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The Iraqi Prime Minister said that the Iraqi Cabinet accepted a draft law which states how Iraq's oil profits will be shared, it will also outline terms of how foreign oil agencies will be able to operate in the country, Iraq Development Program reported. Under the terms of the new draft law, the Iraqi National Oil Company (INOC) will be independently functional and joined with oil companies around the country. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister stated that the oil sector's profits will be put in a central account and distributed according to population and that the draft law will be put...

Political Excess: Behind Nancy Pelosi's four days of revelry celebrating her speakership is a carefully crafted purpose. But if her background is any indication, all that public relations may end up backfiring. On one day, a street will be named after her in Little Italy in Baltimore, where her father served as mayor. On another, Tony Bennett will serenade her at an Italian Embassy banquet with "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." The Italian motif is apt, because the bacchanalia taking up most of next week in Washington will be a lot like the Roman Empire's legions marching into...

The documents seized in the FBI raid on the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) remain unread by Justice Department investigators, pending a federal Appeals Court ruling scheduled for August 27. [snip] But we already know a bit about the charges and some of the alleged partners of Congressman Jefferson. Two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him.

ADLAI STEVENSON once argued that a politician is a statesman who “approaches every question with an open mouth”. If the performance of Jan Egeland, of the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is an indication, the same is true of those paid by the United Nations. A week ago, despite just one day having passed since the Asian tsunami, with the reported death toll one tenth of what it is now believed to be, and ignoring the fact that public holidays are never the easiest times to start organising an aid effort, Mr Egeland saw fit to dismiss...

Jesus Bermudez, called “Fat (Gordo) Bermudez”, former Vice-Minister of Finance with Tobias Nóbrega, has been detained in Miami and is going to be subject to a trial for a number of violations of the law, among them, attempting to introduce as contraband forty thousand dollars in cash into the US. But things are not as simple as Jose Vicente (the VP) attempted to make it look, when he denied that the plane in which the “Gordo” traveled belonged to CVG. Let’s see. In order to be free on bail, one hundred thousand dollars were paid in a flash. Who paid?...