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Ahmadinejad: Iran welcomes Obama overtures

Women in Tehran celebrae the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution Tuesday.
Iran’s president said Tuesday his country welcomes talks with the United States "in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the remarks a day after President Barack Obama said the United States is looking for opportunities for “face to face” dialogue with Iran, even though he has “deep concerns” about Tehran’s actions. “Right now, the world is entering the era of dialogue,” Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of people in a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. “The new U.S. administration announced that it’s willing to bring about a number of changes and is now taking the course for dialogue. It’s quite clear that real change should be fundamental, not just a tactical change, and it is quite clear that the Iranian nation will greet real changes. “The Iranian nation is ready to hold up talks, but talks in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect,” Ahmadinejad said. In Washington, Obama was asked about U.S. relations with Iran during his first prime-time news conference on Monday night. Watch news conference in full » “There’s been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it’s not going to happen overnight,” Obama said. He said his administration is reviewing existing U.S. policy toward Iran, which supports groups Washington has branded terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and has defied U.N. demands to halt its uranium enrichment program. Despite those concerns, Obama said his administration wants to use “all the resources at the United States’ disposal” to resolve those concerns. “My expectation is, in the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face-to-face diplomatic overtures, that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction,” Obama said. “So there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there’s the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress.”

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The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since 1979. During that year, the Shah of Iran was forced to flee the country and the Ayatollah Khomeini took power. Later that year, Iranian students took over and seized hostages at the U.S. Embassy. Relations have been cut since then. U.S. President George W. Bush labeled Iran as a member of the “axis of evil” after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Tensions have rippled over issues such as Iran’s nuclear program, Israel, and Iraq, and have been aggravated since the outspoken Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. Western nations believe Iran is intent on building a nuclear weapon. Ahmadinejad has been criticized for his vehemence against and provocative remarks toward Israel and for Iran’s support of Hamas militants in Gaza and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon — militants groups that Israel has battled. Also, the United States has accused Iran of backing Iraqi insurgents. In recent years, the Iraq conflict has provided an opportunity for Iran and the United States to cooperate since both countries support the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and Iraqis have urged both countries to put aside their differences in helping Iraq. In 2007, U.S. and Iraqi envoys met several times in Baghdad. Ahmadinejad addressed the conflict in Iraq, saying that 1 million people have been killed and others have been displaced because of the “Bush administration war on Iraq.” “To deal with the root cause of insecurity I think that we should go and find the main culprits, including Bush himself and his administration. They must be put on trial,” said Ahmadinejad. “The world does not want to see the dark age of Bush being repeated.” Addressing the issue of terrorism, Ahmadinejad said Iran has been fighting terror for 30 years and that Iran itself been victimized by terror. “If you want to fight terrorism in practice come and work with the Iranian nation,” he said. “If you want to eradicate the root causes of massacres and aggression, let’s sit together and see what has been behind the reasons why we have had wars in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.” As usual, he had harsh words for Israel, a state he loathes and a topic that whips up passions among his supporters. “If you want to eradicate crime, let’s work together with the Iranian nation and other nations of the world and let’s put on trial the Zionist leaders of the Zionist regime,” the Iranian leader said. As for nuclear power, Iran has said it wants to harness it for energy and Ahmadinejad indicated Iran is against deploying nuclear weaponry. “If you want to fight proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, then you should join us and help us so that we will show you the right way. Yes we’re opposed to nuclear weapons of mass destruction. They’re real threats and they must be destroyed. Iran has been a victim of the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction but the only way would be justice and the use of appropriate mechanisms,” he said. “If they really want to have real security, then they should be able to work with us and then we will be able to revisit the structure of the Security Council — and remember the Security Council itself is the root cause of discrimination — we should change this structure and then have justice.” The United States also is concerned about Iran’s technological pursuits. Iran successfully launched its first satellite into orbit last week, a step hailed by Iran’s president as a “source of pride” for the Islamic republic, according to state-run news outlets. The launch of the satellite Omid — which means “Hope” in Farsi — was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Islamic revolution in Iran, according to Iranian media reports. U.S. Department of Defense officials confirmed the launch, and the State Department expressed “grave concern.” In August, Iran performed a test of a rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit. Iranian officials declared that mission a success, but U.S. officials disputed that. Senior U.S. officials had expressed concerned about the test of the rocket, saying Iran could use the rocket to deliver warheads. On Monday, Obama said Iran must “send some signals that it wants to act differently, as well, and recognize that, even as it has some rights as a member of the international community, with those rights come responsibilities.” “It’s important that, even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country, that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable, that we’re clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing.”

Praising Iran’s people history and traditions as “extraordinary, Obama says the nation’s actions over many years now have been unhelpful when it comes to promoting peace and prosperity both in the region and around the world.” “Their financing of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, the bellicose language that they’ve used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, that all those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace.”

Rihanna postpones Friday show

Rihanna was scheduled to play a concert in Malaysia on Friday.
Rihanna postponed a concert in Malaysia that was set for Friday night, according to the show’s promoter, following reports that she was allegedly assaulted by boyfriend Chris Brown.

Promoter Pineapple Concerts announced Tuesday that it was notified by Rihanna’s agent at the William Morris Agency that she would not make the Malaysia date. “In light of recent events involving Rihanna, the artist management will confirm within two weeks from now on a replacement date to be mutually agreed by Pineapple Concerts and the artist,” the company said. The promoter stressed that it was “not a cancellation but a postponement” and told those who bought tickets to hold on to them for a rescheduled date. Watch the latest on the Brown-Rihanna incident » The concert, to be held in at Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, is part of Rihanna’s “Good Girl Gone Bad Tour,” which began last year. Malaysia’s conservative Islamic party protested against Rihanna last month, saying her show is too risque for the country. “Rihanna’s image including her dressing is not suitable for our culture,” Kamaruzaman Mohamad of the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) told Malaysia’s Star newspaper. “Even if she wore a headscarf here, we know it is not her real self because she performs differently in other places,” he said. The government rejected the PAS demand that the show be canceled.

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Rihanna — whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty — canceled her performance at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards as police were looking for Brown in connection with the alleged domestic violence incident. Brown, 19, turned himself in Sunday night. He was arrested on a felony charge, released on a $50,000 bond and given a March 5 court date. Police said Brown and a woman were in a vehicle near Hollywood’s Hancock Park early Sunday when they became involved in an argument. The woman “suffered visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker,” police said.

While police did not identify Rihanna, 20, as the alleged victim, sources close to the couple told CNN she was the woman involved in the incident. Brown’s lawyer has not responded to several requests for comment.

Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters

Many Muppets came from humble origins; Kermit once was made of a coat and ping-pong balls.
Like a lot of people, I grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets. But did you ever stop to wonder where they came from?

Some of the characters we know and love were recycled from other TV shows and commercials Jim Henson worked on, while others were invented by using whatever materials were around. Be prepared for a little nostalgia, and I hope I didn’t leave out your favorite — not all of the characters have interesting background stories (sorry, Big Bird). 1. Cookie Monster: Jim Henson drew some monsters eating various snacks for a General Foods commercial in 1966. The commercial was never used, but Henson recycled one of the monsters (the “Wheel-Stealer”) for an IBM training video in 1967 and again for a Fritos commercial in 1969. By that time, he had started working on Sesame Street and decided this monster would have a home there. 2. Elmo: The way it’s described by a Sesame Street writer, apparently this extra red puppet was just lying around. People would try to do something with him, but nothing really panned out. In 1984, puppeteer Kevin Clash picked up the red puppet and started doing the voice and the personality and it clicked — thus, Elmo was born. 3. Telly Monster was originally the Television Monster when he debuted in 1979. He was obsessed with TV and his eves would whirl around as if hypnotized whenever he was in front of a set. After a while, producers started worrying about his influence on youngsters, so they changed him to make him the chronic worrier he is now.

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4. Count von Count made his first appearance in 1972 and was made out of an Anything Muppet pattern — a blank Muppet head that could have features added to it to make various characters. He used to be more sinister — he was able to hypnotize and stun people and he laughed in typical scary-villain-type fashion after completing a count of something and thunder and lightning would occur. He was quickly made more appealing to little kids, though. He is apparently quite the ladies’ man — he has been linked to Countess von Backward, who loves to count backward; Countess Dahling von Dahling and Lady Two. 5. Kermit was “born” in 1955 and first showed up on “Sam and Friends,” a five-minute puppet show by Jim Henson. The first Kermit was made out of Henson’s mom’s coat and some ping pong balls. At the time, he was more lizard-like than frog-like. By the time he showed up on Sesame Street in 1969, though, he had made the transition to frog. There are rumors that he got the name Kermit from a childhood friend of Henson’s or a puppeteer from the early days of the Muppets, but Henson always refuted both of those rumors. Mental Floss: 15 reasons Mr. Rogers was the best neighbor ever 6. Real Swedish Chef Lars “Kuprik” Bäckman claims he was the inspiration for the Swedish Chef. He was on “Good Morning America,” he says, and caught Jim Henson’s eye. Henson supposedly bought the rights to the show’s recording and created the Swedish Chef (who DOES have a real name, but it’s not understandable). One of the Muppet writers, Jerry Juhl, says that in all of the years of working with Jim Henson on the Swedish Chef, he never heard that the character was based on a real person. 7. Animal: The Who’s Keith Moon may have inspired everyone’s favorite member of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. This is speculation, but people who support the theory will point out that Jim Henson named one of the Fraggle Rock characters “Wembley,” which is the town where Moon was born. 8. Miss Piggy is apparently from Iowa. She started as a minor character on “The Muppet Show,” but anyone who knows Miss Piggy can see that she wouldn’t settle for anything “minor.” Her first TV appearance was actually on an Herb Alpert special. It wasn’t until 1976, when “The Muppet Show” premiered, that she became the glamorous blonde with a penchant for frog that we know and love today. Frank Oz once said that Miss Piggy grew up in Iowa; her dad died when she was young and her mother was mean. She had to enter beauty contests to make money. 9. Rowlf the Dog, surprise, surprise, was first made in 1962 for a series of Purina Dog Chow commercials. He went on to claim fame as Jimmy Dean’s sidekick on The Jimmy Dean Show and was on every single episode from 1963 to 1966. Jimmy Dean said Rowlf got about 2,000 letters from fans every week. He was considered for Sesame Street but ended up becoming a regular on “The Muppet Show” in 1976. Mental Floss: Commercials from a late-80s airing of ‘A Muppet Family Christmas’ 10. Oscar the Grouch is performed by the same guy who does Big Bird, Carroll Spinney. Spinney said he based Oscar’s cranky voice on a particular New York cab driver he once had the pleasure of riding with. He was originally an alarming shade of orange. In Pakistan, his name is Akhtar and he lives in an oil barrel. In Turkey, he is Kirpik and lives in a basket. And in Israel, it’s not Oscar at all — it’s his cousin, Moishe Oofnik, who lives in an old car. 11. Gonzo: What exactly is Gonzo Nobody knows. Even Jim Henson had no particular species in mind. Over the course of “The Muppet Show,” “Muppet Babies” and various Muppet movies, Gonzo has been referred to as a “Whatever”, a “Weirdo” and an alien. Whatever he is, he first appeared on the scene in 1970’s The Great Santa Claus Switch. His name was Snarl the Cigar Box Frackle. In 1974, he showed up on a TV special for Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. He became Gonzo the Great by the first season of The Muppet Show and developed his thing for Camilla the Chicken almost accidentally: During one episode where chickens were auditioning for the show, puppeteer Dave Goelz ad-libbed, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you… nice legs, though!” It was decided then and there that Gonzo would have a bizarre romantic interest in chickens. 12. You have to love Statler and Waldorf. I couldn’t find much on their particular inspiration, but I can tell you that they’ve been around since the 1975 “Muppet Show” pilot. They are named after popular New York City hotels (the Statler Hotel was renamed the Hotel Pennsylvania in 1992.) Guess what Waldorf’s wife name is Yep… Astoria (she looks startlingly like Statler.) FYI, Waldorf is the one with the mustache and white hair. Statler has the grey hair. Apparently Waldorf has had a pacemaker for more than 30 years. 13. Beaker: I always thought of Beaker and his buddy Bunsen Honeydew as characters that came along later in the Muppet timeline, but they have been around since the “The Muppet Show.” Although Beaker usually says things along the lines of, “Mee-mee-mee-mee!”, he has had a few actual lines: “Sadly temporary,” “Bye-Bye” and “Make-up ready!” Despite being word-challenged, he manages to do a pretty convincing Little Richard impression and, surprisingly, had mad beatbox skills. Beaker is one of the only Muppets that was never recycled from some other purpose — he was created solely for “The Muppet Show.” 14. Fozzie Bear. Poor Fozzie. He’s the perpetual target of Statler and Waldorf because of his horrible jokes and puns. It actually created a bit of a problem during the first season of The Muppet Show, because when Fozzie got heckled, he got very upset and sometimes cried. Viewers didn’t feel sympathy; they felt embarrassed. The problem was solved by making Fozzie an optimist so that even when he got heckled he was good-natured about it. It’s often thought that he was named after Frank Oz, who was his puppeteer, but Frank said it’s just a variant of “fuzzy bear.” Yet another story says he was named for his builder, Faz Fazakas. Wocka wocka!! 15. Bert and Ernie are the Muppet version of Felix and Oscar (“The Odd Couple,” for you young’uns). Lots of people think Bert and Ernie were named for some minor characters in It’s A Wonderful Life, but according to the Henson company, that’s just a rumor. Jim Henson always maintained that it was just a coincidence — the names just went well together and seemed to fit the characters. Jerry Juhl, one of the head writers, corroborated this and said that Jim Henson had no memory for details like that and would have never remembered the name of the cop and the taxi cab driver in the old Jimmy Stewart movie. Other rumors to clear up: Bert and Ernie aren’t gay and neither one of them are dead. Now that we’ve got that straightened out, here are a few more tidbits: the original Ernie used to have a gravelly voice similar to Rowlf the Dog’s. Frank Oz was Bert’s puppeteer and hated him at the beginning. He thought Bert was ridiculously boring, but then realized that he could have a lot of fun with being boring. Jim Henson once said, “I remember trying Bert and Frank tried Ernie for a while. I can’t imagine doing Bert now, because Bert has become so much of a part of Frank.” 16. Grover: Everyone’s favorite “cute, furry little monster” made his TV debut on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1967. At the time, he was known as “Gleep” and was a monster in Santa’s Workshop. He then appeared on the first season of Sesame Street, but sported green fur and a reddish-orange nose. He didn’t have a name then, but by the second season he transformed into the Grover we know today, more or less — electric blue fur and a pink nose. The original green Grover was reincarnated as Grover’s Mommy for a few episodes. In Latin America and Puerto Rico Grover is known as Archibaldo, in Spain he is Coco, in Portugal he is Gualter and in Norway he is Gunnar. 17. Sweetums is one of a handful of full-body Muppets. He showed up in 1971 on the TV special “The Frog Prince.” This is where he got his name — when Sir Robin the Brave is about to defeat the ogre, a witch shows up and changes him into a frog (who later becomes Robin, Kermit’s nephew). Apparently smitten with the ogre, the witch tells her darling “Sweetums” that he can have the frog for breakfast. Bigger fame awaited Sweetums, though — in 1975, he appeared on Cher’s variety show to do a duet with her to “That Old Black Magic”. He officially joined “The Muppet Show” cast in 1976. 18. Rizzo the Rat might sound familiar to you, especially if you’ve seen “Midnight Cowboy” — he is named for Dustin Hoffman’s character, Ratso Rizzo. He was created after puppeteer Steve Whitmire was inspired by rat puppets made from bottles. He first showed up on “The Muppet Show” as one of a group of rats following Christopher Reeve around — he’s easy to spot because he hams it up more than any of the other rats. He occasionally performs with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. 19. Pepe the King Prawn’s full name is Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales. I heart Pepe. He was a chef in Madrid before going Hollywood on “Muppets Tonight” in 1996. He was paired with Seymour the Elephant (Pepe was originally going to be a mouse) on the show, but Seymour never developed quite the same following and was only in two episodes. He rarely gets names right — some of his mispronunciations include “muffins” instead of Muppets, “Kermin” instead of Kermit and “Scooper” instead of Scooter. He’s quite full of himself — in addition to thinking that he’s quite the ladies’ man, he also fully expects to win several Oscars. 20. Herry Monster from Sesame Street was the Big Bad Wolf in his original incarnation, which you can kind of tell by looking at his fur. It’s pretty wolf-like (if wolves were blue, I mean). He became a Sesame monster in 1970 to replace the Beautiful Day Monster, who looked kind of like Sam the Eagle and existed to cause destruction wherever he went, thus ruining the beautiful day people had been having before he showed up. Herry used to have a furry nose but got upgraded to his non-furry, purple nose in 1971. 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Hamas tortured, killed Palestinians, rights group charges

Hamas supporters stand on the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike that killed Hamas' interior minister.
Amnesty International has accused Hamas militants in Gaza of kidnapping, killing and torturing fellow Palestinians they accuse of spying for Israel, the organization announced Tuesday.

According to Amnesty International, at least 24 Palestinian men — most of them civilians — were shot and killed by Hamas gunmen during the recent Israeli offensive aimed at crippling the Hamas leadership in Gaza. “Scores of others have been shot in the legs, kneecapped or inflicted with other injuries intended to cause permanent disability,” the human rights organization said in a news release. Hamas leaders have publicly accused followers of its rival Palestinian political faction, Fatah, of spying for the Israelis during the conflict, and they have said many have been arrested for collaborating with the Jewish state. But they deny ordering any reprisal attacks against suspected spies, instead blaming rogue elements. The Israeli military offensive in Gaza was launched at the end of December and ended three weeks later, when Israeli forces withdrew under the terms of a cease-fire agreement. Amnesty said that the targets of “Hamas’ deadly campaign” include prisoners who escaped from Gaza’s central prison when Israeli forces bombed it in the initial days of the military conflict. Some prisoners injured in the Israeli bombing were “shot dead in the hospitals where they were receiving treatment,” Amnesty said.

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“The perpetrators of these attacks did not conceal their weapons or keep a low profile, but, on the contrary, behaved in a carefree and confident — almost ostentatious — manner,” it said. Other targets included former members of Palestinian Authority security forces and supporters of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. Fatah, which is based in the West Bank, has denied spying on Hamas. Fatah leaders have accused Hamas of rounding up at least 175 of their members in Gaza during the Israeli war and torturing them. The two Palestinian factions have been locked in a power struggle since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and wrested Gaza from Fatah in violent clashes the following year. Abbas is a U.S. ally and regularly negotiates with Israel as the Palestinian leader, but he holds little sway in Gaza. Fatah supporters have been accused of helping the Israeli military conduct its campaign in Gaza, which targeted the Hamas leadership. Neighbors of Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam said they suspected Fatah supporters helped Israel pinpoint his location when they bombed his house on January 15. Siam was highest-ranking Hamas member killed in the Israeli offensive. Most of those suspected of spying for Israel have been abducted from their homes and then “dumped — dead or injured — in isolated areas,” according to Amnesty International. During the Gaza conflict, medical officials at Gaza City’s main medical facility, Shifa Hospital, said injuries they witnessed were consistent with people being shot in the kneecaps, elbows, hands or feet. Punishment shootings are a time-tested tactic used worldwide by guerrilla and militia groups, from Che Guevara in Cuba to the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. They are meant not only to take revenge but also to send a message to others. Two self-described Fatah loyalists were found heavily bandaged at a Gaza City safe house during the recent conflict. One of their colleagues refused to say where or why they were injured, but they denied spying. “They shot him at close range with a pistol,” he said of one man. “His bones are shattered. They shot him point-blank in the foot. … This was done by Hamas people.” The other man, he said, was struck on his legs with a metal construction bar. “Four people were beating him,” he said. A Hamas security source told CNN the shootings occurred because renegade gunmen took the law into their own hands. Ehad al-Ghossain, Hamas’ Interior Ministry spokesman, said there was no official order within Hamas to carry out such shootings. “That’s not us,” al-Ghossain said. “Maybe some families who had problems in the past just wanted to shoot these people.”

Microsoft readies smartphone assault on Apple

Microsoft and CEO Steve Ballmer will launch an online store for smartphone applications, a report says.
Microsoft is gearing up to take on rival Apple in the smartphone market.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Microsoft is getting ready to launch an online marketplace akin to Apple’s App Store. Microsoft is also readying a more sophisticated version of its mobile operating system called Windows Mobile 6.5, the Journal reported. Smartphones are sophisticated mobile phones that offer users access to the Web and e-mail, as well as, provide phone calling and all kinds of other messaging options. This category of device is the hottest thing going in the mobile market and is seen as the biggest growth engine for mobile devices over the next few years. Microsoft, which only makes the operating software for these devices, holds third place in terms of worldwide market share, according to research firm IDC. Symbian, which powers Nokia’s smartphones, is by far the leader, followed by Research In Motion with its BlackBerry devices. Even though Apple seems to be the most talked about smartphone on the market these days, it’s only in fifth place in terms of overall market share for 2008, IDC said. But Apple is quickly gobbling up market share and has become a serious threat to Microsoft and every other company competing in the smartphone market. With the release of the iPhone 3G last summer, Apple has tripled its market share from 3 percent in 2007 to 9 percent in 2008, according to IDC.

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Meanwhile, Microsoft only grew from 11 percent market share in 2007 to 12.3 percent in 2008. Microsoft is facing several challenges as it tries to catch Apple’s growth rate. For one, the company’s business model is based primarily on licensing software to hardware vendors. While this business model worked fine just a couple of years ago, it’s difficult to justify now given that device makers can get free software from Symbian, Google Android, and Linux. The second problem that Microsoft faces is that the company has been almost exclusively focused on business customers. Over the past year, smartphone users have gravitated toward more consumer applications. In addition, to their work e-mail, they want multimedia functionality and social-networking applications on their phones. “Microsoft is in a really tough spot,” said Ryan Reith, an analyst with IDC. “It has to change its value proposition. And a big part of that is refreshing its user interface and making the device more consumer-friendly.” Reith believes this is why it’s critical for Microsoft to develop an application marketplace that can compete with Apple’s App Store. The App Store went live last summer and offers thousands of applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch music player. The store has been very successful with users downloading thousands of free and fee-based applications. Microsoft already has a developer community creating applications for Windows Mobile devices. But the problem is that many of these applications have been geared toward business users. And there is not a single destination that makes it easy for users to discover and download different applications. “Clearly smartphones are not just for business users anymore,” Reith said. “Microsoft needs to work with the developer community to get more consumer applications out there.” Microsoft’s executives have gotten the message that consumer functionality is hot. And Andy Lees, head of Microsoft’s mobile business unit, told the Journal that the company is about to put more emphasis on multimedia and other consumer functions like music and photos. Microsoft is expected to unveil its new offerings next week at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer will be delivering a keynote speech there on February 16. I will be there next week covering the news from the show, as will my CNET Reviews colleagues Bonnie Cha and Kent German. But even with these enhancements, Microsoft has a tough road ahead of it. Competition in the smartphone market is increasing. And several competitors, including Android and RIM, are launching their own version of an application store. On the handset and operating system side, new devices are coming to market that could provide stiff competition for Windows Mobile devices. For example, smartphone pioneer Palm is coming out with new mobile software and a device called Pre later this year. And even though critics have been writing the company’s obituary for the last year, the new device, which was unveiled last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, has been getting a lot of buzz. But Microsoft thinks it has the right enhancements lined up to take on these competitors, especially Apple. The Journal also reported that Microsoft is talking about a new synchronized data storage service called My Phone. This new service is supposed to make it easier for people to back up their mobile contacts, calendar appointments, photos and text messages, to a Web site. The service is similar to a service that Apple calls MobileMe. The biggest difference will be that Microsoft will offer My Phone for free whereas Apple charges $99 a year for MobileMe. It’s too soon to know how Microsoft’s new software and application store will stack up against Apple’s offering. But one thing is certain, Apple isn’t sitting still either. And if Microsoft or any other competitors want to hasten Apple’s rise in this market, they’ll have to leap-frog Apple with something truly revolutionary.

Flight 1549 crew: Hudson landing still on our minds

Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger says he’ll take to the skies again — as soon as he can shake Flight 1549 out of his head.

“I’ll be going back to work as soon as I’m ready,” said Sullenberger, who along with First Officer Jeffrey Skiles safely guided US Airways Flight 1549 to an emergency landing in the Hudson River last month. Sullenberger, Skiles and veteran flight attendants Sheila Dail, Doreen Welsh and Donna Dent spoke to CNN’s Larry King in an interview scheduled to air at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday. The captain and his crew have achieved national fame since their January 15 landing, in which all 155 passengers survived. “My sleep has been disrupted ever since the incident … It’s distracting and it’s hard sometimes to turn off my brain at night,” Sullenberger said. Sullenberger’s crew members expressed similar experiences in the aftermath of the incident. All but Welsh, a 38-year veteran who was injured in the accident, said they felt certain they would return to work at some point.

Hero pilot on ‘Larry King’

Watch the heroic U.S. Airways pilot, crew, and passengers tell their amazing stories of survival.
Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET on CNN

see full schedule »

Asked why she wasn’t in uniform during the interview, Welsh replied, “I can’t yet. I was the one that was injured and I was the one in water and it [the uniform] was ripped and bloody and I just can’t put it on yet.” Welsh said she’s not scheduled to fly for “a while,” adding, “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I haven’t — I didn’t get there yet.” Watch “Sully” Sullenberger react to passengers’ stories » Earlier this month, the National Transportation Safety Board said both the plane’s engines contained the remains of birds, confirming the pilots’ report that the engines shut down after colliding with birds less than 2 minutes after taking off. The plane’s flight data recorder “revealed no anomalies or malfunctions in either engine up to the point where the captain reported a bird strike, after which there was an uncommanded loss of thrust in both engines,” the NTSB said. Sullenberger told “Larry King Live” that bird strikes are not “terribly uncommon,” though they typically have only minor impact on a plane.

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“This was very different,” Sullenberger said. “There were many large birds that struck all over the airplane, pelted us like hail and severely damaged both engines.” Sullenberger took over the controls from Skiles, who had been piloting the plane, and Skiles tried to restart the engines. Within minutes, Sullenberger decided to land the plane on the Hudson. Hear Sullenberger’s last words with air traffic control » Was it a miracle “I wouldn’t say that,” Skiles said. “I would still say that it’s just everybody did our jobs and we had good fortune, as well.”

The crew praised the passengers remaining remarkably calm throughout the ordeal. “It was incredible,” said Dent, a flight attendant with 26 years of experience. “They did very well, a very educated group of travelers. I think that helped a lot. We had a lot of frequent flyers.”

Australian bushfire survivor films aftermath of deadly firestorm

Images from disturbing video of the Australian bushfires filmed by resident Brad Price in Kinglake, Victoria.
Through a smoky haze, flames continue to dance around the remains of a house, a shed and the blackened trunks of trees on remarkable video footage filmed moments after a firestorm swept through the rural Victorian town of Kinglake, Australia.

Resident Brad Price is holding the camera, providing a slightly breathless commentary of the destruction of his home and town as smoke clogs his throat and blurs his vision. “Everything’s gone. I’m over at Kylie’s house which is next door. Every house around us has burnt down,” he tells the camera. He turns the lens on himself to show a reddened, peeling face. “I burnt all me face, trying to fight the fires. I did as much as I could. I saved my dog, that’s all I was worried about.” In an interview with the Nine Network’s A Current Affair, Price described how he spent six hours searching “every single house” in central Kinglake for survivors. See a map of the area » He commandeered an abandoned utility and took at least one dozen of his neighbors to safety. “I found people wondering around saying, ‘have you seen my husband'” he told the Nine Network, adding, “I took an old lady who didn’t know who she was, she had no shoes on, she was entirely burnt.” Watch how survivors are coping with grief » Price, his face swollen and bandaged, told the Nine Network that he sent his partner Erin and her three children away before the firestorm hit. He was following the Australian government’s long-standing fire policy of “stay and defend or leave early.” Photos: Bushfires leave path of destruction » The policy was introduced after the country’s previous worst fire outbreak in 1983 when 75 people were killed on a day remembered as “Ash Wednesday.” “The idea is that people think about their circumstances and if their house is defendable — and that relates to a number of factors — prepare themselves and their property and protect it in a proactive way,” Professor John Handmer said in an interview on Australian radio. Professor Handmer, director of the Center for Risk and Community Safety at the RMIT University in Melbourne, is currently reviewing the fire policy on behalf of the Bushfire Center for Research. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National that detailed studies following “Ash Wednesday” showed that leaving a property “at the last minute” was the cause of most of the fatalities. Watch a couple’s emotional reunion »

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“It’s often very difficult unfortunately to know when you should be going. Our studies have shown that often people will unfortunately wait and see and leave when they think the fire is close,” he told the ABC. “When the fire’s moving very rapidly, that is dangerous. We believe we need to be more assertive than that,” he added. Australian authorities have announced the stay and defend policy will be reviewed as part of a royal commission established to determine whether more could have been done to prevent the 181 deaths in this week’s bushfires. iReport.com: ‘Thank God we were spared’ “Given the new climatic conditions in which we’re operating, the fire protection and fire preparation measures that are in place are going to have to be of a much higher standard than we’ve seen in the past,” said Victorian Premier John Brumby. Temperatures in parts of Victoria reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) in the weeks leading up to the blaze, creating tinder box conditions in large parts of the state. Price told the Nine Network he abandoned his attempts to defend his home when the power failed, rendering his water pump useless. After hours searching the charred and smoking streets for survivors, Price phoned his brother who defied police roadblocks to rescue him. “My brother said he’s on his way. When he says he’s on his way, I know he’ll commandeer a helicopter and he’ll pull in there and he’ll get me,” Price told the Nine Network. iReport.com: Are you there

His brother Wes found him lying on the ground in the front of the pub with the dog. Asked whether he wanted to go back to what remains of his home in Kinglake, Price told the Nine Network: “If you saw what I saw you’d never want to go back there. I won’t be able to drive down the street. I saw things that people should be trained to see. But I went and did it, so I’ll live with it.”

A celebrity breakup, then a fishy disappearance

Olivia Newton-John and Patrick McDermott were together for nine years. Then he disappeared.
Former lighting technician Patrick McDermott, best known as Olivia Newton-John’s boyfriend of nine years, mysteriously disappeared July 1, 2005.

He wasn’t on board the fishing boat “Freedom” when it returned to shore in San Pedro, California, after an overnight excursion. Investigators say he’d visited Newton-John the day before with flowers, bid her farewell and ended their relationship. McDermott was seen boarding the vessel that evening with his fishing gear and a duffle bag. The 22 passengers and three crew members on board gave conflicting reports about his whereabouts both during and at the end of the trip. Police have determined that McDermott did indeed board the vessel, fished with the others and socialized on the boat both on June 30 and the next day, July 1. However, the witness accounts conflict about what happened as the boat neared shore on the afternoon of July 1. No one is quite sure when they last saw McDermott in the last 30 minutes of the voyage. McDermott paid his bar and kitchen tab, which consisted of two hot dogs and a Coke, a kitchen receipt shows. Then he seems to have vanished.

Some witnesses told police they thought they saw McDermott get off the boat when it docked and walk toward the parking lot, but they cannot be sure it was him. Ten days passed before relatives began a search for McDermott. They first became alarmed on July 6 when he didn’t show up for a family gathering. Relatives found his car still parked at the San Pedro Marina where he’d left it when he boarded the fishing vessel. Investigators then discovered McDermott had left personal items on the boat, including his wallet. As police looked into his background, they learned that McDermott had been facing a mountain of debt, including being ordered by a court to pay back child support payments for his 15-year-old son from a prior marriage. A Coast Guard investigation concluded that he was “most likely drowned at sea.” But some people believe he may be alive.

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Investigators have theorized that McDermott may have staged his death to escape financial pressures. Since McDermott disappeared, there have been hundreds of supposed sightings of him in Mexico. Private investigators and some police investigators speculate that McDermott may be hiding in the small village of Sayulita, 40 miles outside the resort town of Puerta Vallarta. A community of expatriates in Sayulita work as deckhands for the mega-yachts owned by billionaire South American businessmen. The Coast Guard, the lead investigative agency, says its case is closed. It found no evidence to support or disprove criminality or foul play in the McDermott disappearance. “We spoke to dozens of witnesses on that vessel and we concluded any reported sightings of McDermott getting off that boat after it docked were not credible,” said Scott Epperson, a Coast Guard spokesman in Long Beach. Although the investigation is officially closed, he encourages anyone with credible tips to please call the tip line at 310-521-4296. McDermott was 48 years old at the time of his disappearance three years ago. He is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, with brown eyes and salt-and-pepper hair.

Chelsea cleared to talk with Hiddink

Guus Hiddink is set to take charge at Stamford Bridge until end of the season.
Chelsea said on Tuesday that they had been given permission to talk with Guus Hiddink about taking charge at the Premier League club until the end of the season.

The Dutchman has emerged as the clear favorite to replace the sacked Luis Felipe Scolari, but his involvement with the Russian national team is a stumbling block. A statement on Chelsea’s official Web site www.chelseafc.com said they had been cleared to open negotiations with Hiddink. “Chelsea can confirm that we have officially approached the Russian Football Union (RFU) to talk with Guus Hiddink to become the club’s temporary coach until the end of the season while continuing to be in charge of the Russian national team. “The permission has been granted and Chelsea would like thank the RFU for their co-operation.” Hiddink has a strong track record in both club and international football and his agent Cees van Nieuwenhuizen told BBC Radio on Tuesday that he would be open to an offer from Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. “I think because of the personal relationship he has with Mr Abramovich he will definitely talk to him and listen to him but I think Mr Abramovich realizes he also he has not finished his job (with Russia),” he said. “He is focused on his job with Russia, he is with the team on a training camp in Turkey and he is looking forward to qualifying with Russia for the World Cup.” Russia have two World Cup qualifiers between now and the end of the Premier League season — Azerbaijan at home at the end of March and Liechtenstein away on April 1. Hiddink has previous experience of managing a club and country at the same time, successfully combining roles at PSV Eindhoven and Australia. The development appears to rule out other names being linked with the job, including former boss Avram Grant, ex-Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard, AC Milan’s Carlos Ancelotti, former Chelsea favorites Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Di Matteo and inevitably Mourinho, who is in charge at Inter Milan. Scolari went on Monday after a string of indifferent results which have left Chelsea in fourth place in the Premier League, but in the last 16 of the Champions League and fifth round of the FA Cup. You say: Were Chelsea right to dismiss Scolari Who should replace him “Unfortunately the results and performances of the team appeared to be deteriorating at a key time in the season,” said a statement on the club’s official Web site.

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“In order to maintain a challenge for the trophies we are still competing for we felt the only option was to make the change now. “The search for a new manager has already started and we hope to have someone in place as soon as possible. “While that continues assistant coach Ray Wilkins will take charge of the team on a temporary basis.” The 60-year-old Scolari, who won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil before enjoying success with the Portugal national team, was the fourth manager of the Abramovich era, following Claudio Ranieri, Mourinho and Grant. Ranieri, now Juventus coach, will take his side to Stamford Bridge for the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie, a match that takes on added significance with Chelsea all but out of the running in the Premier League. But Ranieri sees Scolari’s sacking as a bad omen for his team. “We could have done without this change,” Ranieri told Press Association. “Now the players will have an excuse and I, who had studied Scolari’s team by memory, will have to start from the beginning. “It will be another Chelsea and I will only have two weeks to get to know it.” Chelsea will hope to have Hiddink installed before their FA Cup tie at second-flight Watford on Saturday. A week later they go to Aston Villa, currently a place above them in the league, before the Juventus clash.

Sarajevo homes raided in hunt for Mladic

Portuguese peacekeepers stand guard outside a home raided on Tuesday.
European Union peacekeepers in Bosnia on Tuesday raided homes belonging to family members of Ratko Mladic, the highest-ranking figure still at large from the Balkan conflict in the mid 1990s, Serbian media reported.

The force raided houses belonging to Mladic’s sister, Milica Avram, and sister-in-law, Radinka Mladic, in East Sarajevo, an area of the city inside the Bosnian Serb-controlled Republika Srpska, a seperate political entity to the Muslim-Croat-controlled Bosnia-Croat Federation. The raids were a part of a broader operation targeting locations and people who are believed to be helping Mladic evade trial, the reports said. Serbian authorities recently put up “wanted” posters for Mladic at police stations across Serbia, reminding people of the 1 million euro ($1.3 million) reward for any information leading to Mladic’s capture. Mladic, who commanded the Bosnian Serb military during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been the Balkans’ most wanted since former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade last July. The 66-year-old is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for allegedly overseeing the killings of almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. Mladic is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws of war. He has been on the run for 13 years, ever since the ICTY issued the indictments against him. The ICTY has accused Serbia of knowing Mladic’s whereabouts and letting him slip through their hands. Serbia’s status as a candidate for European Union membership also remains conditional on Mladic being handed over to the ICTY. Serbian leaders have denied protecting Mladic.