(October 7, 2004) The fissures dividing Europe and the United States on how to go about granting debt relief to highly indebted poor countries have widened at the meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington this week.

(October 7, 2004) Russia has pledged to cooperate with an investigation instigated by a U.S. report charging that Saddam Hussein tried to bribe Russian and French officials and firms to win support for Iraq in the U.N. Security Council.

(October 7, 2004) The cover-up is always worse than the crime, they say. But that doesn’t necessarily hold true when you’re dealing with the crime of the century – in fact, two centuries.

(October 6, 2004) U.S. lawmakers have criticized foreign governments, companies, and the United Nations, accusing them of acquiescing to corruption that diverted billions of dollars from the former U.N. Oil for Food Program to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

(October 6, 2004) Europe’s wealthy countries just could not decide over the weekend whether they were willing to forgive Iraq’s crippling debt load. They reportedly decided, therefore, on a predictable Third Way approach.

(October 6, 2004) The allies have stepped forward and agreed to reduce and forgive Iraqi debt to the tune of nearly $80 billion by one estimate . . ." – Dick Cheney Vice Presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

(October 5, 2004) Iraq hopes to reach a debt forgiveness deal with leading creditor nations by the end of the year, and views an offer by France to initially relieve only 50 percent of its debt as just a starting point.

(October 5, 2004) Saddam Hussein ran the Iraqi side of the U.N. oil-for-food program as a "cash cow" that let him buy weapons with some of the $10 billion he siphoned off, according to a report by investigators.

(October 4, 2004) U.S. and U.K remain keen to forgive 95 percent of the war-torn country’s obligations.

(October 2, 2004) France and the United States dug into polarized positions on how much of Iraq’s debt to cancel at a meeting on Saturday aimed at promoting international harmony.

(October 2, 2004) Americans meeting resistance to cancellation of most of $120 billion owed.

(October 2, 2004) The International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the most powerful architects of the world economy and controlled by the planet’s wealthiest nations, has marked its return to US-occupied Iraq with a new loan of US$436 million.

(October 1, 2004) An agreement among the Paris Club group of creditor nations on a write-off of a portion of Iraq’s foreign debt is not imminent but could be achieved by the end of the year, the group’s chairman said.