Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1-1

123456 FINAL CHICAGOLAND CHICAGOTRIBUNE Weather: Rain; high 43, low 40. COMPLETE INDEX, PAGE 2 24 hours a day go to chicagotribune.com AUTO SHOW GUIDE SECTION 17 How to get there, what to see BACK! 5 guys on the spot from Cubs and Sox SPORTS SECTION 3 OZZIE GUILLEN DUSTY BAKER Arthur Miller remembered ARTS ENTERTAINMENT SECTION 7 By Michael Martinez Tribune national correspondent LAS maker of Tasers is launching a major high-stakes campaign to market its new model to consumers despite scores of fatalities and injuries linked to the police Taser, including the death of a man in Lakeview neighborhood last week. Taser has made its name in law enforcement and the military, envisions a future in which mil- lionsof average citizens protect their homes and communities with the stun guns instead of firearms. Tasers fire two wires tipped with electric barbs, delivering a shock that painfully and briefly paralyzes a person. The new consumer model has a range of 15 feet and is designed to stun for 30 seconds.

The more powerful police counterpart fires 25 feet, with a stronger initial jolt of up to five seconds, extendable for as long as the officer wants; the weapon internally records the duration of the jolt. Even as government inquiries and shareholder lawsuits have reached their sharpest pitch for the 11-year-old firm, Taser president and co-founder Thomas Smith insists the products are safe and is upbeat about sales of the recently introduced $1,000 consumer model. a huge potential Smith, 37, said in an interview at a recent firearm dealers convention in Las Vegas, where private drew Taser aims at home market as safety concerns mount Getty Images photo by Jeff Topping An employee for Taser International tests an X26 model in Scottsdale, last year. The firm envisions millions of citizens protecting themselves with the stun guns instead of firearms. Laser sight Electrical wires Darts 15 feet Police Tasers have been sold to 135,000 law officers in 7,000 agencies nationwide.

Now the maker is marketing a new civilian model, the X26c, aimed at the estimated 30 million to 50 million firearms-owning households. A civilian version, the X26c has a range of 15 feet, while a police model, the X26 has a range of 25 feet and delivers a stronger jolt. Barbs attached to the electrodes cling to an body or clothing. A current runs from the weapon through the wires, stunning the attacker. How a Taser stun gun works Inside the device, a cartridge of compressed nitrogen gas is broken, launching two electrodes with wires attached through the air at a rate of more than 160 feet per second.

The user aims at a subject using a laser sight and pulls the trigger. MARKETING TASERS Sources: Taser International, HowStuffWorks.com Chicago Tribune 1 2 3 Stun maker, critics disagree on danger PLEASE SEE TASERS, PAGE21 By Liz Sly Tribune foreign correspondent BAGHDAD As the vote count trickles in, long- dominant Sunnis are waking up to the magnitude of the defeat they suffered in election. For the first time in history, power will reside not with the extended tribal clans or the elite families of Sunni heartland, but with the religiously inclined Shiites of the south and the independence- minded Kurds of the north, two groups with vastly different agendas that do not include Sunnis. It was a predictable outcome. By staying away from the polls, Sunnis surrendered the field to the majority Shiites and to the Kurds, who are likely to wield the balance of power in new National Assembly.

Election officials said Saturday that a final result will be released Sunday. Yet Sunnis, accustomed to dominating political landscape, seem caught off guard both by the extent of the Shiite victory and by their own apparent irrelevance to the process, leaving them bitter and disillusioned. With religious leaders calling on their followers to boycott, PLEASE SEE IRAQ, PAGE23 Push is on for role as boycott backfires Car bombing south of Baghdad kills 17. PAGE 22 Sunnis worry for future in new Shiite-run Iraq By Stevenson Swanson Tribune national correspondent NEW drab winter landscape of Central Park came alive with undulating panels of orange fabric Satur- dayas teams of workers unfurled to the cheers of chilly art lovers. The largest public art project in New York history, is the work of Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, the artists who are on a first- name basis with fame because of previous eye-popping projects such as wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin and creating a flowing fabric fence in northern California.

After more than a quarter- century of existing only in the minds of its creators, this latest project began its two-week run early Saturday morningwhen Mayor Michael Bloomberg used a hooked pole to pull open the tube-like on the crossbeam of one of the 16-foot- high gates, allowing the pleated nylon curtain inside to unfurl. Teams of workers paid by the artists spent several hours repeating that procedure for each of the 7,500 vinyl-and-aluminum arches, which range in width from feet to 18 feet. Spaced about 12 feet apart, the freestanding gates cover about 23 miles of paved pedestrian walkways in all sections of the 843-acre park. The teams, made up of Christo fans from across the country, drew sizable crowds of onlookers with cameras and video recorders. Judging from the en- colorful walk UPI photo by Monika Graff Visitors attend the opening of The Gates, a project by artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, in New Central PLEASE SEE THEGATES, PAGE15 By Kim Barker Tribune foreign correspondent SURAT, India He was a handsome, young diamond polisher.

She was shy, with a crooked smile and an easy blush. They had a typical Indian love story: Boy meets girl through an arranged-marriage bureau. Boy and girl decide to marry, once their families agree. But this arranged marriage was unusual in one major respect. Both Kamlesh Patel, the groom, and Nimisha Rana, the bride, were HIVpositive.

They signed up with a new kind of marriage bureau, which arranges marriages only for Indi- ans with the virus that causes AIDS. we met, we remembered our past and talked about those said Rana, 25, who found out she had HIV during her first marriage. we said, happened, happened. Now we will start our new This first conversation, over juice made from grapes and cashew fruit, took about a half- hour. The couple married a month later, on Dec.

4, in a Hindu temple in front of 100 people. The new marriage bureau, a private volunteer agency based in the western state of Gujarat, Love in the time of HIV: India agency offers hope PLEASE SEE INDIA, PAGE18 By Virginia Groark and John Chase Tribune staff reporters Gov. Rod Blagojevich long has vowed to purge the Illinois toll- way of cronyism, yet two of his closest friends and political advisers have links to food vendors awarded lucrative contracts to operate inside the toll sleek new oases, government records show. The Subway sandwich shops and Panda Express Asian restaurants now being installed in the seven revamped rest stops are controlled by firms with strong ties to the food-service empire of Antoin Rezko, a Blagojevich confidant who has seeded the cabinet with former business underlings. Christopher G.

Kelly, chief fundraiser, who also recommended the executive director for his job, is an investor in at least one Rez- ko-controlled food firm, a spokesman said. Subway and Panda Express are part of a revamped lineup of restaurants going into oases being rebuilt along the 274-mile toll network, and officials expect the vendors to make millions of dollars each year for both the operators and the toll- Two confidants of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Chris Kelly (center) and Antoin Rezko (right), have ties to the restaurants opened in revamped tollway oases. But Kelly and Rezko say they are not profiting from the deals. Tollway oasis pact rich with links to allies Fundraiser, friend tied to restaurants PLEASE SEE TOLLWAY, PAGE16.