Six In The Morning

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say
U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion, sent by the planeload in cash and intended for Iraq's reconstruction after the start of the war.
By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
June 13, 2011
Reporting from Washington— After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.

Egypt: Mohamed ElBaradei not sure to run for president
Man who inspired many protesters who forced Mubarak to step down in February gives televised interview
Associated Press
The Guardian, Monday 13 June 2011

Egyptian pro-democracy campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei said in a televised interview aired on Sunday that he is not sure he will run for president, because there has not been not enough debate about the future of the country.

ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is a favorite of some leaders of the uprising that unseated Hosni Mubarak, but polls show he has little electoral support. He inspired many of the protesters who took part in the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak to step down in February.

Refugees take flight as troops launch attacks on rebel stronghold

Kim Sengupta and Justin Vela report from the Turkish border
Monday, 13 June 2011

Syrian forces stormed a city yesterday which had become a symbol of militant opposition after an intense artillery and tank bombardment. But defiant protests, and the regime's violent response to them, continued with helicopter gunships opening fire on demonstrators and troops setting homes on fire in a string of towns.


The spreading strife led to a fresh exodus of terrified families seeking sanctuary. More than 5,000 were in rapidly filling camps in neighbouring Turkey, including babies, the elderly and the ill.

Another 10,000 were stranded on the Syrian side of the border with little food and water and no shelter. Some who had been carried injured to the border, and with no access to medical treatment, did not survive. Funerals were held for a dozen of the dead in the "no man's land" yesterday.

Dutch scientists claim breakthrough in combating E.coli
The Irish Times - Monday, June 13, 2011

PETER CLUSKEY in Delft
DUTCH SCIENTISTS say they have made a “worldwide breakthrough” in combating antibiotic-resistant E.coli, including the bacterium EHEC, which has killed 29 people in Germany and left some 3,000 others across Europe and the US seriously ill.

The breakthrough was announced by the director of food and nutrition at the highly regarded TNO Research Institute in Delft, Dr Jan Pieter van der Lugt, who described it as “an international first in the war against life-threatening bacteria”.

Libya govt says rebels' victory claims 'wishful reporting'

HADEEL AL-SHALCHI AND MAGGIE MICHAEL MISRATA, LIBYA - Jun 13 2011

Insurgents had reported fighting street by street to retake the Mediterranean port city of Zawiya, 30km west of Tripoli, a prize that would put them within striking distance of the capital and cut off one of Muammar Gaddafi's last supply routes from Tunisia.

But government spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim said late on Sunday that Gaddafi forces had driven off the attackers, and reporters taken to Zawiya saw secure streets and the green national flag flying over a central square. The insurgents, for their part, claimed a high-ranking Gaddafi commander was badly wounded in the fighting.

High level of strontium found at Fukushima plant

Kyodo Monday, June 13, 2011
Radioactive strontium up to 240 times the legal concentration limit has been detected in seawater samples collected near an intake at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday.
The utility said the substance was also found in groundwater near the plant's Nos. 1 and 2 reactors. The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it is the first time that the substance has been found in groundwater.

The agency said it is necessary to carefully monitor the possible effects of the strontium on fishery products near the plant.