America’s former disaster chief Michael Brown, who became the personification of the government’s listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said he told top officials of massive flooding in New Orleans on the day the storm howled ashore.

RUSSIAN officials yesterday furiously denied allegations linking companies and politicians to corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq, saying that the report implicating them relied upon forgeries and false statements.

HALF of the 4,500 companies in the UN oil-for-food programme, including Volvo and Daimler Chrysler, paid €1.5 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges to Saddam Hussein’s government, a UN report has concluded.

George Galloway has been accused once again of receiving kickbacks from Saddam Hussein’s oil-for-food programme.

BRITISH politician George Galloway yesterday challenged US senators to charge him with perjury over claims that he solicited money from Saddam Hussein’s oil-for-food programme and lied about it under oath.

British anti-war MP George Galloway today angrily dismissed allegations by US senators that he profited from dealings with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

British MP George Galloway said today he intended to use a US senate hearing as a platform to put those responsible for the Iraq war on trial.

BRITISH MP George Galloway is to appear before a US Senate committee to defend himself against accusations that he received vouchers for 20 million barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein.

Former UK Labour MP George Galloway will appear before a US Senate committee to defend himself against accusations that he received vouchers for millions of barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein.

A US Senate committee probing corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme released new evidence purporting to show that two leading politicians from Britain and France received millions of barrels of Iraqi oil in exchange for their support of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

QUESTIONS raised by a probe of the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq may have given critics more ammunition against the world body, even though Secretary-General Kofi Annan was cleared of corrupt practices.

WITH the bang of a drum and a high-pitched wail, the first funerals began for victims of a teenager’s shooting rampage on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where 10 people died.

UN diplomats say they are concerned that calls for Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s resignation and allegations of widespread corruption in the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq could derail plans for a sweeping reform.

THE woman soldier at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal was photographed having sex with other military guards, sometimes in front of detainees, US senators said yesterday.

A female soldier at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal was photographed having sex with other military guards, sometimes in front of detainees, senators said today.

George Bush’s popularity helped the Republicans to an historic victory in the mid-term elections today and provided a major boost to his hopes of re-election in 2004.

Republicans and Democrats battled for control of Congress today in mid-term US elections clouded by terrorism, the threat of war and a shaky economy, with voters marking ballots for governor from Maine to California.

The US is braced for more polling day mayhem this week as technical glitches threaten to turn the crucial mid-term vote into a repeat of the 2000 presidential election fiasco.

An outspoken liberal Democrat locked in a re-election battle considered key to control of the Senate was killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota, along with seven others.