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Violence is blocking spending, donors told

TOKYO - A group of 14 countries that gave international agencies almost $1-billion to meet emergency needs in Iraq was told Thursday that only 5 percent of its money has been spent because the swirl of violence is blocking the start of badly needed projects.

Dispensing reconstruction money is at the heart of a dispute between Iraqi authorities anxious to begin rebuilding and the United Nations and World Bank, which are responsible for the projects and argue the country is not yet safe enough to enter.

Donor nations meeting in Tokyo heard that the United Nations and World Bank have disbursed just $21-million - and have only two projects actually under way inside Iraq - from the nearly $1-billion trust fund created by foreign governments.

AUDITORS DECRY SPENDING: U.S. and Iraqi officials doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in oil proceeds and other money for Iraqi projects this year, but there was little effort to monitor or justify the expenditures, according to an audit released Thursday.

Files that could explain many of the payments are missing or nonexistent, and contracting rules were ignored, according to the accounting firm KMPG, working for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, created by the United Nations to monitor the stewardship of Iraqi funds.

In a program to allow U.S. military commanders to pay for small reconstruction projects, auditors questioned 128 projects totaling $31.6-million. They could find no evidence of bidding for the projects or, alternatively, explanations of why they were awarded without competition.

The report was released by Rep. Henry Waxman of California, ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee and a leading critic of reconstruction spending to rebuild Iraq.

Video that appeared on an Islamic Web site Thursday showed militants in Iraq beheading a man identified as a kidnapped Turkish driver.

The Arabic-language Web site said the driver's name was Ramazan Elbu. He was the sixth Turk and the 30th foreign hostage slain by militants who oppose the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. Most of the victims have worked for or alongside coalition interests in the country. The video appeared on the Web site of the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, an Iraqi militant group.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Medical evidence could be barred from the court-martial of a Marine major accused of abusing an Iraqi prisoner because military pathologists misplaced body parts, a military judge said Thursday.

If the judge, Col. Robert Chester, decides to bar the evidence, prosecutors would stand a slim chance of convicting Maj. Clarke Paulus of aggravated assault, the most serious charge he faces.

Paulus, 35, is accused of ordering one of his men to drag Nagem Hatab by his neck after the Iraqi prisoner suffered a bout of diarrhea and collapsed in June 2003 at a makeshift detention facility outside Nasiriyah, Iraq, known as Camp Whitehorse. Hatab died soon afterward.

HANAU, Germany - An Iraqi who was shot by a U.S. tank company commander appears to have been mortally wounded before the officer fired, a military surgeon, Maj. Robert Knetsche, testified Thursday.

U.S. Army Capt. Rogelio Maynulet, 29, may face court-martial in the May 21 death of a driver for militant Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr near Kufa, south of Baghdad. He denies the charges of murder and dereliction of duty.

Speaking of Maynulet, Knetsche said: "I think what he did was an act of mercy."