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SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area activists set to speak at a teach-in on the human rights and environmental impacts of the oil industry have returned to the United States after having been arrested, detained, and denied entry by Canadian immigration officials at Calgary International Airport.

Many say the Pentagon's contract oversight system is crumbling under a burgeoning workload, sharp staff cuts, and a less aggressive oversight culture driven by acquisition reforms that promote more partnership and trust between the Defense Department and its contractors.

After three years of losing money, Halliburton reported a hefty profit for 2005 and announced that all six of its divisions posted record results.

After considering a sale, Halliburton Co. said yesterday that it plans to spin off a minority stake in its subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., the largest American contractor in Iraq.

"We believe the IPO market in general and the public market for engineering and construction companies in particular is very attractive," David J. Lesar, Halliburton's chairman, president and chief executive, said in a conference call with analysts.

"Tens of millions of dollars in cash had gone in and out of the South-Central Region vault without any tracking of who deposited or withdrew the money, and why it was taken out," says a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which is in the midst of a series of audits for the Pentagon and State Department.

The American-financed reconstruction program in Iraq will not complete scores of promised projects to help rebuild the country, a federal oversight agency reported.

After securing contracts with the Iraqi government potentially worth hundreds of millions, someone killed Dale Stoffel.

The lid on the recent "drivers recruitment" scam in Chandigarh by a Delhi-based recruiting agent allegedly for the banned Kuwati Transport company, KGL Ltd, has finally blown off.

A senior fraud investigator for the Pentagon who has crusaded against military contractor overcharges for seven years has been suspended for "insubordination," according to an article written by Eric Rosenberg for the Hearst News Service, RAW STORY has learned.

In the world of military contractors, times like these - when a sudden, pressing need intersects with a limited number of suppliers - have all the makings of full-blown financial windfalls.

The abuses relate mostly to U.N. supplies and services -- both in the department of management and the department of peacekeeping operations.

The following statement, released during the UN climate summit in Bonn (July 16-27), warns against a further weakening and distortion of the Kyoto Protocol, as governments try to accommodate the irresponsible position of the U.S. (and a growing number of other countries).

Defense Department fraud-hunters dismiss data from retired officer about inflated prices.

A new audit of American financial practices in Iraq has uncovered irregularities including millions of reconstruction dollars stuffed casually into footlockers and filing cabinets, an American soldier in the Philippines who gambled away cash belonging to Iraq, and three Iraqis who plunged to their deaths in a rebuilt hospital elevator that had been improperly certified as safe.

Eight Procurement Officials Suspended

Auditors who have discovered Iraq's deepening financial crisis have been ignored. They asked the US ambassador and the US military commander in Iraq for their views. Neither replied. The US State Department was to submit estimates of how much it will cost to complete all American-funded projects in Iraq to the White House Office of Management and Budget. The Office won't discuss the matter. Earlier this month, Brigadier-General William McCoy told reporters: 'The US never intended to completely rebuild Iraq . . . This was just supposed to be a jump-start.'

The first official history of the $25 billion American reconstruction effort in Iraq depicts a program hobbled from the outset by gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting, secrecy and constantly increasing security costs, according to a preliminary draft.

A bill for busing evacuees from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was $32 million more than it should have been, and the government paid it without question, the Transportation Department inspector general said Friday.