Motorola has announced a partnership with Oakley to create Bluetooth headset eyewear. Currently Oakley is selling a line of sun glasses with an MP3 player built-in, but it’s not clear if the Bluetooth line will have a similar design. Details and designs are set to be unveiled by mid-year. Company executives said their mutual objective is to deliver evolutionary and innovative products for consumers who want hands- free, untethered operation of their electronic devices. Oakley is a leader in premium sunglasses and also has a range of apparel/accessories. MobileTracker [article]

Neowin.net reports : Sony may be preparing to release its first PlayStation Portable (PSP) update, if a file that briefly appeared on the web this weekend is what it purports to be: a leaked copy of an early version of the update code. Whatever its provenance, the software certainly includes some interesting features. In addition to the usual bug fixes, the update is said to add not only a web browser and an email program, but a word processor and a spreadsheet. At this stage, the translations from the original Japanese exploration of the alleged PSP update file doesn’t make it clear whether...

Muslim clerics object as Western Christian groups hand out food and Bibles, reports Jason Burke in Banda Aceh Sunday January 16, 2005 The Observer Dozens of religious groups have moved in to Aceh, looking to help tsunami victims – and convert them and others, creating tensions in the disaster area. The arrival of Western Christian groups with records of aggressive preaching risks confrontation with local Muslim leaders which could jeopardise the provision of aid to the 600,000 local people made homeless by the disaster. The death toll in Aceh stands at around 110,000 and is expected to rise. Reacting...

Family members left behind by those who have died violent deaths amidst the occupation of Iraq, whether they are Iraqi or American, have every reason to be bitter. After all, each death is due to an illegal occupation as the result of an illegal invasion of a sovereign country (although the United States government disputes this view). With over 1,340 dead US soldiers and an estimated 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians as a result of the war and occupation, there are many families left behind engulfed in grief. In a recent delegation to Amman, Jordan, US family members who lost loved ones in the conflict...

Shocking images of British soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners will be revealed in a courtroom in Germany. Three soldiers, from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, are facing a court martial in Osnabruck, over the ill-treatment of the civilian prisoners. Corporal Daniel Kenyon, 33, and Lance Corporals Mark Cooley, 25, and Darren Larkin, 30, are accused of abusing the men at a humanitarian aid camp near Basra in May, 2003. Lance Corporal Larkin, from Oldham, in Greater Manchester, and Lance Corporal Cooley and Corporal Kenyon served in Iraq during the invasion. They will be tried in front of...

As prison ringleader awaits sentence, defence contractors win multi-million Pentagon contracts Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor Sunday January 16, 2005 The Observer Two US defence contractors being sued over allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison have been awarded valuable new contracts by the Pentagon, despite demands that they should be barred from any new government work. Three employees of CACI International and Titan – working at Abu Ghraib as civilian contractors – were separately accused of abusive behaviour. The report on the Abu Ghraib scandal implicated three civilian...

WASHINGTON � The jail term meted out to Army Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. for abuses at Abu Ghraib prison may prove to be the stiffest criminal punishment that emerges from the entire scandal, according to experts on military justice. To some, the low-level Army reservist may look like the fall guy in a debacle that embarrassed the United States throughout the world and tainted the image of American forces in Iraq. Yet analysts said that for now, at least, it was doubtful that higher-level officials would be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of criminal wrongdoing at the Iraqi...

LONDON (Reuters) – Reality TV, meet virtual reality. Electronic Arts, the world’s biggest video game publisher, is considering an interactive TV show that would let viewers control the actions of the characters as in its popular game “The Sims.” “One idea could be that you’re controlling a family, telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom, and with this mechanism you have gamers all over the world ‘playing the show’,” said Jan Bolz, vice president of marketing and sales for EA Europe. The proposed show, which might...