Word: ultras
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...American contractor in Iraq and the killing of a co-worker shortly afterward, Defense officials tell TIME. On Oct. 9, 2003, Kirk von Ackermann, 37, was driving alone in northern Iraq when he pulled off the road with a flat tire and phoned the Kirkuk office of his employer--Ultra Services, based in Winters, Calif.--for help. A colleague arrived and found the car but not Von Ackermann. There were no bloodstains or bullet holes in the vehicle. And Von Ackermann didn't seem to be the victim of bandits because his computer, satellite phone and a briefcase containing...
...months later, north of Baghdad, gunmen in an SUV shot and killed Ryan Manelick, 31, another Ultra Services employee, and an Iraqi traveling with him by car. Manelick's father claims that his son had e-mailed him saying he suspected that colleagues at Ultra Services--whose website says it has done $14 million worth of business with the Pentagon--were involved in fraudulent activities with U.S. Army contracting officers. The Army's Criminal Investigation Command has confirmed that Manelick met with its investigators in Iraq but won't say what was discussed. TIME, however, has obtained an e-mail...
...Ultra Services executives couldn't be reached for comment, and it's unclear whether the construction firm is still in business. Suspecting that Von Ackermann and Manelick weren't the victims of random violence, the investigative command turned the cases over to its Major Procurement Fraud Unit. Spokesman Chris Grey says the probe has been slowed because of the "complexities of this case" and the difficulties of collecting evidence in a war zone. --By Douglas Waller
...about modern Japanese culture, almost all of which, he comes to discover, are wrong. He's wrong about the symbolism of his son's favorite anim? series, Mobile Suit Gundam. He's wrong about the artistic motivation behind Japanese sword-making. And he's wrong about the otaku, the ultra-obsessive Japanese fans of everything from manga to pop idols, who turn out to have more dimensions than Carey, an Australian living in New York City, could ever have imagined. As a Japanese friend warns Carey, when it comes to understanding Japan, "half-knowledge is sometimes worse than complete ignorance...
Full Steam Ahead MIDDLE EAST Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the government would use "all its might" against settlers who violently resist the government's planned withdrawal from Gaza. A coalition deal signed between Sharon's ruling Likud party, the opposition Labor party and a small, ultra-orthodox Jewish group ensured the plan will have majority support in parliament...