INDIANAPOLIS – Looking for an escape vehicle? You could soon own the red motorcycle an Indiana money manager used to speed off into the Gulf Coast wilderness after crashing his plane in a bogus suicide attempt to avoid his legal and marital woes.

It’s among several of Marcus Schrenker‘s prized possessions being sold at auction Saturday in an Indianapolis showroom as authorities seek to recover as much money as they can to pay a portion of the $30 million in claims against him by family and friends he’s accused of bilking. Claimants likely will come away disappointed, recovering just pennies on the dollars that they say Schrenker owes them.

Court-appointed receiver Wayne Davis said he has so far has recovered less than $500,000 from the sale of a stunt airplane, automobiles and Schrenker’s suburban home. Auction officials expect the auction will bring far less than the $400,000 to $500,000 the items on the block are estimated to be worth.

“It hasn’t been a good market,” Davis said at a news conference called to drum up interest in the auction.

Schrenker is accused of bilking friends, family members and other investors before his marriage, lifestyle and business came crashing down around him at the end of 2008. The amateur daredevil pilot bailed out of his plane over Alabama, parachuted safely and then drove off on his stashed motorcycle before being captured days later at a Florida campground.

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The squad of Marines walks an alternating route, first along rutted dirt roads and then on trails running along the edges of fields, often stopping to squint at farmers through the magnifying scopes of their M4 rifles. Sometimes they skip the trails and tree lines entirely, cutting straight through the fields, sinking in muddy furrows and jumping the irrigation canals in between. Other times, they plunge directly into the canals – better to get wet than risk the bridges where they’ve been before. The squad’s leader, Sergeant Dennis Andersen, explains the strategy: When they first arrived, they walked on roads. Then they started hitting IEDs on the roads, so they walked in fields. Then they started hitting IEDs there too. Now they mix it up and bet on luck.

Not a whole lot has changed in the four months since the Marines of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, swept into northern Marjah as part of the largest NATO operation since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The IED count has dropped off some since the poppy harvest last month – a trend that no one here can explain – but firefights occur with predictable regularity. And the local governance NATO promised to deliver is virtually nonexistent. “The pattern usually is 48 to 72 hours of fairly consistent contact [with insurgents], followed by a day or two of rest and refit for them, [then] move supplies and logistics around,” says Lima Company commander Captain Josh Winfrey of the daily grind that Marines here have grown accustomed to. “Shoot and scoot is kind of their mantra.” (See the real-life Hurt Locker in Afghanistan.)

But Marjah may be in just Stage 1 of another mantra. In the language of counterinsurgency doctrine that sets out “clear, hold and build” as its three main components to stabilizing an area, Marjah may still be in the “clear” stage. In the meantime, the topmost command of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan appears unsettled, with General Stanley McChrystal having been summoned to Washington to explain to the President and the Pentagon brass statements he and his staff made to Rolling Stone magazine. The quotes had more than a whiff of insubordination, an unnecessary distraction while the major combat operation in Marjah meanders, with goals that may as well be written on sand.

On the ground in Marjah, there is a creeping notion that the Taliban the Marines are trying to clear will never completely go away. “It depends what your metric is for clear,” says Winfrey, whose 180 Marines patrol some 50 sq km in northern Marjah and who, like other commanders, likens the enemy to “vapor.” “They’re obviously not gone. And they’re not going to be gone. And I think that the ultimate challenge of counterinsurgency is to get the preponderance of individuals who might choose to fight – depending on the day, depending on what’s best for them – convincing them that in the long run, it’s more beneficial for them not to fight.” (See how Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s prisoner-release program could backfire badly.)

That’s the U.S. military‘s stated goal in Marjah, as it is in other areas of Afghanistan’s volatile south: to persuade the local population to side with the government of Afghanistan over the Taliban. But it’s a goal easier said than carried out. And in districts like Marjah, it may well be impossible.

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Stockholm, Sweden –
Swedish public prosecutor Magnus Elving launched a formal investigation Monday sparked by allegations that an oil consortium led by Swedish firm Lundin Petroleum may have been complicit in “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Sudan. The case, which has links to Sweden’s foreign minister, has raised questions about international obligations of companies to safeguard human rights in conflict zones.

The investigation into the alleged activity, which occurred between 1997 and 2003, resulted from a recent report by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan, or ECOS, a group of 50 European NGOs.

The ECOS report argues that “the home governments of Lundin [Sweden], Petronas [Malaysia] and OMV [Austria] have failed in their international obligations to prevent human rights violations and international crimes.” It further charges that the consortium “may have been complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

ECOS hopes the criminal investigation in Sweden will have a far-reaching impact.

Percy Bratt, who is representing ECOS, says that one of the group’s goals in producing the report is the establishment of effective “limits for companies working in these types of conflict areas with regimes that are committing human rights violations.” ECOS has also stated that it wants to push each country to speak with one voice on human rights.

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SYDNEY (AFP) –
An Australian mining company that lost its entire board in a plane crash in Congo’s thick jungle said Wednesday it was still working to cut free bodies that are jammed in the wreckage.

Cameroon’s aviation authority has said it retrieved and identified all 11 bodies from the twin turboprop, which went down on Saturday some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the small mining town of Yangadou, killing all on board.

But incoming Sundance Resources chairman George Jones said teams were still working on the ground to recover the bodies of mining tycoon Ken Talbot and his colleagues.

“Overnight they managed to get lighting equipment in and recovery equipment, cutting equipment, and there are bodies still jammed inside the plane,” Jones told AFP.

“It’s not in a condition to just walk in and take them off so they’re cutting the plane apart and they are working overnight,” he added.

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SEOUL (AFP) –
Bleary-eyed South Korean fans erupted with joy early Wednesday as their team won through to the second round of the World Cup for only the second time in eight attempts.

Undeterred by the 3.30 am (1830 GMT Tuesday) kick-off, an army of red-shirted supporters packed venues nationwide to watch the Red Devils draw 2-2 with Nigeria in their final Group B match.

Police said 500,000 fans nationwide, more than half of them in Seoul, watched the game in public on giant TV screens, with countless others tuning in at home.

Fans, many wearing red plastic horns, packed City Hall plaza in central Seoul and surrounding streets.

Some wore business suits or school uniforms so they could go straight to work or school afterwards, and the cheering for the national team began even before the game.

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