Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings (CCO) News

BAGHDAD, July 27 (UPI) -- The inspector general for U.S. Defense Department spending in Iraq said $2.6 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds is missing in action.

Describing a report set for release Tuesday, special inspector general Stuart Bowen Jr. said, "Weak oversight is directly correlated to increased numbers of cases of theft and abuse, with the majority of convictions to date being traceable to the 2003-04 time-frame where accounting practices were weakest," The Washington Post reported.

The report says officials skipped the basic step of setting up bank accounts that would have made it possible to keep track of about $8.7 billion worth of reconstruction funds. In addition, the Defense Department should have returned $34.3 million to Iraq in 2007, but failed to do so, the report said.

The report says, "Breakdowns in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected losses."

The Pentagon has already pledged it will make changes and return the $34.3 million. In response, Bowen said, "We look forward to seeing real results."

MOSCOW, July 27 (UPI) -- Russia has set it sights on increasing the number of foreign tourists from about 2 million a year to 15 million with a budget allocation of $10.1 billion.

The government approved the spending on improvements to its image and its disjointed tourism network, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.

Behind the new budget for tourism is the expectation that the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games will attract a large influx of tourists.

Andrei Ignatyev, president of the Professional Tourist League said the tourism budget had nowhere to go but up.

"The success of inbound tourism strongly depends on advertising. The budget stipulated for these aims is absurd -- just $3 million per year," Ignatyev said.

ATLANTA, July 27 (UPI) -- The city of Atlanta said it would appeal a court decision that awarded $17.5 million to an advertising firm that claimed corruption in awarding contracts.

The federal court ordered the city, Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE:CCO) Inc. and Barbara Fouch, a businesswoman, to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages and $9 million in punitive damages to Corey Airport Services and owner Billy Corey, who failed to win a bid on indoor advertising at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.

Evidence presented at trial included a note from Fouch to Clear Channel requesting $50,000 for an "airport contract proposal fund" that would help secure "continuation of the (advertising) contract," the newspaper said.

In addition, the airport's general manager from 1993 to 1998, Angela Gittens, testified that former Mayor Bill Campbell told her not to put a bid out for the indoor advertising contract to protect Fouch, a friend, from being "hurt."

Acting city attorney Petter Andrews, however, said, "The city is disappointed with today's verdict."

"The city respects the judicial process, but does not believe the verdict is supported by the evidence presented at trial," he said in a statement.