An Iraqi cabinet-level committee proposed a draft law Friday that would allow the national government in Iraq to control oil revenues. Negotiations concerning the draft law have been a source of tension in Iraq for months as most Kurds and many Shiites want to retain control of the country's oil resources. On the other hand, Sunni Arabs, who do not dominate the oil-rich regions of the country, insist on central oversight.

Recent debate has centered on the establishment of a federal committee, called the Federal Oil and Gas Council, to review oil contracts. Kurds did not want to give the committee the power to "approve" contracts, so the draft law instead allows regions to initiate and guide the process of awarding oil contracts and gives the committee the power to review and reject contracts. The Iraqi cabinet and the country's parliament must approve the draft before it becomes law. If the draft passes, enforcement might prove difficult in Iraq's wartime environment.

Mexico extradited drug kingpins Osiel Cardenas and Hector "El Guero" Palma and thirteen other major traffickers to the United States Friday as part of an effort by new Mexican president Felipe Calderon to follow through on a promise made by former President Vincente Fox to make increased extraditions to the US. Since taking office, Calderon has mobilized elite police and military forces against the rival Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels. Although the widely popular initiative is showing initial success, experts warn that Calderon must address the political and judicial corruption that allows cartels to run rampant in Mexico.

Kingpins are often able to continue running their organizations from within corrupt Mexican prisons, making the extradition of leaders a key tool for scaling back cartel activity. In November 2005, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that prisoners serving life sentences can be extradited abroad, overturning a 2001 decision that prevented such prisoners from answering to charges in the US insofar as punishment there might be cruel and unusual and not directed at rehabilitation of the prisoner. A 1978 treaty between the US and Mexico still prevents the extradition of prisoners who face the death penalty.

It is important that the Security Council has decided to establish a special tribunal. The United Nations has concluded agreement with the Lebanese Government. It is a source of concern for me, as Secretary-General, that we are not being able to establish a special tribunal, as was mandated by the Security Council. At the same time, I was encouraged by the willingness of the Lebanese Government to work together for the establishment of a special tribunal, including President Lahoud and Speaker of the Parliament Berri. I will discuss again this matter with the Lebanese leaders when I meet them in Paris.

The Lebanese cabinet approved a draft plan for the tribunal in November despite the resignation of all six pro-Syrian members. In December, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud formally refused to endorse the document, calling on the cabinet to take up the proposal again "when there is a legitimate and constitutional government."

The measure has been approved by the UN but requires backing by both Lahoud and the Lebanese parliament before the tribunal can said to have been formally accepted. 

But crucially, international oil firms waiting for access to the world’s third biggest oil reserves will find little detail in the draft about the form future deals will take. They are likely to hold off major commitments until there is clarity. The draft calls for a federal committee headed by the prime minister to oversee future contracts and review deals signed under Saddam Hussein or by the Kurdish regional government, oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said.

Passing an oil law to help settle potentially explosive disputes among Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian communities over the division of oil reserves has been a key demand of the United States in providing further military support to the government.

Iraq’s Oil Committee of senior national and regional leaders has been drawing and redrawing the document for months and missed its own deadline of finalising it by the end of 2006.

The Oil Committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, will send the draft to cabinet next week for approval. After that it will go to parliament. Officials hope that the broad base of the negotiating team means it will pass easily. The final draft was in line with earlier versions described last month after a previous round of talks.

A national oil company will be set up to develop production and exports and the law is intended to ensure development of the oil industry across Iraq’s regions, Jihad said. It establishes a mechanism for centralising oil revenues and distributing them to the regions. Jihad refused to say who will negotiate with the international firms but explained a federal council will have the final word on approving the contracts.

The division of oil is a key factor in communal tensions in Iraq. The southern oil fields around Basra lie in territory controlled by competing factions of the dominant Shi’ite Islamist political forces, The northern fields lie on the edge of Iraqi Kurdistan around the city of Kirkuk. Kurds want to annexe the city as their regional capital. The Sunni minority is concentrated in Baghdad and regions immediately to the north and west where there are few known hydrocarbon reserves.

The chief of the U.N. Human Rights Office in Iraq, Gianni Magazzeni, says U.N. staffers gathered the information from hospitals and the Ministry of Health. The statistics are grim.

"During 2006, a total of 34,452 civilians have been violently killed and 36,685 wounded," he said.

The report says an average of almost 100 people a day die in Iraq's violence.

These figures are much higher than those from Iraq's government, and government officials have called previous U.N. reports "exaggerated."

This report says the security services have been infiltrated by sectarian militia members and are ineffective.

Magazzeni says the appalling toll will not stop until Iraqis have reason to have faith in their police, courts and other institutions of justice.

An Italian military court Saturday convicted 10 former SS soldiers and acquitted 7 others in the 1944 killing of more than 700 people in Marzabotto, a small town in nothern Iraly. The slaughter, which took place south of Bologna, is considered the worst killing of civilians in Italy during World War II. All of the men on trial were tried in absentia and are believed by many to be living in Germany. Each of the convicted men received life sentences for murder.

The massacre was committed by retreating German troops from September 29, 1944 to October 5, 1944. During that time, the SS soldiers killed mainly women, children and elderly in a supposed hunt for resistance fighters.