UN: Gaza needs construction material before winter

Thousands of Gaza Palestinians left homeless by an Israeli invasion face a cold and rainy winter unless Israel allows building supplies in, a senior U.N. official said Monday.

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Problems plague rebuilding of war-torn Afghanistan

U.S. agencies handling reconstruction work in Afghanistan lack direction and communication, problems that risk wasting U.S. tax dollars, says the special inspector general overseeing tens of billions of dollars worth of projects.

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Afghanistan's reconstruction outpaces oversight

The job of rebuilding Afghanistan is shaping up as an ominous sequel to the massive, mistake-riddled U.S. effort to get Iraq back on its feet.

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Rebuilding Gaza — world faces daunting challenge

The seven foul-smelling lagoons of sewage near Gaza's coast were supposed to be replaced by a globally funded waste treatment plant. Instead, they epitomize the nightmare faced by foreign donors as they seek to rebuild the territory and open a pathway to peace.

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Iraq earmarks $15 billion for reconstruction

Iraq has earmarked some $15 billion — nearly 25 percent of its 2009 draft budget — to help rebuild the country's crumbling infrastructure, energy and oil facilities, the finance minister said Saturday.

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Retired general picked as IG for Afghan rebuilding

Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Fields is the White House's choice to lead a new office that will investigate U.S. reconstruction spending in Afghanistan.

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White House cautions against restricting aid to Iraq

White House officials this week privately cautioned lawmakers not to go too far in restricting U.S. aid to Iraq, warning that doing so might only prolong the war, now in its sixth year.

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Investigators: Millions in Iraq contracts never finished

Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.

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Study: Reconstruction teams face funding, staffing troubles

A key component of the U.S. strategy to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan — dispatching military and diplomatic workers to direct aid at the local level — remains beset by troubles over funding, staffing and administrative support, according to a new congressional study.

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Lack of Security Limits Iraq's Recovery

Despite some declines in violence in Iraq, the shaky overall state of security is still impeding the nation's $100 billion recovery and rebuilding effort, a new report said Tuesday.

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Computer System Down for a Month in Iraq

The U.S. spent at least $38 million to give Iraq's government a computerized accounting system — and no one noticed when it was not working for a month, a report said Wednesday.

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Report: Iraq Self-Reliance Years Away

Teaching local officials in Iraq to govern themselves and provide their citizens with basic services will take "years of steady engagement." It also will rely heavily on the U.S. government's ability to recruit skilled civilians, investigators told a House panel Thursday.

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Lantos Calls Iraq Reconstruction a Mess

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday raked reconstruction efforts in Iraq as "mired in the mud of incompetence."

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Audit Finds Missing U.S. Weapons in Iraq

Nearly one of every 25 weapons the military bought for Iraqi security forces is missing, a government audit said Sunday. Many others cannot be repaired because parts or technical manuals are lacking.

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Administrative Costs High in Iraq

Overhead costs ate up about a third of five major reconstruction projects in Iraq, according to a government audit.

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American: Oil, Reforms Must Rebuild Iraq

As U.S. aid dwindles, Iraq's rebuilding must rely on uncertain oil exports, other foreign aid and a drastic overhaul of its economy to attract investment, the U.S. reconstruction chief for Iraq said Thursday.

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Postwar Iraq Chaos Blamed on Poor Planning

Poor prewar planning left the United States without enough skilled workers to efficiently rebuild Iraq's economy and public works, according to a report issued Monday.

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Insurgents Thwarting Iraq Reconstruction

Guerrilla attacks in Iraq have forced the cancellation of more than 60 percent of water and sanitation projects, in part because American intelligence failed to predict the brutal insurgency, a U.S. government audit said.

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"The retired general advised western governments to transfer . . . money being spent on financing troops to the restoration of Afghanistan itself."

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Everywhere I turn these days I keep seeing or hearing the words, "No More Excuses." From black self-help book titles to black pundits on CNN, these three words have become the mantra of post-racialism in the Age of President Obama.

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I'm all for more Westerns on television. It's a genre that lends itself well to the ongoing storytelling format that a regular TV series allows.

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Matt Frei, US correspondent for the BBC, in his diary or blog, talks about the conundrum and responsibility hanging over the US on Afghanistan and the shifting focus and perceptions.

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The masterpieces of Minoan art are not what they seem. The vivid frescoes that once decorated the walls of the prehistoric palace at Knossos in Crete are now the main attraction of the Archaeological Museum in the modern city of Heraklion, a few miles from the site of Knossos.

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excerpt: ""The Texas State Board of Education review committee is preparing to vote on a draft of proposed standards for history textbooks. Noting that the draft has "nothing about liberals," the Houston Chronicle reported. ""

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Earlier today, congressional Democrats held their second hearing on the national security aspects of climate change in little over a week.

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After the legendary corruption of the Iraq occupation—private contractors fashioning spurs for their cowboy boots from stolen Iraqi gold, vanishing pallets of shrink-wrapped cash—you'd think the US government would be keeping an extra-close watch on the reconstruction effort  …

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Bill Clinton on Tuesday took his Haiti relief effort to this battered seaside city that was nearly destroyed last year by a series of tropical storms, finding a mud-caked maze of homes and shops.

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22 April 2009 – Economic recovery in the Gaza Strip is at a standstill due to the ongoing blockade of materials and spare parts that would spur reconstruction following the Israel's devastating three-week military offensive, the United Nations said today.

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Under the bright lights of the Pepsi Center in Denver last August, the young black politician delivered a message of change.

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A spokeswoman for Hampton University in Virginia says three people have been taken to a hospital after a shooting in a dorm.

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Investigators said they are using every tool at their disposal to learn if human remains found in the woods of Nassau County are those of a Callahan woman who disappeared nearly nine years ago.

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Ordered to shoot to kill, snipers on the heaving stern of the destroyer had one improbable chance to get it right.

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He might not have been able to do it without Moufid. He was a critical link to establishing trust, Bowers says, and helped the Americans make contacts with influential Fallujans who wanted to break free of the Al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency.

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Excerpt: Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A Riverside County man who lost half his face to cancer can once again go out in public and leave his self-consciousness at home, thanks to the extraordinary work of a former Hollywood make-up artist and an eye-ball maker.

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When a pit bull attacked a 6-year-old boy Wednesday, his brother and mother sprung into action to save him.

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In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

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President Barack Obama ended his first prime time press conference on the "I" word. "When I hear people just saying we don't need to do anything...then what I get a sense of is that there is some ideological blockage there that needs to be cleared up."

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She can eat pizza. And hamburgers. She can smell perfume, drink coffee from a cup, and purse her lips as if to blow a kiss.

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US reconstruction in Iraq tainted with fraud and wastefulness

Feb. 4 -- The release of a new report indicates gross failures in the US plans to reconstruct Iraq after the destructive invasion and subsequent occupation.

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Iraqis in Diyala province sarcastically call it "the whale." The "skeletal, half-built" shell of a maximum-security prison in Khan Bani Saad "will probably never house an inmate" even though the United States spent $40 million on the now-halted $73 million project.

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Gaza New Siege Mechanism

By Nicola Nasser*

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As US forces work to revive Iraq's tattered farming economy, they seem to have found an effective new weapon: cows. At the suggestion of an Iraqis womens group, the Marine Corps recently bought 50 cows for 50 Iraqi widows in the farm belt around Fallujah.

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Africa news round-up: MPs to fight suspension of reconstruction programme for troubled north; Ugandan government under fire for losing billions and World Bank promises rapid response to economic crisis for developing countries

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