■ Afghanistan
US upgrading air base
The US is spending US$83 million to upgrade its two main air bases in Afghanistan, an Air Force general said yesterday, the latest indication that US forces will remain in the country for years. Brigadier General Jim Hunt said the money was being spent on construction projects already underway at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, and Kandahar Air Field in the south. A new runway is being built at Bagram, the biggest Afghan airfield used by the US military. "We are continuously improving runways, taxiways, navigation aids, airfield lighting, billeting and other facilities to support our demanding mission," Hunt said at a news conference in the capital.
■ United States
Sculpture stolen in New York
Beware -- "The Ides of March" are missing. The sculpture by artist Philip Pavia was in storage in midtown Manhattan awaiting shipment to a permanent home at Hofstra University on Long Island. The work consists of four diamond-shaped bronze pieces, and was seen by tens of thousands of people while on display for years outside the New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue. This past week, the 94-year-old Pavia received a call from one of the owners at the building where the sculpture was stored. Three of the four pieces were missing from the building, the New York Times reported.
■ Iraq
US captain faces charges
A US Army tank commander was to face a court-martial yesterday in connection with the killing last year of a critically wounded Iraqi, which was filmed by a surveillance drone. Captain Rogelio Maynulet, 30, from Chicago, has been charged with assault with intent to commit murder and with dereliction of duty -- charges that carry a maximum combined sentence of 20 1/2 years. He has not yet entered a plea. The charges stem from an incident on May 21 last year when Maynulet was leading his 1st Armored Division tank company on a patrol near the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where heavy fighting had been reported.
■ United States
Truckers to be scrutinized
The truck drivers who haul cargo labeled as flammable, combustible, radioactive or poisonous across the US are now going to be scrutinized as closely as the hazardous materials that fill their tankers and trailers. In the coming months, roughly 3 million drivers will begin to be fingerprinted and put through FBI criminal background checks. Their names also are cross-referenced with federal databases related to terrorist activity, a practice the US Transportation Security Administration began last year. The moves are supported by some truck drivers, but opposed by others who fear for their privacy and consider that they have been singled out.
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