Iraqi Shiites denounce draft legislation

BAGHDAD - Shiite legislators on Monday denounced a draft bill to ease curbs on ex-Saddam Hussein loyalists in government services, dampening hopes of progress for the U.S.-backed legislation aimed at promoting national reconciliation. The debate over rehabilitating former members of Saddam's ruling Baath Party has been a major obstacle to the ability of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to bring minority Sunnis into the political process and stem support for the insurgency.

Parliament began debate on the latest version of the measure on Sunday. But the session adjourned after lawmakers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began pounding their fists on their tables in protest. Many Shiites suffered terribly under the ousted Sunni-dominated regime.

"The justice system has to have its say in this. There are Baathists who committed crimes and atrocities against the Iraqi people and those must be tried," Bahaa al-Araji, a lawmaker from al-Sadr's 30-member bloc, said Monday at a news conference. He said the legislators understood many members were forced to join the Baath Party but said the legislation did not sufficiently distinguish those who willingly participated in suppression of majority Shiites.

"We have to first compensate the families of those who were killed and imprisoned by those Baathists and then discuss the law," he said. The prospect of rehabilitating former Baathists did not sit well with Shiite lawmakers from other political parties as well. "This draft amounts to an unannounced general pardon by the government," said Safiya al-Suhail, a Shiite female lawmaker whose father was assassinated by Saddam's agents in Beirut in the 1990s.

"There is no punishment for wrongdoers," she added. "The victims of the former regime should see justice done to them. We will not accept national reconciliation at the expense of justice." Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, said parliament would discuss the draft again on Wednesday. "I think that the bill is in general a good one," Othman said. "The country is in dire need of national reconciliation ... Iraqis should abandon revenge and adopt forgiveness."

The United States has been pressing the Iraqis to relax the ban to allow thousands of lower-ranking Baathists to regain their posts, but the legislation has frequently been stalled due to the stark differences between Shiites seeking revenge and those who want to put the past behind them. Enacting and implementing legislation on so-called de-Baathification is one of 18 so-called benchmark issues that the U.S. has set as measures for progress.

Another controversial issue is the need to develop legislation for the equitable sharing of Iraq's oil wealth among the varied ethnic and religious groups. Kurdish authorities insisted on their right to issue oil drilling and exploration contracts to foreign firms despite objections by the central government. The Kurds, who enjoy self-rule in their oil-rich northern territory, have signed eight contracts and others are expected soon for operations in the area. But the Oil Ministry said last week that the contracts were invalid and that foreign companies that sign them risk being blacklisted by the Iraqi government. "I'd like to say frankly that Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani cannot nullify any contract the Kurdistan government has concluded with the foreign companies," the semiautonomous region's prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, told AP Television News.

"And the Kurdistan government will continue with concluding contracts within the context of Iraq's constitution. And if there is any problem of such kind, we have a constitutional court, and al-Shahristani can resort to this court," he added. The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft bill last February to regulate the country's oil industry and forwarded it to parliament. But parliament, citing legal technicalities, kicked it back to the Cabinet. The measure has been bogged down in negotiations ever since.

Last August, the Kurds enacted their own oil law to regulate the oil sector in the region, further angering the central government in Baghdad. Most of Iraq's oil lies in the Shiite-controlled south and the Kurdish north. The political paralysis has raised concerns that failure to achieve reconciliation could stanch military progress in quelling the violence, which has continued despite a relative lull.

The Sadrists also are angry over recent raids against followers, primarily in southern Iraq where rival militias have been battling, raising fears that an order by the radical cleric to his Mahdi Army militia to stand down won't hold. An al-Sadr follower from Diwaniyah, a mainly Shiite city 80 miles south of Baghdad, expressed outrage over a series of recent operations.

"Diwaniyah local authorities are now alleging that everybody belonging to the Sadrists or the Mahdi Army or who perform the Friday prayers are outlaws and should be detained" Ali al-Miali said at the joint news conference. In violence Monday, at least two people — a civilian and a policeman — were killed in separate drive-by shootings by gunmen on motorcycles in the predominantly Shiite city of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.

Bush lends clout to Mideast peace talks

WASHINGTON - President Bush will lend his clout Monday to help broker an elusive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on the contours of long-stalled peace talks the two sides expect to relaunch this week at a high-stakes international conference.

Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been a priority of a succession of U.S. presidents, and late in his two-term tenure, Bush has made that long-coveted diplomatic victory his goal, too. Bush invited the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to separate meetings at the White House on Monday to prepare for the centerpiece of his Mideast gathering — an all-day session Tuesday in Annapolis, Md.

"I remain personally committed to implementing my vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," Bush said Sunday in a statement on the international gathering that begins Monday night with a dinner."The Israelis and Palestinians have waited a long time for this vision to be realized, and I call upon all those gathering in Annapolis this week to redouble their efforts to turn dreams of peace into reality," he said.

Bush will open the Annapolis conference with a speech. He'll make clear that Mideast peace is a top priority for the rest of his time in office through January 2009, but he is not expected to advance any of his own ideas on how to achieve that, Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday. "It is now time for the parties to get into this process by way of negotiation," Hadley told reporters. "And I don't think the president will conclude that the time is right to start offering ideas on outcomes on specific issues. ... This is not a negotiation session. It is to launch a negotiation, and for the parties then to take a lead."

Hadley also said the joint statement was not as important as it had initially appeared. The two sides had taken the unexpected step of agreeing to negotiations, so the document was no longer a vehicle necessary to bring them to that point, he said. "If we get something, if they can agree on some things as an input to the negotiations, that would be fine," Hadley said. "But I think it is really no longer on the critical path to a successful conference."

The run-up to the meeting has been fraught with disputes, skepticism and suspicion about the opposing parties' good faith. And expectations remain low. But Bush has been buoyed by Arab endorsement of the meeting and the possibilities for broader peacemaking. He will be asked to use his presidential heft to promote a joint blueprint for talks that are to follow, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Sunday.

Clinching a joint statement of objectives from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert might prove to be an impossibly tall order because of the charged issues that divide the two sides. On more than one occasion, negotiations have splintered over the key questions of Palestinian statehood — final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost homes in Israel following its 1948 creation.

The Palestinians want the statement to address those issues in general terms. But Israel wants to leave them for post-conference talks, and has pressed for a broader, vaguer statement of commitment to two states living side-by-side in peace.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wasn't able to bridge the gaps, even after eight missions to the region this year. If the two sides can't even manage to come up with a shared statement of objectives, that could augur ill for the future of peace talks, which are to be renewed after seven years of still-simmering violence.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met late Sunday with Rice in a last-ditch effort to wrap up the task. "We're confident there will be a document and we'll get to Annapolis in good shape on that," but bargaining may continue behind the scenes on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Still, whatever joint agreement the Israelis and Palestinians present at Annapolis will be a starting point and is likely to sketch only vague bargaining terms. The big questions that have doomed previous peace efforts would come later.

Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said Palestinians hope to work out a joint document, but that an agreement is not essential because of assurances received in the U.S. invitation to the conference. That invitation, he said, "includes all the terms of reference for the future negotiation" and "confirms that both sides are committed" to putting in place the peace process. "This is enough to launch negotiations after the conference."

Olmert made it clear that Annapolis is but a start.
"I hope Annapolis will allow the launching of serious negotiations on all the core issues that will lead to a solution of two states for two peoples," Olmert said Sunday.

The Arab League endorsement of the conference, while reluctant, is considered crucial because Abbas needs to be shored up, especially after Islamic Hamas militants routed his loyalists in the Gaza Strip in June and now rule there. Syria, which has been in a state of war with Israel for six decades, agreed Sunday to attend the session, giving Bush full backing from all 16 Arab states who were invited, plus the Arab League. It hopes to use forum to press for the return of the Golan Heights, strategic territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is leading negotiations for her country, suggested a lack of Arab backing contributed to the failure of the last round of talks. The Arab world, Livni told reporters Sunday, "should stop sitting on the fence." "There isn't a single Palestinian who can reach an agreement without Arab support," she said. Still, Livni added, "it is not the role of the Arab world to define the terms of the negotiations or take part in them."

How HD Radio Works

Radio hasn't really changed much in the past 80 years or so. The last "big thing" was the widespread adoption of Frequency Modulation (FM) in the 1960s and 70s. Now a new radio format is set to add features to your radio listening experience: HD Radio. This new technology promises higher quality sound, more stations with the same amount of bandwidth and extra information beamed straight to your radio as a digital signal. HD Radio is not without its detractors, however, and it has a long way to go before it can be considered a success.

When most people first hear of HD Radio, they often assume it's like HDTV, but for radio. HD Radio is a very different technology, however. Unlike the "HD" in HDTV, the "HD" in HD Radio is not an abbreviation for "High Definition." Although some have said that it actually means "Hybrid Digital," according to iBiquity, "HD" is a trademarked brand name and doesn't actually stand for anything [Source: Crutchfield Advisor].

HD Radio won't replace traditional radio broadcasting -- it will be offered alongside it. So if you have no interest in what HD Radio has to offer, you don't have to worry that someday your trusty stereo receiver will stop picking up radio stations. However, the purchase of a receiver that can accept and interpret an HD Radio signal is necessary if you want to enjoy the extra features allowed by the new technology.

Just what are those new features? An increase in sound quality is immediately apparent. An FM radio frequency can only carry a certain amount of information, which is why FM sound quality is considered lower than CD quality. Amplitude Modulation (AM) frequencies carry even less information, which is why virtually all AM stations broadcast in mono. Their signal can't carry stereo information.

HD Radio sends more information over the same radio frequency by digitizing the signal. A digital signal can then be compressed by a computer, much like an MP3 is a compressed version of the much larger WAV file that is on a CD. Digitizing allows FM stations to broadcast with near-CD quality sound, and HD Radio AM stations will sound just as good as FM stations do now. An HD Radio receiver can also zero in directly on the digital transmission, eliminating interference and signal "reflections" off of buildings. The result is clear sound without any static, pop or hiss.

Another application of HD Radio is the ability to multicast multiple channels on the same signal. Multicasting also refers to a form of Internet routing architecture, so the multiple channel transmissions allowed by HD Radio might be more accurately described as multiplexing (iBiquity chose the term "multicasting").

The extra bandwidth of an HD Radio signal leaves room for completely separate channels operating on the same frequency. Here's how it works: Suppose your favorite radio station is 102.5 FM. When you tune in, you pick up the regular broadcast -- classic rock. Your HD Radio receiver indicates that the station is multicasting. You turn a dial to select the alternate channel, where they play nothing but blues. Or your favorite talk radio station might have separate, simultaneous broadcasts featuring news and weather, sports talk and political commentary.

Current HD technology allows the addition of one extra music channel and three extra talk channels before the sound quality begins to suffer. The extra stations are referred to as HD2 stations. If an HD Radio receiver loses the digital signal, it seamlessly fades back to analog FM until the digital signal returns.

An HD Radio receiver can display text data that is sent alongside the audio signal. This could take the form of artist and song information about the music being played or sports, weather or stock updates.

No radio stations are planning to go all-HD. They'll continue to broadcast regular analog signals along with the HD signals, so old radios will be able to pick up AM and FM stations with no problems in the foreseeable future.

Skype vs. Vonage

In a way, the Internet is a paradox. Getting access to it in your home almost always requires you to spend some money. But once you have that access, you can use the Internet to save money. You can shop around for lower prices on everything from electronics to airline tickets. You can also send e-mail messages, pictures, music and videos without paying for any type of postage. With Voice over IP (VoIP) services, you can make phone calls -- even long distance or international ones -- for free.

Currently, there are several VoIP services on the market. The two most well-known ones are Skype and Vonage. Although both of these services use VoIP technology, they're quite different from one another. In this article, we'll explore how each of these services works, and we'll give you the information you need to decide if one of them is right for you.

Skype and Vonage are similar in that they're both VoIP services. When you make a VoIP call, you use your computer's built-in microphone and speakers, a headset, an IP phone or a phone plugged into an analog telephone adapter in place of an ordinary phone. This equipment and your computer translate the analog signal of your voice into a digital signal. The digital signal travels over the Internet. Once it reaches its destination, the telephone or computer that answers the call translates it back into analog sound. Check out How Voice over IP Works to learn about this process and how it's different from plain old telephone service (POTS).

Skype and Vonage are also similar in that they can be significantly less expensive than traditional phone service. This is especially true if you make a lot of long-distance calls. Depending on how you use it, Skype can even be completely free. But the two services have more differences than similarities, starting with the steps you need to take to open an account.

What is the Apple iPhone?

For several years, Apple enthusiasts have been asking each other the question, "Does it exist? Is Apple really making a cell phone?" Rumors came and went, but Apple, a company known for its secrecy about products in development, said nothing. In the last six months, those rumors began to take on a life of their own as industry analysts joined the blogosphere in predicting that Apple would produce a phone sometime in the first half of 2007. In mid-November, news broke that Apple had placed an order with Hon Hai Precision Industry, Co., a longtime Taiwanese manufacturing partner, for 12 million units of a new device believed to be the fabled "iPhone" [Forbes]. That news sent the rumor mill into overdrive, but Apple and Steve Jobs, the company's chief executive officer, again said nothing. Analysts began issuing predictions of cost, features and when the phone would be available, with many of them claiming to have inside information. Given Apple's extraordinary track record with the iPod and its recent innovations in desktop and laptop design, expectations were very high, perhaps impossibly so.

On January 9, at Apple's annual product showcase, Macworld Expo, Jobs finally revealed the already legendary phone, and it's beyond what anyone expected. Jobs briefly tricked his audience during his Macworld Expo keynote address, announcing three new Apple products: a widescreen iPod, a cell phone and an "Internet communicator." Each announcement drew thunderous applause from the crowd, but what Jobs then revealed was that these three products were actually all part of one device -- the Apple iPhone.

Touted as a "revolutionary mobile phone," the iPhone can make calls, play music, navigate the Web, edit photos, play movies and text message, among many other capabilities. Although many of the iPhone's functions can be found in other devices, the iPhone appears to be unique in that it seamlessly blends these abilities together, while also throwing a bevy of innovations into the mix.

Jobs demonstrated many of the iPhone's features for the audience. One sequence began with a call from Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. Jobs answered the call on his iPhone, added Schiller to his address book, and when Schiller asked for a photo, Jobs emailed it to him -- all while continuing the call. Later Jobs showed off the phone's ability to integrate multiple applications by using the integrated Google maps application, which knew his location, and typing in a search for Starbucks. Every Starbucks location in San Francisco showed up on screen. Jobs chose one and in a few minutes he was on the phone with Starbucks, ordering 4,000 lattes before abruptly hanging up.

In order to seamlessly integrate Web, phone, media and messaging features, the iPhone employs remarkable, groundbreaking technology. Unlike traditional smartphones that have small, finger-cramping keyboards, the iPhone has only one button for "home." Instead, its 3.5-inch high resolution, color screen, which occupies most of the phone's face, doubles as a "multi-touch" display. The display shows different controls based on what you're doing. If you're typing a text message or e-mail, a keyboard appears at the bottom of the screen, and you can easily type a message and send it to someone from your address book. The multi-touch technology also has an auto-corrective feature that accounts for unintentional taps and corrects misspellings. For music and video, volume and playback controls appear on the screen, and so on for other applications.

The iPhone's multi-touch interface also allows the opportunity for innovative uses of the touch display. When viewing a photo or surfing the Web, simply perform a pinching motion with two fingers, and the photo or Web page zooms in. Spread two fingers apart, and the display zooms out. Scrolling in any application is done by just brushing a finger up or down on the screen.

An intriguing innovation in the phone is what Apple calls visual voicemail. No longer will you have to listen to all of your voicemails if you don't want to. Instead, they will appear in a list, much like an e-mail inbox, and you can simply point to the voicemail you want to play.

Apple has also integrated three sensors into its phone. One is an accelerometer, and it senses when you turn the phone on its side, automatically shifting the display to a landscape mode. This feature is incredibly useful for viewing panoramic pictures, videos or shuffling through your albums, which you view by their cover art. A second sensor detects ambient light and adjusts the screen's brightness accordingly in order to save power. The third sensor deactivates the screen when you bring the phone towards your face, so you won't be dialing with your cheek while talking on the device.

Like many of Apple's products, iPhone syncs easily with a Mac or PC. The phone runs a version of Apple's reliable OSX operating system, and its programs and iPod connector (located on the bottom of the phone) will be familiar to many Mac users. Use the iPod connector or a docking station to connect the phone to your computer, the iPhone will automatically sync your address book, photos, movies, music and bookmarks between the computer and the phone.

Now, all of this may sound great, but there are a few catches. First, the iPhone isn't available until June -- Apple needs to get FCC approval before the iPhone can start using a radio band. Second, Apple has an exclusive contract with Cingular through 2009, so if you want a iPhone, you'll have to be a Cingular customer. And third, it's not cheap. A 4 GB iPhone will set you back $499 with a two year service plan, while an 8 GB iPhone will cost $599 with a two year plan. Still, when compared to other high end smartphones, you're getting a lot. This is essentially a small, powerful computer in the palm of your hand, and of course it has Apple's famous sleek, stylish, minimalist design.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the iPhone's other features:

* 802.11 b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless capabilities
* Quad-band GSM and Cingular EDGE network
* 3.5-inch high resolution screen with 160 ppi (pixels per inch)
* 2.0 megapixel digital camera
* Battery life: 5 hours talk/video/browsing, 16 hours audio playback
* 11.6 mm thin, 4.8 ounces
* IMAP and POP email support, with integrated Yahoo! e-mail client
* Text messages are displayed like instant message conversations, making keeping track of many messages much easier
* Speaker and standard headphone jack

So will the iPhone change the cell phone industry forever? That depends on who you ask. Keep in mind that very few people have even used the iPhone. But given Jobs' impressive demonstration and Apple's recent track record -- over 100 million iPods and 3 billion songs sold -- it's difficult to doubt that this is an extraordinary and important product. Apple's stock surged 7 percent on the day of Jobs' announcement and appears headed for record prices.

In other news, Cisco has filed suit against Apple for infringing on Cisco's trademarked "iPhone" name. Apparently, Apple and Cisco were in talks to negotiate the licensing of the name "iPhone" for Apple's product, but they had not yet reached an agreement when Jobs announced the product at CES.