this week's headlines

On April 19 2001, Augusto Giangrandi, a Chilean arms dealer currently the subject of half a dozen US and international investigations, ordered a discreet payment to an Iraqi company in Jordan. The transaction would ensure his supply of millions of barrels of Iraqi oil. "We need to send an additional US 30,000," he wrote to his Italian partner. "For your info, il magro is sending an additional 520 K in euros equivalent in order to cover shortages." (FT)

"We are here to see Mr Giangrandi," they barked to a secretary. The men wanted to discuss the latest foray by Augusto Giangrandi, a Chilean-Italian former arms dealer, into the murky world of Iraqi oil sales. (FT)

Dramatically broadening the scandal surrounding the United Nations Oil-for-Food program, federal authorities in New York today charged David B. Chalmers, a Houston oil trader, and his company, Bayoil, with making millions of dollars in illegal kickback payments to Iraq while trading oil under the program. (NYT)

The complaint says two Turtle Bay officials, identified only as "U.N. Official #1" and "U.N. Official #2," were targeted for bribery by Mr. Park, a Korean businessman who was the main figure in a 1970s-era Washington influence-peddling scandal known as "Korea-gate." Mr. Park is now accused of acting illegally as an unregistered agent for Saddam. (NY SUN)

UNITED NATIONS - A Canadian tycoon who is a special adviser to Secretary-General Annan yesterday acknowledged that since at least 1997 he has had business and other dealings with Tongsun Park, the Korean influence-peddler who was identified in a federal criminal complaint last week as an unregistered Iraqi agent targeting U.N. officials for bribery. (BENNY AVNI NY SUN)

WASHINGTON (AP) - People scurrying to meet tonight's tax deadline might consider this: It's taking you and your fellow Americans 6.6 billion hours to do all that paperwork. The basic tax return - the Form 1040 filed by most people every year - accounts for 1.6 billion hours.
initial excavations have substantiated the accounts of witnesses to a number of massacres. If the estimated body counts prove correct, the new graves would be among the largest in the grim tally of mass killings that have gradually come to light since the fall of Mr. Hussein's government two years ago. At least 290 grave sites containing the remains of some 300,000 people have been found since the American invasion two years ago, Iraqi officials say. (NYT)

BEIJING (AP) - China on Sunday rebuffed Tokyo's demands for an apology after sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations, while new protests took place in several cities over perceived efforts by Japan to gloss over its wartime history and to gain a permanent U.N. Security Council seat.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may use remotely piloted airborne vehicles to patrol the country's southern border later this year, according to an online announcement  the second such notice in less than a month. The department's Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday issued a request for information (RFI) on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and support systems. The latest RFI seeks information on a system with a medium-altitude long-endurance vehicle and technology to control it from the ground. Initially, the system is intended to be used on "the southern border" of the United States, it says. (Zack Phillips from The Congressional Quarterly)

Terrorism is like cancer, if not encountered it will grow and destroy everything on its path. It is generally defined as the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons. By this or any other accepted definition of terrorism, the inception, growth and survival of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a system, is based on terrorism. (Iran va Jahan, Shaheen Fatemi)

Yemen's military said the have routed Iranian-backed insurgents in an offensive near the Saudi border. For the fifth straight day, Yemeni main battle tanks and artillery pounded strongholds of the Believing Youth movement in the Saada province. Yemeni government sources said Special Forces units raided several hideouts of the Shi'ite insurgency group in the area of Razamat about 240 kilometers north of Sanaa as dozens of fighters surrendered. Many of the insurgents were said to have fled north toward the border with Saudi Arabia as fighting was reported to have died down over the last day. Yemeni sources said more than 200 people have been killed in the fighting, including the No. 2 member of insurgency movement, Middle East Newsline reported. (World Tribune.com)

Something astounding occurred last week at France, is the way it was put in a wire to us by one of our correspondents in Gaul, Michel Gurfinkiel. It seems that President Chirac went on television to defend the European Constitution. He was on for two hours and discussed the matter with what Mr. Gurfinkiel characterizes as all kinds of young people. Yet a day later, opposition to the constitution in France soared to 56% from 53%. This has sent the various elites into a continental lather in advance of France's referendum on the constitution, which is set for May 29. It seems the European Constitution won't go into effect unless all 25 nations of the European Union approve the document. (NY SUN)