Making a Qatar-gifted Boeing 747 secure enough to serve as a presidential aircraft will require "significant modifications," Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers Tuesday. Meink said in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that the Air Force is now looking at what it will take to adapt the 747 aircraft,

Qatar defended its decision to gift a Boeing Co. 747 jumbo jet to the US as a routine transaction between partners, calling criticism of the deal a misguided view of the country as an Arab state trying to gain political influence.