U.N. denies conflict in giving job to jurist for Annan prize
United Nations – The United Nations on Monday denied a conflict of interest in awarding its top environmental position to a man who had served on a panel that gave Secretary-General Kofi Annan a $500,000 prize.
Achim Steiner, a highly respected environmental advocate, was a judge for the $500,000 Zayed International Prize for the Environment, which Annan won in December.
Annan nominated Steiner as chief of the U.N. Environment Program in March.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Annan had been aware of Steiner’s role on the Zayed jury – which was never a secret – and believed he was the best candidate.
“Mr. Steiner was appointed after a long and exhaustive search,” Dujarric said. “We were aware of all the facts, and the secretary-general still felt that he was the best person to lead the organization.”
Steiner had not tried to hide his involvement in the Zayed award, which was listed on the prize’s website.
After Annan was announced as the winner of the prize, the secretary-general said he would use the money to start a foundation in Africa for agriculture and girls’ education.
Steiner is currently the director-general of the World Conservation Union, the world’s largest environmental network.
ATLANTA
Ex-college president admits embezzling
The former president of Morris Brown College pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling millions of dollars in federal funds that were intended to cover student tuition.
Delores Cross, 69, who was president of the 125-year-old college from November 1998 until February 2002, had been scheduled to go on trial Monday. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors moved to dismiss 27 other counts.
Her attorney said Cross hoped that ending the prosecution would assist Morris Brown in regaining its accreditation.
According to a December 2004 indictment, Cross and Parvesh Singh, the school’s former director of financial aid and enrollment services, fraudulently obtained $3.4 million in federally insured student loans and Pell Grants, in part to cover a $3.3 million credit debt and school expenses.
WASHINGTON
Probe will get logs of White House visitors
The Secret Service has agreed to turn over White House visitor logs that will show how often convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with Bush administration officials – and with whom he met.
U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn last Tuesday approved an agreement between the Secret Service and Judicial Watch, a public interest group, that requires the agency to produce records of Abramoff’s visits from Jan. 1, 2001, to the present.
Judicial Watch filed suit in February after the Secret Service failed to respond to its request under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
High diesel prices give students days off
The high price of diesel fuel for school buses meant children in one Tennessee school system got a holiday Monday – their second in a row.
About 3,800 youngsters got Friday and Monday off because of the action taken by the superintendent of Rhea County schools in east Tennessee to ease transportation spending.
A spokesman for the Washington-based School Bus Information Council described the price of diesel, which has risen above $2.80 in the East and to more than $3 a gallon on the West Coast, as a “huge problem.”
ALEXANDRIA, Va.
Deliberations drag on for Moussaoui jurors
More than a week has passed since jurors in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial began their deliberations. And with each passing day, the chances that the jury will impose the death sentence shrink, experts say.
The jury concluded a fifth day of deliberations Monday without reaching a decision on a sentence: death for Moussaoui, the only person in this country charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, or life in prison.
MIO, Mich.
Fire chars 3,500 acres, forces evacuations
A wildfire in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula had charred about 3,500 acres of forest Monday and forced dozens of residents to evacuate homes in the area.
The fire began Sunday afternoon, said Catherine Salm, spokeswoman for the Huron- Manistee National Forest.
The cause hadn’t been determined.
EL-ARISH, Egypt
Police kill 3 men wanted in bombings
Security forces Monday fatally shot three men wanted in terrorist bombings that killed at least 18 people in a coastal Sinai Peninsula resort last week, officials said.
A policeman also died in the gunfight near Risan, about 25 miles south of el-Arish, a Mediterranean coastal city near the Egyptian border with Gaza, security and police officials said.
Monday’s deaths brought to six the number of wanted men killed in the past three days.
