FACTBOX: Companies being sued by Iraq over UN program
(Reuters) - The government of Iraq sued dozens of companies on Monday for paying kickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Here is a complete list of the companies named in the lawsuit:
* Several units of Switzerland's engineering company ABB Group
* Units of AGCO Corp., the world's third-biggest farm equipment company.
* The engineering unit of industrial and medical gas company Air Liquide
* Drug chemical group Akzo Nobel
* Units of drug company Schering-Plough
* Drug company AstraZeneca
* Saudia Arabia's Mais Co. for Medical Products
* Units of Swedish engineering company Atlas Copco
* Australia's largest wheat exporter AWB Ltd, which was found by an Australian government judicial inquiry in 2006 to have paid $222 million in kickbacks to Iraq in return for wheat sales.
* Units of privately held healthcare company B.Braun Melsungen AG
* Medical device company Boston Scientific Corp.
* European bank BNP Paribas
* A unit of Buhler Group, a global technology company in food, chemical processing and die casting.
* Texas oilman David Chalmers, who admitted to paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam's regime. Continued...
Taliban may wait out Washington's "endgame"
Washington's hint of an Afghanistan endgame in saying U.S. troops won't still be there in 2017 might help win over a war-weary public, but there is no guarantee a notoriously patient Taliban won't just wait the Americans out. Full Article | Full Coverage
Honduras goes to polls.
