The Aircraft That Can't Fly; Congress' $63 Million Boondoggle

June 12, 2007 -- U.S.

The Aircraft That Can't Fly; Congress' $63 Million Boondoggle

Congress has spent more than $63 million on an experimental aircraft that has never flown more than a few feet and that the Pentagon has repeatedly rejected. (ABC News)

Exclusive: FBI Data Mining Program Raises Eyebrows in Congress

Lawmakers are questioning whether a proposed FBI anti-terrorist program is worth the price, both in taxpayer dollars and the possible loss of Americans' privacy. (ABC News)

AFGHANISTAN/U.S.

U.S. Troops Mistakenly Kill Afghan Police

Afghan police mistakenly thought U.S. troops on a nighttime mission were Taliban fighters and opened fire on them, prompting U.S. forces to return fire and call in attack aircraft, killing seven Afghan police, officials said Tuesday. (AP)

AFGHANISTAN

U.S. Envoy Says Iran Is Arming Taliban

A senior U.S. diplomat accused Iran on Tuesday of transferring weapons to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, where NATO forces are deployed to bring stability to the country. (AP)

Gunmen Kill Afghan School Girls

Two gunmen on a motorbike have killed two school girls and wounded six others as they left their school south of the Afghan capital, Kabul, officials say. (BBC)

Al QAEDA

Iraq Qaeda-Led Group Says Holding 14 Officers-Web

An Iraqi al Qaeda-led group said on Monday it was holding 14 Iraqi army and police personnel and threatened to kill them in days unless the government met its demands. (Reuters)

Al-Qaeda Releases New Video Showing April Attack on Afghan Police Convoy

Al-Qaida released a video Monday showing what it claimed to be an April 1 ambush on an Afghan police convoy driving between two major cities in Afghanistan. (AP)

IRAQ NEWS

3rd Bridge Bombed In 3 Days In Iraq

Suspected Sunni insurgents bombed and badly damaged a span over the main north-south highway leading from Baghdad on Tuesday the third bridge attack in as many days in an apparent campaign against key transportation arteries. (AP)

Shootings and Bombing Kill Six in Iraq

Insurgents killed six people in Iraq on Tuesday, four in shootings and two in a roadside bomb attack in central Baghdad, security officials said. (AFP)

Us Death Toll IN Iraq Tops 3,500 after Bridge Collapse

Three US soldiers were killed in a bridge collapse caused by a bomb blast near Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, bringing the total US military death toll in Iraq to more than 3,500. (AFP)

U.K.

Father Found Guilty in Honor Killing

A father who ordered his daughter brutally slain for falling in love with the wrong man in a so-called "honor killing" was found guilty of murder on Monday. (AP)

CHINA

Olympic Contractors in China Accused of Using Child Labour

Red-faced organizers of the Beijing Olympics threatened Monday to cancel the contracts of companies using child labor and violating minimum-wage rules to make Olympic-licensed products. (AP)

China Criticised Over Secret Laws

China's state secret laws are "complex and opaque" and reinforce the rule of the Communist Party, a report published by Human Rights in China says. (BBC)

WAR CRIMES

Serb Leader Convicted of War Crimes

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted a wartime leader of Croatia's rebel Serbs of murder, torture and persecution Tuesday and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign of non-Serbs in Croatia. (AP)

KENYA

Arrests after Kenyan Bomb Blast

Police in Kenya say they have made three arrests following Monday's blast in the capital, Nairobi. (BBC)

JFK PLOT

Trinidad Court Denies Bail for JFK Plot Suspects

A Trinidad court denied bail on Monday for three suspects in an alleged plot to blow up New York's JFK International Airport and a local prosecutor said they may face life imprisonment. (Reuters)

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

U.S. Raps Several Arab Allies for Human Trafficking

The United States accused its Arab allies Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar on Tuesday of being among the world's worst offenders in permitting the sale of people into the sex trade and indentured servitude. (Reuters)

LEBANON

Lebanese Commandos Blow Up Islamist Chief's House

Lebanese commandos have blown up the home of the Islamist militia chief in a besieged refugee camp where fighting flared again on Tuesday in the fourth week of a deadly stand-off. (Mail & Guardian)

Lebanese Army Shells Refugee Camp

The Lebanese army fired heavy artillery into the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Tuesday, in what it says could be the final push to force Islamist militants from the camp, military sources said. (CNN)

DUKE LACROSSE CASE

Ex-Duke Lacrosse Prosecutor Faces Trial

More than a year after shocking allegations emerged about Duke University's lacrosse team, prosecutor Mike Nifong is heading to trial — as a defendant. (AP)

U.K.

Identity of WWII Agents Revealed

MI5 has released new files to the National Archives which allow several double agents during World War II to be identified. (BBC)

PAKISTAN

Pakistan Official Is Chief Suspect in Death of Canadian Woman

A top official in Pakistan resigned today after being charged in connection with the mysterious death of a married Canadian woman who was living in his home. (ABC News)

NIGERIA

Militants Free 13 Hostages in Nigerian Oil Delta

Nigerian militants freed 12 foreign hostages and one Nigerian in the oil-producing Niger Delta on Monday as a prelude to peace talks with the incoming government of President Umaru Yar'Adua. (Mail & Guardian)

SOMALIA

Somali Official: US Planes Hunting Islamists

United States aircraft are hunting foreign jihadists in the remote mountains of northern Somalia where American forces launched air strikes earlier this month, a regional official and residents said on Tuesday. (Mail & Guardian)

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia Court Finds 38 Politicians Guilty Over Protest Rallies

A court in Ethiopia has found 38 senior opposition figures guilty of charges connected to mass protests after disputed elections two years ago. (Daily Nation)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Will Democrats Defend Egypt's Democracy?

By Shadi Hamid

The time of year has again arrived when the United States Congress considers funding levels for foreign aid. But this year is different. Democrats control a majority in both the House and Senate and, for the first time in more than 12 years, will have the opportunity to set the agenda on this critical issue. (Daily Star)

Iraq's Ominous Numbers Game

By Kareem Raheem

With most of the U.S. military's surge troops already in place, the numbers are starting to come in on how well it has succeeded in its goal of reducing sectarian violence in Iraq. And they aren't encouraging. Sectarian violence is nearly back to its pre-surge levels in Iraq — and rising. Recent weeks have seen greater murder rates. And the numbers seem unlikely to go down with so much of Baghdad still uncontrolled; U.S. commanders recently acknowledged that two-thirds of the capital remain unsecured. (Reuters)

After the Bomb

By William J. Perry, Ashton B. Carter and Michael M. May

The probability of a nuclear weapon one day going off in an American city cannot be calculated, but it is larger than it was five years ago. Potential sources of bombs or the fissile materials to make them have proliferated in North Korea and Iran. Russia's arsenal remains incompletely secured 15 years after the end of the Soviet Union. And Pakistan's nuclear technology, already put on the market once by Abdul Qadeer Khan, could go to terrorists if the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, cannot control radicals in that country. (NY Times)

Gambit to Link Iran to the Taliban Backfires

A media campaign portraying Iran as supplying arms to the Taliban fighting US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan, orchestrated by advocates in the US administration of a more confrontational stance toward Iran, appears to have backfired. Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeil, issued unusually strong denials. (Asia Times)

Iyad Allawi talks to Asharq Al-Awsat

Q: What is your view on the current situation in Iraq? A: The security situation is tied to the political situation, and the former is in a state of absolute chaos. The country is slipping into the abyss - not just towards it but rather into ... more (Asharq Alawsat)

China's Food Safety

When pet cats and dogs in the US started dying in April, few would have thought that the deaths would have much relevance for the Chinese export juggernaut. But the issue looks like spiralling into a major problem for international traders, and in an effort to cool the controversy China was forced to release on June 6th its first five-year plan to improve food-and-drug safety standards. The plan has a political as well as practical motive, as the government is keen to undo the reputational damage from scandals ranging from food contamination to the sale of fake antibiotics. However, implementation of the plan is likely to be difficult. (The Economist)

An 'Oil-for-Food' Program for Darfur

By Richard Goldstone

More than four years ago, the government of Sudan and its proxy military force, the janjaweed, began targeting civilians in Darfur. The death toll has climbed past 200,000. Despite much hand-wringing on the part of world leaders, the violence continues. (International Herald Tribune)

Probe This Explosion with All Due Haste

Tragedy hit Nairobi yesterday when an explosion occurred in a busy street, killing one person and leaving more than 30 others badly injured. (Daily Nation)

Iraq: The Sunnis' Struggle to Get Their House in Order

Iraq's Sunnis are engaged in an intense intra-communal struggle. In light of the ongoing U.S.-Iranian negotiations on Iraq, the Sunnis are trying to forge a communal consensus, which entails neutralizing forces that are not willing to cooperate. Just as the outcome of the U.S.-Iranian diplomatic talks remains unclear, it remains to be seen whether the Sunnis can agree on a common platform and thus claim their share in the emerging power-sharing arrangement in Baghdad. (Stratfor)

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.