Sparking a fresh round of debate over an ongoing issue in time-keeping circles, the International Telecommunications Union is considering eliminating leap seconds from the time scale used by most computer systems, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The International Telecommunication Union on Friday gave final approval to G.hn, a standard for high-speed home networking that spans coaxial cable, electrical wiring and phone lines.

Finding ways to limit DoS attacks and SMS spam by making it harder to spoof the origin of electronic communications is on the agenda at a telecommunications standards meeting this week -- but civil rights advocates worry it could put an end to anonymity on the Internet.