In brief: Judge, Blagojevich attorney clash

CHICAGO – The judge in Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial has clashed with an attorney for the former Illinois governor about what the lawyer can say in closing arguments.

Judge James Zagel sent the jury home for the day Monday after Blagojevich attorney Sam Adam Jr. complained the judge was gutting his closing arguments. Adam said he intended to mention witnesses that prosecutors did not call – even though the judge previously warned him not to do so.

Adam also says he would be willing to go to jail for contempt if the judge didn’t change his mind.

Blagojevich and his brother, Robert Blagojevich, have pleaded not guilty to charges including an alleged scheme to sell the Senate seat President Barack Obama gave up when he was elected president.

Twenty-five killed in Iraq bombings

BAGHDAD – Two car bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims during a religious festival in the holy city of Karbala killed 25 people on Monday, Iraqi police and hospital officials said. Sunni extremists are suspected.

Militants detonated two parked cars filled with explosives about two miles apart as crowds of pilgrims passed by. Police and medical officials in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, said 68 people were injured in the attacks.

The pilgrims were on their way to Karbala to take part in an important religious holiday, known as Shabaniyah, that attracts devout Shiites from around the country.

Billions in Iraqi funds unaccounted for

BAGHDAD – The Defense Department is unable to properly account for $8.7 billion out of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it between 2004 and 2007, according to a newly released audit.

Of that amount, the military failed to provide any records at all for $2.6 billion in purported reconstruction expenditure, says the report by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, which is responsible for monitoring U.S. spending in Iraq. The rest of the money was not properly deposited in special accounts as required under Treasury Department rules, making it difficult to trace how it was spent.

Although there is no apparent evidence of fraud, the improper accounting practices add to the pattern of mismanagement, reckless spending and, in some instances, corruption uncovered by the agency since 2004, when it was created to oversee the total of $53 billion in U.S. taxpayer money appropriated by Congress for the reconstruction effort.

New drug gang suspected in six killings

ACAPULCO, Mexico – Mexican authorities are investigating the possible emergence of a new drug gang that appeared to take credit for six killings through a message left with the bodies Monday, officials said.

The six men were found inside a car in the southwestern city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero state police said in a statement. Next to them lay a message reading: “This will happen to all rapists, extortionists and kidnappers. Attentively, the New Cartel of the Sierra.”

Authorities are investigating the authenticity of the gang, said an official with the state prosecutors office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official said authorities had no previous knowledge of such an organized crime group.

At least seven major drug trafficking cartels operate in Mexico, but there are many smaller gangs throughout the country, often affiliated with one of the bigger groups.

CHICAGO – Pharmacies are halting sales of OSR1, a compound marketed as a dietary supplement to parents of children with autism, six weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called the product an unapproved new drug.

Several pharmacists told the Chicago Tribune they received an e-mail last week from Boyd Haley, president of CTI Science, the company that makes the product, informing them that OSR1 would not be available after Thursday.

One online pharmacy, Forrest Health, posted this message: “CTI Science has voluntarily agreed to remove OSR1 from the market effective Thursday, 29 July 2010.”

The product, sold as a toxicity-free antioxidant supplement, was featured on autism websites.