Senate panel blocksSFlbIraq reconstruction funds

Senate panel blocksSFlbIraq reconstruction funds

WASHINGTON — A Senate panel has agreed unanimously to block the Defense Department from funding Iraq reconstruction projects worth more than $2 million and to begin to force Baghdad to cover the costs of training and equipping its security forces.

The provision, included in a 2009 defense policy bill approved this week by the Senate Armed Services Committee, comes as Democrats draft a similar provision within separate legislation that would cover this year’s war spending.

The efforts are part of the latest push on Capitol Hill to get Iraq to spend more of its own money and spare U.S. taxpayers.

Condition of barracks appalling, Gates says

FORT BLISS, Texas — Defense Secretary Robert Gates, after watching a YouTube video showing poor barracks conditions at the Army’s Fort Bragg in North Carolina, said Thursday that what he saw was “appalling” and that all commanders must ensure that their troops have decent living quarters.

“Soldiers should never have to live in such squalor,” Gates said during a speech to a packed auditorium of senior enlisted soldiers.

The nearly 10-minute video, put together by the father of an 82nd Airborne paratrooper, showed mold, peeling paint and broken plumbing fixtures in the Korean War-era barracks.

58% of black kids can’t swim, study says

NEW YORK — Nearly 60 percent of black children can’t swim, almost twice the figure for white children, according to a first-of-its-kind survey which USA Swimming hopes will strengthen its efforts to lower minority drowning rates and draw more blacks into the sport.

Stark statistics underlie the initiative by the national governing body for swimming. Black children drown at a rate almost three times the overall rate. And less than 2 percent of USA Swimming’s nearly 252,000 members who swim competitively year-round are black.

To alter the numbers, USA Swimming is teaming with an array of partners — local governments, corporations, youth and ethnic organizations— to expand learn-to-swim programs nationwide.

Shipwreck yields big haul

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins — and cannons to fend off pirates. But it had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable African coast, and it sank 500 years ago.

Now it has been found, stumbled upon by De Beers geologists prospecting for diamonds off Namibia.

Namdeb Diamond Corp., a joint venture of the government of Namibia and De Beers, first reported the April 1 find in a statement Wednesday, and planned a news conference in the Namibian capital next week.

Scout’s good deed pays off for him too

DORR, Mich. — An 11-year-old Boy Scout who found and returned a wallet containing more than $800 has gotten his own lost wallet back.

J.R. Bouterse found the wallet of Jessica Cutler last month in a church parking lot, not long after losing his own at an Easter egg hunt. Meanwhile, Nancy Bosse and her 6-year-old granddaughter found the boy’s wallet at the park where the egg hunt took place. There was no ID, but they learned about J.R. from the publicity of his good deed.

Michigan State Police officers took up a collection to give the boy a reward, but he asked instead to spend the money on a pizza party for all 30 Scouts in Troop 90. Another guest at the Monday night party, to J.R.’s surprise, was Cutler, a 20-year-old Burger King manager, who wanted to thank him personally.

Army sergeant acquitted

FORT HOOD, Texas — A military jury Thursday acquitted an Army sergeant of premeditated murder in the death of an unarmed Iraqi insurgent who was killed in a village overrun by al-Qaida operatives.

The family of Sgt. Leonardo Trevino gasped, clapped and sobbed Thursday after the verdict in his court-martial was read. The 31-year-old from San Antonio also was cleared on charges of attempted murder, solicitation to commit murder and three counts of obstruction of justice.

Trevino said he felt betrayed by the soldiers who testified against him but that he held no ill will toward the Army.

Associated Press