WASHINGTON — Pentagon auditors said they could not account for millions of dollars worth of rocket-propelled grenades, armored vehicles, ammunition and other supplies and equipment that were to be used to train and equip Iraqi security forces, because of inadequate paperwork and a lack of oversight personnel.
A report released Thursday by the Defense Department’s inspector general looked at $5.2 billion in the Iraq Security Forces Fund, which is part of the $44.5 billion U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq.
The inspector general said the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq was unable to prove that it received 12,712 of the 13,508 weapons it bought, for instance, because the serial numbers were not kept when they were brought to the Abu Ghraib warehouse, and when they were sent out, there wasn’t adequate paperwork tracking them to a contract. The 13,508 weapons included 7,002 pistols, 3,230 assault rifles, 2,389 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 887 machine guns.
Florida: Tighter launch rules
NASA on Friday delayed the liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis until Sunday at the earliest and said it might tighten the launch rules, at astronauts’ request, to cope with unreliable gauges in the fuel tank. During a nearly six-hour meeting, representatives of NASA’s astronaut office proposed that the launch proceed only if all four of the hydrogen fuel gauges and their associated systems work properly. The launch rule currently calls for only three good gauges.
Colorado: Hurricane forecast
Using a simplified forecasting technique, researcher William Gray at Colorado State University is predicting an above-average hurricane season in the Atlantic next year, with seven hurricanes, three of them major. It says there is a slightly higher-than-average chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the United States.
Rhode Island: Lesbian divorce
A lesbian couple that married in Massachusetts cannot get divorced in their home state of Rhode Island, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday. The court, in a 3-2 decision, said the state’s family court lacks the authority to grant the divorce of a same-sex couple because Rhode Island lawmakers have not defined marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman.
Minn.: Slaughterhouse illnesses
Over eight months from last December through July, 11 workers at Quality Pork Processors Inc. in Austin developed numbness, tingling or other neurological symptoms, and some scientists suspect inhaled airborne brain matter may have somehow triggered the illnesses. The employees all work at the “head table,” where workers cut up pigs’ heads and then shoot compressed air into the skulls until the brains spill out.
China: U.S. blamed for warming
China insisted Friday the U.S. and other wealthy nations should bear the burden of curbing global warming, saying the problem was created by their lavish way of life. It rejected mandatory emission cuts for its own developing industries. Su Wei, a top climate expert for China’s government, said it was unfair to ask developing nations to accept binding emissions cuts and other restrictions being pushed for already industrialized states.
Germany: Scientology ban sought
Germany’s top security officials said Friday they consider the goals of Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation’s constitution and will seek to ban the organization. The Scientologists point to several lower court rulings in favor of their right to practice in Germany as a religious organization.
Mexico: Another musician killed
A trumpet player was found dead with his hands and feet bound and a plastic bag over his head in Oaxaca in what authorities said was apparently the country’s third murder of a musician in less than a week. An attorney general’s spokesman said Thursday that authorities were still investigating possible motives but suspected a crime of passion.
U.N.: Darfur support faltering
European nations look unlikely to meet an urgent U.N. call to provide military helicopters for a peacekeeping force planned for Darfur, saying their armies are already stretched by missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo and other hot spots. Thomas Cargill, Africa program manager at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank in London, said European countries risk undermining their credibility “if they commit themselves to resolving a crisis but then can’t commit themselves to providing the necessary hardware.”
Aruba: Slaying suspect freed
A judge Friday in Oranjestad ordered the release of the last of three suspects re-arrested last month in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, ruling the evidence was not strong enough to continue holding him. Joran van der Sloot was one of three men who were the last people known to have seen Holloway alive before she vanished on May 30, 2005, but have denied any role in her disappearance.
From Herald news services
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
