France is upgrading its HSDPA networks, doubling download connection speeds from 7.2Mbps to 14.4Mbps. Lyon will get the upgrades in the first and second half of the year.

A 5 MB file will now take 3 seconds to download, compared to 7.5 seconds previously while an e-mail with a 1 MB attachment will take less than 1 second as a result of this up gradation.

James Kent, sous chef at New York City’s Eleven Madison Park restaurant, will represent the U.S. at the 2011 Bocuse d’Or cooking competition in Lyon, France, Nation’s Restaurant News reported.

He will be assisted by fellow Eleven Madison Park sous chef Tom Allan. Kent beat out 11 other semifinalists from around the country at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. on Saturday.

The Bocuse d’Or competition was started in 1987 by French chef Paul Bocuse to "o broaden the public understanding of the rigors involved in culinary excellence," NRN reported. The biannual competition pits teams from 24 countries against one another in a haute-cuisine cook-off.

Dr. Mazda Jenab of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, told Reuters Health, "Higher levels of vitamin D in the blood may help protect both men and women from cancers of the colon and rectum."

Results of the largest study ever conducted on the topic, the EPIC study - short for European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition — confirm previous findings from smaller studies conducted largely among North American populations.

"But this has to be balanced with caution regarding the potential toxic effects of too much vitamin D and the fact that very little is known about the association of vitamin D with either increased or reduced risk of other cancers," said Dr. Mazda Jenab.

Are high speed trains the answer to decreasing pollution and traffic jams? Supporters say high-speed rail is a cost-effective, "green" solution to airport and highway congestion. In reality, it is costly to build and operate and has a negligible impact on highway and airport traffic. High-speed rail is driven by little more than a romantic notion to confer a European ambiance on American cities.

Wendell Cox, a principal of Demographia and co-author with Joseph Vranichin a study say that proponents also claim that high-speed rail is profitable, but this too is off the mark. Internationally, only two segments have ever broken even: Tokyo to Osaka and Paris to Lyon.

Ridership in these markets has been bolstered by high gasoline prices and one-way highway tolls of $40 and $100, respectively. These and other foreign routes have attracted much of their ridership from a strong core of rail passengers

High-speed rail does little to unsnarl traffic jams because most highway congestion is within urban areas, not between them. It also has negligible impact on airport congestion. The world’s strongest high-speed rail market, Tokyo to Osaka, is also one of the world’s largest airline markets. Even with high-speed rail, there is still frequent air-shuttle service between Paris and Marseille.

Professor Tristan Ferroir, from the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, is the leader of the research team that have made the discovery of two new types of ultra-hard carbon crystals harder than diamond.

The scientists are investigating the ureilite class Haverö meteorite that crashed to Earth in Finland in 1971. Ureilite meteorites are carbon-rich and known to contain graphite and diamonds.

The findings help scientists gain a better understanding of carbon polymorphs and give them new materials to investigate and perhaps synthesize. They also show the carbon system is more complex than previously thought.

The findings on the new diamond were published in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters journal on February 15.

Researchers say people with higher levels of Vitamin D in their blood appear to have decreased chances of getting colorectal cancer.

A study published Sunday in the British Medical Journal shows that people with the highest levels of blood vitamin D concentration had a nearly 40% decrease in colorectal cancer risk than those with lower levels of vitamin D.

The study is the largest ever on the subject with 1248-cases. Funded by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, Lyon, France) and Imperial College of London (London, UK) worked together to confirm the findings of smaller studies.

Euronews will launch broadcasts in Turkish, its ninth language, on Jan. 30, in collaboration with the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).

The Turkish version of Euronews will be produced at the Euronews headquarters in Lyon, France, by a team of 20 to 30 permanent staff, including 17 Turkish journalists. The Euronews Web site www.euronews.net will also have a Turkish version.

Euronews is a multilingual channel that already broadcasts in eight languages — German, English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. As part of its plans to reach the East, the station will start broadcasting in Persian by the end of 2010.

Dr. Agnes Nairn, professor of marketing EM-Lyon- says the digital age has created a number of gray areas in terms of marketing to children. "Digital marketing could prove ’almost impossible’ to police, especially around content for young children." So what are some global guidelines?

And a comprehensive guide for parents to manage the "pestering power" of their children: Pester Power - Families Surviving the Consumer Society: A collection of practical ideas for parents - submitted by parents!

A joint initiative by Care for the Family, Ed Mayo (National Consumer Council) and Dr Agnes Nairn October 2007

The European Advertising Standards Alliance has published a best practice guidelines which Nairn views as “relatively sensible but not really comprehensive enough”.