Top Five Concepts from Frankfurt

As the largest auto show in the world, the biennial Frankfurt fest is noted more for its production-car launches than it is for show-stopping concepts like the dream cars that are the staple of the Geneva and Detroit exhibitions.

Still, with every major manufacturer in the world present, invariably there is a wide selection of concepts on display. Here are our top five picks of the hottest show cars to bow at the Frankfurt Messe.

E-Max Converts Mobile Text Messages to Voice

I received an email today promoting a service that would discourage drivers from texting and emailing from cell phones while on the road by delivering and sending important messages via voice instead.

It's called E-Max from Virtual Management, the providers of E.V.A. (Electronic Virtual Assistant). For $20 a month, E-Max allows subscribers to highlight important contacts so when they send a text message or email, the subscribers receive dictated versions via cell phone. And recipients can respond via voice as well; their replies are sent in a voice attachment via email. "E-Max makes dangerous 'car-texting' obsolete since replies are sent immediately via cell and users can stay focused on the road!" the note read.

Texting and emailing while driving is crazy, but I think we've learned by now that talking and dialing on cell phones, Bluetooth or no Bluetooth, is pretty darn distracting while driving, too. And in lots of states it's as illegal as texting. Now I know this doesn't stop many of us from doing it. A service that stops people from texting and emailing while driving is good, but we can't call it safe, either.

AT&T Offers Parental Controls on Cell Service

AT&T has heard the complaints from parents about high bills and too much texting by cell phone-carrying teens. The carrier is now offering a $4.99 add-on service that allows parents and teens (and 'tweens) to set limits on calls and text messages to ensure phones are not used during school hours and to help keep monthly bills in check.

The Smart Limits service will allow users to block calls and text messages from certain numbers, set certain times of day off limits to calls and text messages, and set an allowance for downloads, including ring tones. It's all done through a web site, just as carriers such as Disney Mobile and kajeet do through their services, which include the online management tools as part of their services.

As do the other services, AT&T allows calls to parents and 911 to override any set limits.

The Smart Limits service will be marketed to existing AT&T family plan customers and parents' magazines, but AT&T sees the potential for the service to expand to business customers or individuals who want to limit hours of incoming calls or block certain callers.

It's sure to be a tough sell with teens who have been using phones without it, but if it's a choice between having the phone taken away after excessive bills turn up and accepting limits, then they'll probably go for it.

These kinds of tools work best when kids are first getting phones so they can learn how to use them wisely.

Any AT&T customers out there who plan to pay another $5 a month for these services? If you've got another carrier plan that allows you to set up limits with kids, let us know if you like it. That goes for parents and kids.

College Bloggers Can Vie for $10,000 Scholarship

College bloggers, take note. The blogging you do in off hours as a hobby could help you land some scholarship money to pay part of a new semester's tuition.

Read/Write Web points to a $10,000 scholarship for college bloggers offered by CollegeScholarships.org, a directory of college scholarship and financial aid opportunities.

Nominations can be made via a 300-word essay about why your blog deserves an award. But the blogger doesn't have to be the one to apply for the scholarship; if you know a student who doubles as an excellent blogger, nominate him or her.

Why is CollegeScholarship.org offering its own blogging scholarship?

"We believe passion is important. As the world gets more competitive, those who are passionate about what they do, and work close to their passions, will be able to become and stay successful even as technology and automation eat away at many business models...We believe those who freely express themselves are far more likely to find their true passions and connect with people to bring on large scale social change."

Nomination essays must be submitted by Oct. 6. Ten finalists will be chosen by the web site's founders, and then an online vote by the public will choose the winner. Voting begins on Oct. 8 and ends when a winner is named on Oct. 28.

Applications must be U.S. citizens who are full-time students at accredited colleges and universities. Blogs can be about anything, with this caveat: "Your blog must contain unique and interesting information about your and/or things you are passionate about. No spam bloggers please!!!" Emphasis theirs.

Get busy!

Sison not covered by amnesty, says Esperon

MANILA, Philippines -- Self-exiled communist leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison may not be covered by an amnesty proclamation for communist rebels which Malacañang will issue soon, according to Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon.

Interviewed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer during the celebration of the 50th National Day of Malaysia on Tuesday night, Esperon said he doubted if Sison himself would avail of the amnesty proclamation.

Esperon pointed out that Sison was being tried in The Netherlands for ordering the assassination in the Philippines of his former comrades, a crime under Dutch law.

“I think he will not be covered. It’s The Netherlands that is charging him with felonious acts. He may not be covered,” Esperon said.

Asked if Sison’s alleged crimes in the Philippines would be covered, Esperon quipped: “I think that’s something for the legal minds to study. Probably yes, but he is now facing charges in the Netherlands. So our amnesty will not cover any laws of other lands.”

US assistance

Sison, 68, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), was arrested by Dutch police on Aug. 28 and ordered detained by a judge in The Hague.

A statement by Wim de Bruin, spokesperson of the Dutch national prosecutor’s office, said Sison was suspected of giving orders, from the Netherlands, to murder former communist associates Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara.

The CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), have been listed as terrorist organizations both by the European Union and the United States.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney has said that Washington is willing to help the Dutch government prosecute Sison if the latter would seek US help.

AFP backs amnesty

At the Malaysian reception, Esperon said he expected more legal questions to crop up on the qualifications of applicants for amnesty once the proclamation was released and submitted to Congress for concurrence.

Esperon said the Armed Forces of the Philippines fully supported the amnesty proclamation as long as the rebels would return to the mainstream. He said the military was part of the discussions when the amnesty proposal was being considered.

Legal loopholes

“It’s OK with us if they come to the mainstream, except of course for certain crimes like rape, and crimes not in connection with political beliefs. Otherwise, we will go for that,” he stressed.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos, who also attended the Malaysian affair, said he, too, was for giving amnesty to rebels except for crimes committed not in furtherance of political beliefs.

Ramos urged Malacañang to carefully study the parameters of the amnesty program to avoid legal loopholes.

The National Security Council the other day approved the grant of amnesty to communist rebels willing to lay down their arms, in a move it hoped would hasten the conclusion of the stalled peace negotiations with the communist National Democratic Front (NDF).

The amnesty could also cover party-list representatives charged with rebellion for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow the government in February 2006, Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said.

Administration ploy

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo described the amnesty offer as “malicious ... (and) consistent with the Red-baiting tactics of Malacañang against progressives.”

Ocampo reminded Gonzales and Dureza that the Makati Regional Trial Court had already dismissed the “Palace-fabricated” rebellion cases against him and 50 other co-accused.

“The trumped-up rebellion case against us has long been dismissed by the Supreme Court,” said Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza Maza.

Ocampo said amnesty “is a standard counterinsurgency ploy in light of the government’s declared goal to finish (off) by 2010 the Left insurgency (by) strategically defeating the New People’s Army.”

“(For) amnesty to be meaningful, (it) must form part of a comprehensive peace agreement and not a unilateral act of government in an ongoing armed conflict,” he said. With a report from Christian V. Esguerra

Estrada guilty of plunder; perjury rap dropped

MANILA, Philippines -- Former president Joseph Estrada has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of plunder by the Sandiganbayan and has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

At the same time, the anti-graft court ordered the freezing of Estrada’s accounts estimated at $87 million.

The funds, including protection money from illegal gambling operators, embezzled tobacco taxes, and commissions from insider trading, will be "forfeited," the anti-graft court ruled.

But Estrada son, Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, and lawyer Eduardo Serapio, were acquitted by the anti-graft court in its ruling issued Wednesday that capped a six-year trial for the former leader who was ousted in a popular revolt in 2001.

The perjury case against Estrada however was dismissed.

The court said it would allow Estrada to stay at his resthouse in Tanay, Rizal “until further orders.”

The former leader said he did not want any special treatment.

"Our client is prepared to be taken to the National Penitentiary now," his lawyer Rene Saguisag said.

Estrada is considered the first Philippine president to have been criminally convicted.

Estrada's lawyers said they would read the decisions first to determine their options.

The former president was composed when Teresa Pabulayan, Sandiganbayan Special Division Clerk of Court, read the dispositive portion of Criminal Case 26558 for plunder but winced when he heard the word "guilty."

The 70-year-old former action star-turned politician had repeatedly insisted that the charges against him were politically motivated.

The case against Estrada has marked a bitter chapter in Philippine politics that began when he was ousted from power in 2001, a move which led to violent protests in the streets.

Estrada repeatedly denied the corruption allegations, accusing the business elite, his successor President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the powerful Roman Catholic Church of conspiring against him because of his populist platform.

He said that he had twice rejected offers from Arroyo to clear his name in exchange for his voluntary departure from the Philippines.

"I told them that I will never leave the country and I am prepared to face the charges against me," he said.

"Because of this, I was not only arrested and jailed, I was also humiliated and charged with a non-bailable offense of plunder," he said.

During the trial he has been held at his luxurious compound, and the court ruled he would be remain under house arrest until further orders.

The military had put troops on high alert to ensure calm for the announcement of the verdict, with extra forces placed on standby in military bases around Manila to aid police if necessary.

Schools near the court were ordered closed, and President Arroyo was advised by her security staff to remain in the palace.

The case against Estrada has been a tricky one for Arroyo, who succeeded Estrada in 2001.

The guilty verdict against Estrada, who remains popular among much of the nation's poor, risks setting off demonstrations in the streets. An acquittal would have suggested she had come to power six years ago without a mandate.

In 2001, thousands of Estrada supporters tried to lay siege to the presidential palace to reinstate him.

Arroyo declared a state of emergency and called in troops to quash what she later said was an uprising aimed at toppling the government. Four people died in that incident, while over 100 were arrested.

In a taped message smuggled to a radio station on the eve of the verdict, Estrada said he believed the public had already decided he was innocent.

"I have been in detention for six years, four months and 17 days," he said. "But because of your prayers, help and love I have survived this heavy burden."

"I am prepared because I have already been acquitted by the people," he said. "My personal freedom is no longer important."