In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.
On paper, Pakistan’s president is a ceremonial head of state, but the post, like the presidential palace Mr Zardari is likely to inherit, has undergone a vast expansion. He will have his finger on the nuclear button, and will possess the authority to fire and appoint the all-important army chief and to summarily dismiss the government.
The Western Australian Labor Party received $2000 four years ago from a Sydney businessman and property developer convicted of conspiring to supply over $100,000 worth of drugs - raising fresh questions about political donations. Electoral records show the donation was made to the WA Labor Party in the 2004-05 financial year.
Jack Abramoff, who came to symbolize an out-of-control, even brazen style of courting government officials, told the judge he had since realized how far he had stepped over the bounds of what was permissible. Wearing plain clothes and a Jewish skullcap, he apologized profusely and said he was begging for mercy.
Representative Charles B. Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes the federal tax code, bought the beachfront villa at the Punta Cana Yacht Club and has received twice-yearly payments from the resort, which rents the property for $500 or more per night.
A spokeswoman for Police Minister Bob Cameron yesterday defended the system introduced by the Government to fight police corruption, but refused to say whether the laws would need to be amended. “Any legal technicalities which may arise … will be addressed appropriately,” she told reporters.
For all the admiration in Alaska for Sarah Palin, her rapid ascent from an activist in the P.T.A. to the running mate of Senator John McCain did not come without battle wounds. Her years in Wasilla, her first executive experience, reveal a mix of successes and stumbles, with Ms. Palin gaining wide support but alienating some townspeople.
The militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union - which has again come under a cloud amid claims that the building industry has returned to the bad old days of thuggery and standover tactics - will face an investigation in Western Australia over alleged irregularities on its 8000-strong membership roll.
Prime Minister Helen Clark appointed Winston Peters as foreign minister in 2005 in return for support of her minority Labour Party government, and she has been under pressure to suspend him until questions over unexplained donations to his populist New Zealand First Party are resolved.
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the Federal District Court here rejected arguments by Mr. Stevens’s lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, that the senator needed to be in Alaska to campaign for re-election. Judge Sullivan suggested that he might conduct the trial in Washington from Monday to Thursday, to allow Senator Stevens to go back to Alaska on weekends to campaign.