06/22/2011 - 

► An independent audit of a troubled Indiana Department of Toxicology lab shows that for cocaine tests issued for criminal cases from 2007 to 2009, one in three positive tests was flawed. Auditors found that thelab failed to meet acceptable standards for drug testing, raising questions about the legitimacy of convictions where drug tests were used as evidence, The Indianapolis Star reports. Former Marion County prosecutor Scott Newman, who was hired by IU last year to address problems at the lab, said,"With a 24 percent error rate...there is a distinct possibility that there are some false positives." Earlier audit results showed a 10 percent error rate in marijuana tests. 

► Background investigators are the ones under the microscope after court records reviewed by The Washington Times showed at least 170 instances offalsified informationand more than 1,000 where information from the investigations couldn’t be verified. “The background investigators, whose work helps determine who gets top-secret security clearance, were submitting forms saying they conducted interviews or verified official documents when they never did,” the Times reports. A former investigator was sentenced earlier this month to 90 days in prison for falsifying information on more than two dozen reports. Another investigator, who’s sentencing is set for next month, pled guilty and agreed to pay $75,000 in restitution.

► The Department of Homeland Security says cybercriminals are increasingly attacking mobile devices and that“smartphones will surpass computers as primary targets for cybercrime within three years.” DHS launched the Stop Think Connect Campaign to help computer and smartphone users become a line of defense in the fight against cybercrime.

► In other news, local police are slow to train in enforcement ofGeorgia’s new immigration lawset to take effect July 1 because of legal challenges to the law and the law’s vague wording, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports. Elsewhere in the world, sectarian violence has erupted in Northern Ireland following several attacks on Protestant homes, the Guardian reports. Several hundred people launched“unprovoked” and “coordinated” attacks on homes in Catholic areas of Belfast using bricks, paint bombs, and petrol bombs, Belfast mayor Niall O’Donnghalie was reported to have said.

► President Barack Obama is expected to announce tonight anAfghanistan exit plan.British special forces are already pulling out of Afghanistan to train for counterterrorism at the 2012 Olympic Games.

You can watch Obama's address live tonight at 8 p.m. on theWhite House Web site.