AWB update 27 December 2006

• Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon Peter McGauran MP, has announced that he has granted 2 bulk wheat export permits, to companies not associated with AWB.
• ABC News has reported that US lawyers had "filed a civil lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of citizens of the three northern governates of Iraq who were entitled to receive benefits under the UN oil-for-food program." The case was filed on Friday in US federal court, in Manhattan, Southern District of New York, against BNP Paribas and AWB Ltd, formerly known as the Australian Wheat Board.