Free Republic

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - In a scathing final report documenting massive corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program, investigators accused more than 2,200 companies and prominent politicians of colluding with Saddam Hussein's regime to bilk the humanitarian operation of US$1.8 billion (¤1.5 billion). The 623-page document exposed the global scope of a scam that allegedly involved such name-brand companies as DaimlerChrysler and Siemens AG, as well as a former French U.N. ambassador, a firebrand British politician and the president of Italy's Lombardi region. It meticulously detailed how the US$64 billion (¤52.76 billion) program became a cash cow for Saddam and more...

German engineering giant Siemens has hastily abandoned plans to register the trademark "Zyklon", the same name as the Zyklon B poison gas used in Nazi extermination camps, BBC News Online has learnt. A year ago, Bosch Siemens Hausgeraete (BSH), the firm's consumer products joint venture, filed two applications with the US Patent & Trademark Office for the Zyklon name across a range of home products, including gas ovens. Jewish groups have condemned the move, in particular because Siemens used slave labour during the Nazi period. "We are very sorry if this trademark application has caused any offence," Bosch Siemens spokeswoman...