LONDON (AP) - A British oil trader was arrested Thursday on U.S. charges of paying bribes to Saddam Hussein as part of the discredited U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq. Metropolitan Police said John Irving, 52, was detained in central London on a U.S. extradition warrant. He appeared at the city's Westminster Magistrates Court and was released on bail until his next hearing on July 20.Irving was one of three men charged in New York in 2005 with cheating the United Nations of at least $100 million that should have gone to humanitarian aid for Iraqis. The other two - Texas oil executive David Chalmers and Bulgarian oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev - have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The extradition warrant accuses Irving of colluding with Chalmers and others to defraud the U.N. and pay ``illegal and secret commissions and surcharges to officials of the government of Iraq'' between January 2000 and March 2003.