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Saddam Hussein's government provided senior Russian officials with oil rights worth millions of dollars under the oil-for-food program in an effort to lift U.N. sanctions against Iraq, according to a U.S. Senate Committee report released on Monday. The oil allocations were "compensation for support," Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The report, based on documents as well as interviews with Ramadan and Tareq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, pointed to Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin in the Russian Presidential Council, and ultranationalist parliamentarian Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Both men had...

Excerpt - BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's ultranationalist Radical Party claimed victory in national elections on Sunday, in a voter rejection of Western appeals for closer cooperation on the arrest of war criminals and on Kosovo. A projection of the result showed the opposition Radicals, strongest party in Serbia for years, taking 28 percent of the vote, a point higher than the 2003 national elections. "The Radical Party has won these elections," said Tomislav Nikolic, the Radical's candidate for prime minister in the absence of party leader Vojislav Seselj, who is on trial for war crimes at the U.N. tribunal in...

MK Hendel charges “Sharon leading us towards civil war”New NU faction chairman says government should be immediately replaced. Minister Ezra warns "extremists will resort to violence". Knesset to discuss escalation of public discourse tomorrow. Uri Glickman and Avishai Ben-Haim MK Tzvi Hendel. MK Tzvi Hendel, who was today (Monday) chosen to be the Chairman of the National Union Knesset faction, told his fellow party members that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is leading the country towards civil war. “Sharon is crushing every democratic measure. If we do not want him to lead us down the path of civil war, a concentrated...