REMEMBER when little Antigua faced off against the US over the country's restrictions on online gambling — and won? The island nation of Antigua and Barbuda took the US before the World Trade Organisation's arbitration board in 2004 over the issue. The WTO board decided that the US ban on online gaming was an "arbitrary and unjustifiable discrimination between countries".As the US restrictions were considered an illegal trade barrier, the WTO board ordered the government to allow online gaming. Antigua at one time had a thriving online gaming business, with many US companies setting up there and raking in millions from US gamers.

Of course the celebration of the victory was premature. The US government made a law banning the credit card companies from accepting payments from foreign online gaming sites and thus the ban continued.

The US sanctions killed that boom time immediately, and governments like Bermuda could take satisfaction that they had not rushed into what was a lucrative area, but one that made the giant neighbour angry as hell.

Now this week Antigua has taken a further step on the way to stirring the pot a little. The country is petitioning the WTO to apply commercial sanctions worth about $3.4 billion a year against the US. Antigua is not alone. The European Union is also asking for US compensation for its ban.

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THE iPhone hits the stores on 29 June but it won't be washing up on Bermuda's shores anytime soon.The iStore in Bermuda has issued a notice to the Apple acolytes that the iPhone will not be available in Bermuda. Currently Apple is only releasing the ground-breaking phone in the US under contract with AT&T and Cingular.

"The iStore will not be selling the iPhone, the accessories for the phone, nor will we be supporting it at this time," the company said on its Bermuda web-site.

The iPhone is a combination mobile phone and widescreen iPod that connects to the internet via touch controls. The iPhone will be available in Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008.

Bermuda residents can still have fun watching as thousands line up on Friday for the release. I expect it will be a massive crush. So much hype has gone into this pocked web-surfing phone that about six in 10 Americans are aware about the iPhone. An estimated 19 million say they want one, according to a survey by M:Metrics.

Certainly it has got me excited enough to start thinking about finally buying a cell phone. Yep it's true I only got a permanent cell phone last year after holding out as a protest against the way it was being used in an anti-social way by my friends.

But the phone went kaput very soon and I never got around to getting a new one. The iPhone looks and sounds like exactly the device I would be willing to carry around. Now I'll be the anti-social person for a change. Surf's up!

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I AM a big fan of online radio, especially old time detective series such as Johnny Dollar, The Whistler and Philip Marlowe. In fact I usually listen to about one show a night, just before I go to sleep. My favourite is www.live365.com, which also carries a lot of online music stations.Now a rate hike by the US Copyright Royalty Board, which raises payments by 300 to 1,200 per cent, retroactive to June 2006, threatens to wipe such services out. In protest about 45 net radio sites, representing thousands of channels, went off the internet stream on Tuesday in protest against the hikes.

All for naught of course. While large radio networks, such as those offered by Yahoo and Real Networks, will be able to make the payments, smaller ones such as Live365.com could be wiped out.

What will I do for a bedtime story now?

Contact Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com if you have any comments.