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A total of some US$1 billion has been stolen from the Iraqi Defense Ministry, Britain’s Independent daily reported on Monday. The money had been earmarked for training and equipping the Iraqi army, but was embezzled abroad in cash and has disappeared, the report said. “It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history. Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return, we got nothing but scraps of metal,” The Independent quoted Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi as saying. Most of the money was supposedly spent buying arms from Poland and Pakistan and was paid up-front out of the ministry’s account with the Central Bank. Military equipment purchased in Poland included 28-year-old Soviet-made helicopters. The paper listed a series of problems with the arms purchased, including low-quality armored cars. Another deal turned up a shipment of the latest MP5 submachine guns, which were actually Egyptian copies worth a fraction of the price, according to the report.

See also: Ex-defence minister ‘will be arrested over $1bn’

The US Senate has found a new “expert witness” to defend the on-again-off-again Bush administration theory that global warming is junk science: “Jurassic Park” author Michael Crichton. Meanwhile, the countdown towards polar bear extinction is speeding up.
For more see this Spiegel Online article

FEMA and The Better Business Bureau warn against post Disaster Scams making donations to unknown hurricane fundraising efforts, purchasing flooded cars and using unlicensed contractors for home repairs and construction.
See The Better Business Bureau website for more Info

See also our blog entry After a Disaster: Repairing Your Home – Recommendations From the The Federal Trade Commission

An interactive computer game where kids can reach Planet Power by fueling their rocket with food and physical activity. “Fuel” tanks for each food group help students keep track of how their choices fit into MyPyramid.
See Food Pyramid for Kids Interactive

The Senate confirmed John Glover Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the United States, replacing the late William H. Rehnquist, the mentor for whom he clerked. The vote was 78-22.
See this Washington Post article for more info

Roberts Profile here from the Washington Post

Guess that was to be expected , but the next one might be causing more controversy.

The organization behind the World Cup soccer competition warned this week that Internet fraudsters are using its name in a global phishing scheme.

Several groups are distributing fraudulent e-mail messages that claim to be associated with the FIFA soccer committee, FIFA said. The official-looking e-mails tell recipients they’ve won a lottery and ask them to disclose personal information, including bank account data, in order to collect their winnings, the organization said.

“FIFA confirms that these lotteries have no connection with or authorization from FIFA,” the Swiss-based organizers said in a statement on Tuesday.
See this report from News.com for more info

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury Wednesday on a charge of conspiring to violate political fundraising laws, forcing him to temporarily step aside from his GOP post. He is the highest-ranking member of Congress to face criminal prosecution. See this Washington Post article for more info

Join forces with a coalition of prominent scholars, elected officials, activists and theologians united to roll back the dangerous and growing influence of the religious right.

The religious right seeks to undermine the separation of church and state and thwart scientific progress.
More info here

Nordic countries and East Asian tigers top the rankings in the World Economic Forum’s 2005 competitiveness rankings. Australia, India, Ireland and Poland all gain positions – US remains in second place after Finland

Finland remains the most competitive economy in the world and tops the rankings for the third consecutive year in The Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006, released today by the World Economic Forum. The United States is in second position, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan and Singapore, respectively.

United States, as last year, is ranked second: the country demonstrates overall technological supremacy, with a very powerful culture of innovation. However, technological prowess is partly offset by a weaker performance in other areas measured by the index. The US has a relatively low rank of 20 for the contracts and law indicator, with particular concerns on the part of the business community about the government’s ability to maintain arm’s-length relationships with the private sector, and in the formulation of policies more generally. But the country’s greatest weakness concerns the health of its macroeconomic environment, where it ranks a low 47th overall. This echoes the increasingly vocal international concerns about the macroeconomic imbalances in the US economy, especially as regards the public finances.

See this Press Release article for more info