The World Bank’s governing board pressed ahead Tuesday with its conflict-of-interest investigation against president Paul Wolfowitz, despite protests that he had not been given the required amount of time to review and respond to the charges.
Robert S. Bennett, Wolfowitz’s lawyer, said that the board had delivered more than 600 pages of reports, transcripts and other documents Sunday night and demanded that Wolfowitz respond by today.
Bank rules, Bennett said, require that in such circumstances, staff members be given at least five business days to review the documents.
“This is terribly unfair,” Bennett said in a statement.
But according to a veteran World Bank staffer who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss personnel matters, Wolfowitz, as the bank president, is not deemed by the board to be a staff member, so the five-day review requirement does not apply.
Additional nation/world news briefs:
ANNAPOLIS, Md.
Governor signs living-wage bill
Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland signed the nation’s first statewide living-wage bill Tuesday, giving fresh momentum to a movement that seeks to raise wages through legislation.
Employers with state contracts will generally have to pay workers a minimum amount – $11.30 an hour in the Baltimore- Washington corridor and $8.50 an hour in the rural counties.
The Maryland state minimum wage is $6.15 an hour, one dollar above the federal minimum.
Nationwide, 145 cities and counties have enacted living-wage bills, which generally require businesses that receive government contracts – and sometimes those that receive subsidies – to pay an amount above minimum wage. The highest living wage in the nation is $14.75 an hour in Fairfax, Calif.
RENO, Nev.
Navy helicopter crash kills five
A Navy helicopter struck a power line during a training flight and crashed in a rugged area of the northern Nevada desert, killing all five crew members, the Navy said Tuesday.
Navy investigators were on the scene early Tuesday to recover the bodies.
The SH-60F helicopter, flying out of Naval Air Station Fallon, went down late Monday about 10 miles west of Austin, base spokesman Zip Upham said.
“The helicopter was on a combat search-and-rescue exercise,” Upham said. He said it struck a high-voltage transmission line, cutting the line.
EL PASO
Federal judge tosses charge against Cuban
A federal judge on Tuesday threw out Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles’ indictment accusing him of lying to immigration authorities.
Posada, 79, a former CIA operative and fierce opponent of Fidel Castro, was scheduled to stand trial next week in Texas on immigration-fraud charges.
Cuba and Venezuela want Posada extradited in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, but the United States has refused to send him to either country.
LAGOS, Nigeria
Militants launch attacks on pipelines
Militants staged coordinated attacks on three pipelines Tuesday, inflicting the worst damage on Nigeria’s vital oil infrastructure in more than a year and signaling an escalation in hostilities that caused world petroleum prices to spike.
The nearly simultaneous bombings followed last week’s kidnappings of dozens of foreign oil workers in the restive Niger Delta oil region, where militants say they are trying to shut down Africa’s largest crude exporter.
Analysts believe armed groups are stepping up attacks to demonstrate their relevance ahead of the May 29 installation of a new central government after disputed elections. Militants are demanding that the people of the impoverished region get a bigger share of the oil wealth.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claimed responsibility for the bombings. It promised more attacks before May 29, saying in an e-mail: “We will … crown it with a final really embarrassing moment for (incumbent President Olusegun) Obasanjo’s government.”
Oil prices shot up over the intensified violence, But it was not immediately clear how much production was actually cut.
