NOVEDADES IMPORTANTES en la megaestafa del programa Petróleo por Alimentos, prácticamente ignorada por los medios de comunicación españoles:

A memo written by someone who was then an executive of a major contractor in the United Nations oil-for-food program states that he briefly discussed the company's effort to win the contract in late 1998 with Secretary General Kofi Annan and his "entourage" and that the executive was told that "we could count on their support."

The secretary general's son, Kojo Annan, was employed by Cotecna Inspection Services, a Swiss contractor based in Geneva, and the nature of that relationship is among the issues being investigated by a panel appointed by the United Nations and several Congressional committees.

Kofi Annan has said several times that he did not discuss the contract with his son and was not involved in Cotecna's selection. A United Nations panel headed by Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, concluded in March that Mr. Annan had not influenced the awarding of the $10 million dollar-a-year contract to the company.

But the memo appears to raise questions about the secretary general's role.

De momento sí hay algo que está claro en la actuación de Annan: que ha estado mintiendo una y otra vez desde que se empezó a investigar el asunto.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Empieza la acción (no os perdáis la foto). Más rápido, por favor.