Draft Oil Law

Iraq's cabinet has approved changes to a draft oil law, and sent it to parliament in an attempt to curb the sectarian violence.

Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, said it was the "most important" law in the country.

"The law was approved unanimously ... it was referred to the parliament which will discuss it tomorrow.

I call on all our partners in the political process and in this national unity government to respect this deal."

However, the Kurds have said that they had neither seen nor approved the final text of the law and might oppose it.

The Kurdistan regional government said it would reject the latest text, if it made "material and substantive changes" to the outline agreed upon during weeks of protracted negotiations.

For the Iraqi people, time is running out.

The Libby "Pardon"

President Bush should be aware that no President, or friend of the President, is in the long run above the law.

The decision to "commute" Libby's 30th month sentence, with the likelihood of a future pardon, reflects very badly on this President and his attitude to the law.

UN Inspection Body Closed

Friday saw the closure of the UN Inspection body that searched without success for non existent Saddam Hussein's WMD.

The US and Iraq have called it an "historic day".

The resolution terminating the mandate of the U.N. bodies responsible for overseeing the dismantling of Saddam's programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles was approved by a vote of 14-0 with Russia abstaining.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin objected to the council's failure to comply with previous resolutions demanding that the inspectors certify that Iraq has no banned weapons or missiles before terminating their mandate.

"The adoption of this resolution does not give any clear answers to the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."