WORKERS DEMOLISH BARN AT HOFFA SEARCH SITE

Workers demolish barnat Hoffa search site
MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- It took about three hours Wednesday for a 75,000-pound excavating machine to gobble up a barn as part of the FBI's search for the remains of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. The barn's destruction was the most dramatic moment in the week since dozens of FBI agents descended on the horse farm 30 miles from Detroit. The farm once was owned by a Hoffa associate and is located not far from where the former Teamsters chief vanished in 1975. No trace of Hoffa has ever been found, and no one has ever been charged in the case. Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, said nothing significant has been found so far. Crews will begin to remove the barn's 200-square-foot concrete floor today and then the FBI will dig to search for evidence. Donald Shouse of nearby Highland Township, who has done business on the farm for three decades, said the structure was built sometime in the 1970s and was the oldest barn on the site.
FBI missed opportunitiesto identify suspected spy
WASHINGTON -- Faced with evidence that an FBI informant was working for the country she was hired to spy on, bureau officials repeatedly turned to her supervisor, who brushed aside the concerns. Bad idea, the FBI realized when it belatedly concluded that Katrina Leung, a Chinese-born California socialite and paid informant, and former agent James J. Smith had been lovers for nearly 20 years. The FBI paid Leung $1.7 million for her work. The FBI missed many opportunities to uncover that Leung was working for China and getting her information from Smith, as well as to learn of the long affair between the pair, Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine said Wednesday. In one instance in 2000, a tipster told the FBI that Leung was "in bed with" the bureau's Los Angeles office, Fine said in a 23-page summary of an otherwise classified report. An FBI official at its Washington headquarters said it was unclear that the comment was meant literally. Smith also was told about the tip, compromising any investigation, Fine said.
CDC chief: Case first3-person chain of bird flu
GENEVA -- A family of eight infected with bird flu in Indonesia likely passed the disease among themselves, but world health officials said Wednesday there is no reason to raise its pandemic alert level. It is the fourth -- and largest -- family cluster of bird flu cases likely transmitted from person to person since the start of the outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003, World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl said. But this case may mark the first time bird flu has passed from person to person to person, a top U.S. health official said. The previous clusters all involved someone who was infected by a sick bird and then spread the virus to others. This new cluster appears to involve a cascade of transmission, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a telephone briefing from Geneva. The family members' close physical proximity is probably responsible for the spread of the disease, Hartl said.
Palestinian security chiefkilled in car explosion
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A Gaza security chief loyal to the Palestinian president was killed Wednesday when his car blew up, the second attack on a top commander in less than a week. There was no claim of responsibility, but the explosion came at a time of an increasingly bloody power struggle between President Mahmoud Abbas' forces and those of the Hamas-led government. In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers waged a fierce battle with Palestinians during a raid to arrest a top militant, killing three people and wounding more than 30. Nabil Hodhod, central Gaza commander of the powerful, Fatah-linked Preventive Security force, was killed when a blast ripped through his car in downtown Gaza City, not far from Shifa Hospital. His deputy was wounded. Hodhod was the highest-ranking official to be killed in a week of violent incidents, sparked by Hamas' fielding of its own militia in defiance of a ban by Abbas. Two other senior security officers have been targeted.
Dozens more killed in new Afghan fighting
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Fighting in rugged southern Afghan mountains killed at least 24 militants and five Afghan forces, while the U.S. military acknowledged Wednesday that the Taliban have grown in "strength and influence" in recent weeks. The violence came after a week of some of the deadliest violence since the Taliban regime's ouster in 2001. As many as 336 people have died, mostly militants, according to Afghan and coalition figures. The Afghan military commander for southern Afghanistan, Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, said up to 60 rebels had died in the latest fighting in Uruzgan province, which involved ground forces and a U.S. airstrike. The U.S.-led coalition, however, said 24 militants had died. It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the numbers, which were impossible to confirm independently because the scene of the fighting was remote and insecure.
Associated Press
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