Intel resigns from One Laptop Per Child board

Intel Corp. has resigned from One Laptop Per Child Foundation's board, the company said. Spokeswoman Agnes Kwan said the decision came after the Cambridge group's founder, Nicholas Negroponte, asked Intel to halt its support for Classmate, a program to make inexpensive laptop computers for distribution to poor children in developing countries. Classmate competes with the foundation, which supplies its XO low-cost laptop computer to needy populations. "We have long believed that there is no single solution to the needs of children in emerging markets," Kwan said. "We concluded that we cannot accommodate the request." One Laptop officials were not immediately available for comment. (Hiawatha Bray)

Local TV network New England Cable News has launched its own website this week after being hosted on Boston.com since 2003. NECN will continue to provide video content to Boston.com, a multimedia venture that features content from The Boston Globe. Both the Globe and Boston.com are owned by The New York Times Co. Boston.com general manager Richard Gair said he initiated the conversation about separating the websites last summer. (Jenn Abelson)

William Danoff, manager of Fidelity Investments' $81 billion Contrafund, rebounded from a disappointing 2006 to win last year's US stock-manager award from fund-research firm Morningstar Inc. Contrafund, Boston-based Fidelity's biggest mutual fund, returned 20 percent in 2007, compared with a 5.5 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Danoff, who hasn't won the award since he started managing the fund in 1990, underperformed the US stock-market benchmark by 4 percentage points in 2006. Danoff, 47, posted the biggest gains in four years with bets on iPod maker Apple Inc. and oil-services company Schlumberger Ltd. Apple more than doubled last year and Schlumberger jumped 57 percent. (Bloomberg)

Marlborough drug developer Sepracor Inc. said executive chairman Tim Barberich will retire by mid-May, though he is expected to continue serving as chairman of the board. Barberich was chief executive from the company's founding in 1984 until last May, when he moved into the role of executive chairman. He plans to continue serving the company as an adviser through 2009 after retiring from executive duty. (AP)

A consumer group sued the Food and Drug Administration, contending the agency is ignoring calls for stronger warnings that Cipro and similar antibiotics may cause serious tendon injuries. Labels of the fluoroquinolone family of antibiotics - drugs that include the popular Cipro and Levaquin - already warn about rupture of tendons and other tendon injuries, but at the bottom of a list of other side effects. The consumer group Public Citizen wants those warnings upgraded to the FDA's most severe type, a so-called black-box warning - and for patients to get pamphlets with every bottle describing the risk. (AP)

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell last week to the lowest level in a month as investors found new reasons to worry about a possible recession. Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.07 percent this week, down from 6.17 percent last week, and the lowest level for 30-year mortgages since the week of Dec. 6 when they fell to a two-year low of 5.96 percent. That marked the only time that the 30-year mortgage was below 6 percent last year. Analysts attributed the decline in part to some weaker-than-expected economic reports. Rates on 15-year mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, dropped to 5.68 percent this week, down from 5.79 percent last week. (AP)

India's tourism minister said the US dollar will no longer be accepted at the Taj Mahal and other national tourist sites. For years tourists visiting most sites in India were charged either $5 or 250 rupees. After falling 11 percent in 2007, hitting nine-year lows to hover around 39 rupees, the dollar is out. The Taj Mahal, India's famed white marble monument to love, began refusing dollars in November. (AP)