KABUL, Afghanistan – The goal is to transform Afghanistan into a modern nation, fueled by a U.S.-led effort pouring $60 billion into bringing electricity, clean water, jobs, roads and education to this crippled country. But the results so far — or lack of them — threaten to do more harm than good.

The reconstruction efforts have stalled and stumbled at many turns since the U.S. military arrived in 2001, undermining President Barack Obama’s vow to deliver a safer, stable Afghanistan capable of stamping out the insurgency and keeping al-Qaida from re-establishing its bases here.

Poppy fields thrive, with each harvest of illegal opium fattening the bankrolls of terrorists and drug barons. Passable roads remain scarce and unprotected, isolating millions of Afghans who remain cut off from jobs and education. Electricity flows to only a fraction of the country’s 29 million people.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — The United States has made an enormous and costly commitment to building a new Afghanistan, but an Associated Press investigation finds that the results have been paltry. First in an occasional series, “Fixing Afghanistan.”

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A gunman angry about a dispute with his girlfriend forced his way into the New Mexico manufacturing plant where she works and killed two employees Monday before turning the gun on himself.

Police identified the shooter as 37-year-old Robert Reza, who had addresses in Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.

Four others were wounded in a rampage police said was motivated by Reza’s disgust over a domestic violence dispute involving the girlfriend.

Police Chief Ray Schultz said no other names will be released before Tuesday.

Reza confronted the girlfriend outside the fiber optics and solar manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, and his rampage continued inside, Schultz said. She was hospitalized in critical condition with gunshot wounds.

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NEW YORK – Before James Bond heads out on a mission, he has to stop in Q’s laboratory for custom-made gadgets like an exploding watch. Life wasn’t so dashing for the suspected Russian spies arrested this week: They allegedly relied heavily on off-the-shelf consumer electronics.

“In the old days, they’d have special KGB-type equipment. Now they use normal computers, normal laptops,” said Sujeet Shenoi, professor of computer science at the University of Tulsa and a frequent consultant to the FBI. “Technology is so powerful now that you don’t have to have special-purpose equipment anymore.”

According to the FBI’s complaints that sought the arrest of the 11 suspects, the array of tools included laptops, flash memory cards and at least one prepaid cell phone. The suspects are accused of backing that up with old-fashioned spy technology like short-wave radios, invisible ink, and a classic, manual encryption method known as a “one-time pad.”

Short-wave radios were once relatively common in homes. Today, they’re a bit of a giveaway if the FBI already suspects you’re a spy. Not so with laptops, cell phones or flash drives. But that doesn’t mean spies can feel safe. The way the Russian suspects used these gadgets was revealing to FBI agents who followed them for years.

The use of “spy-fi” is a case in point.

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NEW YORK – Anna Chapman has been called the femme fatale of a spy case with Cold War-style intrigue — a striking redhead and self-styled entrepreneur who dabbled in real estate and mused on her Facebook page, “if you can dream, you can become it.”

Chapman’s American dream, U.S. authorities say, was a ruse.

The 28-year-old Chapman, they say, was a savvy Russian secret agent who worked with a network of other operatives before an FBI undercover agent lured her into an elaborate trap at a coffee shop in lower Manhattan.

Though the U.S. has branded the operatives as living covertly, at least in Chapman’s case, she had taken care to brand herself publicly as a striver of the digital age, passionately embracing online social networking by posting information and images of herself for the world to see.

Prosecutors have charged Chapman and 10 other suspects with following orders by Russian intelligence to become “Americanized” enough to infiltrate “policymaking circles” and feed information back to Moscow.

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MONTCLAIR, N.J. – One hobnobbed with academics and entrepreneurs who shared his interest in cutting-edge science. Another spoke five languages, went to embassy parties and was fascinated by global politics. A third held herself out to be a venture capitalist and hit the networking circuit, looking for investment opportunities.

The 11 people arrested and accused of being members of a Russian spy ring operating under deep cover in America’s suburbs appear to have been part of a slow and patient plan by Moscow to cultivate contacts in the U.S. who could yield vital competitive information — not necessarily on weapons or U.S. strategic planning, but on finance, business and technology, intelligence experts say.

“This is a long-term investment by an intelligence service to lead those individuals there, give them general assignments and see what they can pick up,” said John Slattery, a deputy assistant director of counterintelligence at the FBI who retired in 2008 and is now an executive with BAE Systems Intelligence and Security.

“Although they aren’t trained intelligence professionals, they are available and on call for assignments such as: Can you go attend this meeting? Can you go attend this trade show? Can you contact this person? Could you maybe enroll in this university? And then elevate the access as they go.”

Ten members of the alleged ring were arrested across the Northeast and charged Monday with failing to register as foreign agents, a crime that is less serious than espionage and carries up to five years in prison. Some also face money laundering charges. An 11th suspect was arrested in Cyprus, accused of passing money to the spies over several years.

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