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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A whistle-blower testified Tuesday that the world's biggest mining company gave Iraq an $8 million loan in 1996 to gain access to the country's oil.
The testimony came as the government expanded a corruption inquiry stemming from the now discredited U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq to include the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton.
Investigators are examining whether Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, AWB Ltd., knowingly paid up to $222 million in bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime between 1999-2003 to secure lucrative wheat contracts in Iraq.
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