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There are actually fewer than 70 Australians registered with the Australian Embassy in Iraq, but the true number is thought to be more than 200. Many contractors arrive without telling authorities.They include aid workers, security guards, truck drivers and representatives from Australian firms, including Perth-based oil and engineering companies. Australian companies have won an estimated $1 billion in Iraq contracts.

The Marine Corps accepted about 19,000 Interceptor outer tactical vests after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests. The Corps then issued nearly 10,000 to troops. It is unclear whether any Marine casualties in Iraq have resulted from shrapnel or bullets that have penetrated vests distributed from the lots in question. The manufacturer, Point Blank Body Armor, Inc., would not provide a list of serial numbers from the lots saying that the information was "proprietary."

One of most controversial issues the rules addressed was whether contractors should be allowed to carry weapons to protect themselves. The proposed rule said they must have the express permission of the combatant commander. Several commenters complained that this was unrealistic, while another expressed concern it would spawn "armies of mercenaries."

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Nana Adu Agyemang IV, Vice President of the Association of Private Security of Ghana (APSOG) on Friday, called on the government to streamline the activities of private security companies since some of them pose a threat to national security.

The company's plans for a state-of-the-art security training center in North Carolina have gone awry as it is caught in a swarming cloud of suspicion, lawsuits and accusations alleging fraud, kidnapping and more.

A former investigator for an independent inquiry into the U.N. oil-for-food program handed over potentially explosive documents to a U.S. congressional committee, triggering outrage from inquiry head Paul Volcker.

With help from some unlikely places, Corrections Corporation of America is hoping to build the largest for-profit private prison in the United States.

The chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations subpoenaed records last week and is pursuing his own probe of the UN program. ``My committee has an obligation to continue its inquiry,'' said the chairman.

They are everywhere -- ferrying money to businesses in military-style vehicles, guarding gated communities or sitting on three-legged chairs watching over suburban streets. "Private security is growing and has gone through a silent revolution. All over the world, the industry has boomed," says the chain-smoking Jenny Irish-Qhobosheane, a private security researcher.