FINALLY...CELL PHONE SERVICE IN BAGHDAD

For weeks Basam Faras has been selling cellphones and collecting $100 deposits, promising hundreds of eager, middle-class customers that they soon would have service. But like most Iraqis, the electronics store owner really had no idea when Iraq would be connected.

That changed Monday when Iraqi officials said cellphone service would begin immediately with a one-week test in Baghdad and then extend across Iraq after New Year's. Cellular phone service only is available now to the U.S. military and the Iraqi government.

The downside to this is that the bad guys get to use the cell system too...which might improve their efficiency...