U.N. Report Says Iran Undeterred on Nuke Course

May 23, 2007 -- IRAN NUCLEAR REPORT

U.N. Report Says Iran Undeterred on Nuke Course

Iran is undeterred from its current course of gaining the ability to enrich large quantities of uranium, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. (ABC News)

IRAQ

Bush: Bin Laden Tried to Start Iraq Unit

President Bush, stressing that Americans face an ongoing threat from terrorists, shared intelligence on Wednesday asserting that Osama bin Laden was working in 2005 to set up a unit inside Iraq to hit U.S. targets. (AP)

Nine U.S. Soldiers Killed In Five Iraq Attacks

Nine U.S. soldiers were killed in five separate attacks across Iraq over the past 48 hours, most of them by roadside bombs, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

MISSING U.S. SOLDIERS IN IRAQ

Iraqi Police: Body Found in U.S. Uniform

Iraqi police found the body of a man who was wearing what appeared to be a U.S. military uniform and had a tattoo on his left hand floating in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad on Wednesday morning. One Iraqi official said the body was that of an American soldier. (AP)

Suicide Bomber Kills 15 East of Baghdad

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up inside a coffee shop east of Baghdad on Wednesday morning, killing 15 people, police and medical sources said, while the U.S. military said seven soldiers died in attacks. (AP)

UN/ PAKISTAN

UN Troops 'Traded Gold for Guns'

Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt. (BBC)

AFGHANISTAN

Blast Kills NATO Soldier in Afghan Northwest

A NATO soldier and an Afghan civilian were killed by an explosion on Wednesday in Faryab province in northwestern Afghanistan, the provincial governor said. (Reuters)

Finnish Soldier, 3 Others Killed By Bomb

A bomb in northern Afghanistan killed a Finnish soldier and an Afghan civilian Wednesday, while a suicide attacker in the capital killed two people, including a policeman, officials said. (AP)

With Afghan Poppy Crop Rising, US and NATO Forces May Step Up War on Drugs

Afghanistan's opium poppy crop could rise 20 percent this year over last year's record haul, fueling concerns that U.S. and NATO forces need to play a bigger role in the drug fight, Western and Afghan officials say. (AP)

U.K. NUCLEAR POWER

Government Confirms to Commons its Nuclear Power Plans

The government is to push ahead with proposals to build a new generation of nuclear power stations, the industry secretary, Alistair Darling, told parliament this afternoon. (Guardian)

Factbox-Nuclear Power Plants Worldwide

Britain on Wednesday gave the strongest signal yet that it wants a new fleet of nuclear power plants to be built as part of its plan to secure energy supplies and combat global warming. (Reuters)

LEBANON

Truce Holds in Lebanon Refugee Camp

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians carrying their belongings in plastic bags trickled out of a besieged refugee camp Wednesday, taking advantage of a truce in fighting that mostly held overnight. (AP)

Furious Street Battles Remind Lebanon of Its Past

The stark reality of the three-day battle in this seaside refugee camp became apparent Tuesday on a drive through the area during a brief but dangerous lull in the fighting. (NY Times)

U.S.

Bush Official Broke the Law, Investigators Say

A government investigation has found a top Bush administration official broke the law by encouraging subordinates to use their power to support Republican candidates for office, sources tell ABC News. (ABC News)

Changes Spurred Buying, Abuses

In February 2005, an auditor at the General Services Administration presented evidence to agency leaders that one of the government's top technology contractors was overcharging taxpayers. (Washington Post)

TURKEY

Suicide Bomb Suspected in Turkey Attack

Investigators have concluded that a suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed six people and injured dozens in Turkey's capital, using methods similar to those of a Kurdish rebel group, a top official said Wednesday. (AP)

SERBIA

12 Convicted in Serbian PM's Slaying

Slobodan Milosevic's paramilitary commander and 11 other men were convicted Wednesday of assassinating Serbia's first democratically elected prime minister, Zoran Djindjic. (AP)

LITVINENKO INVESTIGATION

Potential Witness in Litvinenko Case Ill

As Alexander Litvinenko lay dying at a London hospital, a fellow former KGB agent wrote angry letters from a Ural Mountains prison colony saying his warnings that a government hit squad had been hunting Litvinenko were ignored. (AP)

Litvinenko Affair Set To Hurt UK-Russia Relations

The Russian suspected in Britain of murdering Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko is unlikely ever to stand trial and the affair could become a longstanding sore in relations, analysts said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

MEXICO

Police Corruption Undermines Mexico's War on Drugs

When Mexico sent hundreds of federal officers to clean up the corrupt local police in the rowdy border city of Tijuana this year, they were supposed to set an example of how to police responsibly. (Reuters)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Propping Up the General

It seems the more unpopular Pakistan's military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, becomes at home and the less he is willing to fight the Taliban, the more the Bush administration clings to him. (NY Times)

Human Rights 'Eroded Worldwide'

Powerful governments and armed groups have been deliberately fomenting fear to erode human rights worldwide, a report by Amnesty International says. (BBC)

America's New Know-Nothings

By Fareed Zakaria

In 1989, Ronald Reagan made his farewell address to the American people and summed up his view of the United States. "I've spoken of the shining city all my political life," he said, "but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. [I]n my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get here." Today, all the Republican Party can talk about are walls, fences, border guards and attack dogs. (Newsweek)

Turkey at the Boiling Point

By James F. Hoge Jr.

Two simmering problems threaten to boil over in Turkey this summer with greater international consequences than ever before. (International Herald Tribune)

A New Face for the Taliban

By Hassan Abbas

Pakistan is experimenting with the Taliban yet again. The primary focus of the effort is to delink the Taliban from al-Qaeda and bring them back into the Pakistani sphere of influence. (Asia Times)

Regional Conflicts Join Together To Destabilize Lebanon

By Rami G. Khouri

In recent years I and others have been warning that the growing number of conflicts in the Middle East is pushing the region toward new forms of radicalism and trouble. The clashes between the Lebanese Army and the Fatah al-Islam extremist militants that have rocked parts of North Lebanon since Sunday are the latest face of that phenomenon. (Daily Star)

The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.