WASHINGTON

MISSILE DEFENSE TESTING WON’T RESUME UNTIL FALL, AT EARLIEST

Flight tests of the nation’s missile defense system will not resume until this fall at the earliest as the military revamps the program following two failures in the past seven months, a military official says. The military may conduct two tests by year’s end, with the earliest possibly this fall, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no schedule has been announced. It is uncertain whether the military will have a target missile ready for launch, however, and the first test may not involve an attempt to hit a target.

The delay further protracts Pentagon efforts to validate a multibillion-dollar program that supporters say will help protect the nation from intercontinental ballistic missiles. Critics say that claim remains unproven. Even though the military occasionally activates interceptor bases in Alaska and California, they are not yet on around-the-clock alert as envisioned. The system has not had a successful intercept of a target since October 2002. Three tests have ended in failure.

– Associated Press

IRANIAN-AMERICAN FILMMAKER FREED IN IRAQ

An Iranian-American aspiring filmmaker who has been detained by the American military for nearly two months without being charged was released yesterday, officials said.

Cyrus Kar, 44, of Los Angeles, was taken into custody May 17 near Balad when potential bomb parts were found in a taxi in which he was riding. His family had filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of violating his civil rights when it continued to hold him after the FBI cleared him of suspicion.

Mr. Kar’s Iranian cameraman also was released from American custody yesterday, but the military said it would continue to hold the taxi driver pending the results of an investigation.

“Kar was detained as an imperative security threat to Iraq,” the military said yesterday in a statement. “After his initial questioning, the military notified the FBI, who initiated an investigation to determine if Kar had engaged in terrorist activities.”

The American military then convened a review board hearing on July 4 to determine whether Mr. Kar was an “enemy combatant.”

– Associated Press

WEST

REMAINS IDENTIFIED AS THOSE OF MISSING BOY

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Human remains found at a remote campsite in Montana last week have been identified as those of 9-year-old Dylan Groene, the Idaho boy who was kidnapped seven weeks ago, authorities said yesterday.

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson announced the finding in a short news release. The FBI lab in Quantico, Va., made the identification using DNA evidence. No other details were immediately available.

The identification ends any hope that Dylan might have been found alive, as his 8-year-old sister Shasta was a week ago.

The pair vanished in mid-May from the rural home near Coeur d’Alene where their mother, brother, and mother’s boyfriend were bound and bludgeoned to death. Authorities believe the children were abducted by Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted sex offender, and spent time at the remote camp site in the Lolo National Forest where the remains were found.

– Associated Press

EAST

TWO PLANES PRACTICING FOR AIR SHOW COLLIDE, KILLING AT LEAST ONE

LEWES, Del. – Two small planes practicing for an air show collided yesterday above Delaware Bay, killing at least one of the pilots, state police said.

Rescue crews retrieved one body, and divers searched the waters near Cape Henlopen State Park for the other pilot until evening but were unable to locate the plane’s wreckage, police said.

The two had been part of a six-plane formation of experimental “homemade kit” planes that took off from Sussex County Airport in Georgetown. As the pilots practiced over the bay, Matt Colagreco and his grandparents watched from a ferry. The six planes had been flying in two groups of three and crossed paths to merge momentarily, Mr. Colagreco said.

After they came out of the merge, one pilot banked right in front of another and they collided, he said. One plane turned over and nosedived into the water, and the other “was flopping out of control,” Mr. Colagreco said. “It was just like two toy planes hitting,” his grandmother, Nancy Beyers, said.

– Associated Press

MIDWEST

NAACP LEADER SAYS BUSH HOSTILE TO CIVIL RIGHTS

MILWAUKEE – Renewing his attack on conservatives and the Bush administration yesterday, the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Julian Bond, accused national leaders of rolling back past civil rights gains, crippling efforts to battle racism, and undermining democracy.

“The president likes to talk the talk, but he doesn’t walk the walk,” Mr. Bond told members at the annual convention of the NAACP.

President Bush has turned down five invitations to attend NAACP gatherings, including this year’s, and Mr. Bond yesterday invited Mr. Bush to the next one, in Washington, D.C.

“Mr. President, we’re extending the invitation a year in advance,” Mr. Bond said. “We want to see you and we want you to see us – we want to know you think you’re our president, too.”

Mr. Bond also addressed an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, which has said NAACP officials’ political statements are partisan comments that violate the group’s nonprofit status.

– Associated Press