United States Military

Two businessmen in Taiwan have been charged with trying to smuggle U.S.-made weapons to Iran, federal authorities said Tuesday. A federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted En-Wei Eric Chang, a naturalized American living in Taiwan, and David Chu, a Taiwanese resident, on charges that they tried to buy early warning radar, Cobra attack helicopters and U.S. spy satellite photos for Iran in violation of American embargoes, officials said.

An Orange County pharmacist who admitted to wiring $2,050 to Pakistan to be used to fund terrorist activities was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison. Oytun Ayse Mihalik, 40, a Turkish national and a permanent U.S. resident, pleaded guilty in August to one count of providing material support to terrorists for three money orders she sent over a month's time in late 2010 and early 2011. Mihalik used a false name, "Cindy Palmer," to send the funds, according to authorities.

In August 2010, shortly after WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of classified documents that cataloged the harsh realities of the war in Afghanistan, a group of friends - all computer experts - gathered at the New York City headquarters of the Internet company Bitly Inc. to try and make sense of the data. The programmers used simple code to extract dates and locations from about 77,000 incident reports that detailed everything from simple stop-and-search operations to full-fledged battles.

Shots were fired at a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan, wounding a crewman in the foot, the military said Saturday. The helicopter returned fire, killing one enemy fighter and wounding another. The wounded American was taken to a U.S. base in the southern city of Kandahar and was in stable condition after Friday night's shooting, said Col. Roger King, a U.S. military spokesman. He did not identify the crewman but said it was not the helicopter pilot or co-pilot.

Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said Friday. The $94.5-billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to President Bush for his signature.

The Bush Administration imposed commercial sanctions on Russia and India on Monday for proceeding with a $250-million rocket deal that the United States claims could give India an offensive missile capability. The sanctions, which will ban most high-technology commerce between U.S.

Diplomatic Front: Although Iraq has hinted it might be willing to consider a compromise, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said the United States has no interest in "partial solutions" to the gulf crisis. Some analysts believe Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might consider pulling back to northern Kuwait, where he would retain full control of a major oil field as well as two islands guarding sea access to the Persian Gulf.

A congressional agency reports it will cost Israel $1 billion a year beginning in 1990 to produce the Lavi fighter-bomber, sources said Wednesday, and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger termed the plane inferior to U.S. aircraft. The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, supported Pentagon assertions that Israeli expenditures on the F-16 look-alike will consume too much of the $1.8 billion in U.S.

A missile destroyed a suspected militant hide-out Friday in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border, killing 10 people and wounding 11, security officials said. Washington said there was no indication that the U.S. military was involved in the strike on a compound in Danday village, on the outskirts of the town of Miram Shah. Militants blocked a reporter from approaching the building that was hit, and later took the dead and wounded from the scene, two Pakistani officials said.