SPB News for Sunday.

TV's 'Laugh-in' comic Dick Martin dies at 86

Cuba dissidents back Obama pledge

Relatives of Cuban political prisoners write to Obama with hope of his policies.

McCain's holiday grill: VP guest list?

Get-together With Jindal, Crist, Romney may be part of VP selection process.

Baghdad to launch probe into attack on Iranian diplomats Iraq has formed a special committee to investigate a recent assassination attempt on Iranian diplomats in Iraq, embassy spokesman Manouchehr Taslimi said on Friday. Four Iranian embassy staff and their Iraqi driver were wounded on May 15 when their convoy was shot in Baghdad.

Many Afghans outraged by U.S. decision to not charge Marines Afghan officials expressed outrage Saturday at a decision by the U.S. military not to charge U.S. Marines involved in a shooting spree that left 19 Afghan civilians dead in 2007.

Israel denies entry to high-profile critic Norman Finkelstein The Shin Bet security service detained and deported an American Jewish professor who is a prominent critic of the Israeli occupation when he landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Friday. Professor Norman Finkelstein was interrogated for several hours and held in an airport cell before being put on a plane back to Amsterdam, his point of departure. Finkelstein said he was told he could not return to Israel for 10 years.

EPA tests plans to protect water from terrorists Water utilities would get earlier warning of viruses, bacteria or chemicals that could be introduced into drinking water systems by [Bush's] terrorists under a test monitoring program set for expansion beyond Cincinnati. The pilot program ordered by the Department of Homeland Security in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks uses continuous monitoring of public water for contaminants that could sicken or kill millions of people.

Billions in U.S. Tax Dollars Likely Financing Iraq Insurgent Groups: Official Two Democratic senators have asked the Treasury Department to investigate allegations that Iraqi leaders have embezzled or misspent billions of U.S. tax dollars intended for the country's relief and reconstruction. In a May 20 letter to Stuart Levey, the department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island called the scope of corruption within the Iraqi government staggering. According to Arthur Brennan, a former State Department official, it's likely some of that money is financing insurgent groups such as the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "In our estimation, the theft, conversion or other misappropriation of U.S.-provided funds and supplies by Iraqi government officials severely undermines our troops' mission in Iraq," Dorgan and Whitehouse wrote. "It is even more outrageous when these resources are diverted to our enemies and help finance, arm and equip attacks against American soldiers."

KBR's Iraq Work Is Split Up --KBR, Fluor, and DynCorp to share 10-year, $150 billion deal that stretches far beyond final days of Bush regime For the first time since the war began, the largest single Pentagon contract in Iraq is being divided among three companies, ending the monopoly held by KBR, the Houston-based corporation that has been accused of wasteful spending and mismanagement and of exploiting its political ties to Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney. Yet even as the Pentagon begins to pull apart the enormous KBR contract, critics warn that the new three-company deal could actually result in higher costs for American taxpayers and weak oversight by the military. In fact, under the new deal, KBR and the two other companies could actually make more than three times as much as KBR has been paid each year since the war began.

Agent says the FBI is not prepared --The bureau is 'ill-equipped to handle the terrorist threat we are facing,' he tells a House panel. Breaking ranks, a career FBI agent told members of Congress on Wednesday that the bureau lacked the experience and sophistication to deal with Middle Eastern terrorists and prevent another catastrophic attack. Agent Bassem Youssef said that counter-terrorism agents and managers at FBI headquarters often lack basic knowledge about Middle Eastern culture, language and terrorists' ideology. Compounding matters, he said, is the fact that the FBI has continued to name supervisors to anti-terrorism positions who have little or no experience outside traditional law enforcement.

How telecoms are attempting to buy amnesty from Congress — One of the benefits from the protracted battle over telecom amnesty is that it is a perfect microcosm for how our government institutions work. And a casual review of the available evidence regarding …