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"You start to think 'it's not so bad here.'" A joke e-mail being circulated among contractors in Iraq.

German industry has come under the scrutiny of UN investigators. As far back as October, UN staffers with the investigation contacted Germany's Foreign Ministry in Berlin and submitted a list containing 50 German companies. According to government sources, that list "also included some very well-known companies."

Setting aside its home base in the Upper Midwest, Detroit has a blue state problem -- and it is about to get worse. Washington and Oregon plan to become the 9th and 10th states to adopt California's tough car emissions rules, forming an increasingly potent market for more fuel-efficient vehicles on the West Coast and in the Northeast.

A controversial British firm, Aegis Defence Services Ltd., responsible for a sweeping $293 million contract in Iraq could not prove that employees received proper weapons training or that it had vetted Iraqi employees to ensure they did not pose a threat, according to a government audit.

Six Blackwater Security Consulting guards responsible for protecting U.S. diplomats were killed Thursday when their helicopter was shot down as it headed from Baghdad to Tikrit for a security detail, said company spokesman Chris Bertelli.

Six US citizens, employed by the Blackwater Security Consulting firm, and two Filippino guards were among 11 killed when a Bulgarian commercial helicopter was shot down north of Baghdad. The deaths of at least 13 foreign security contractors in two days is the latest blow to Iraq's private security sector, which the interior ministry estimates employs 50,000 foreigners and Iraqis.

An Australian man shot dead in Baghdad was well aware of the risks of working as a private security guard in Iraq, all of whom carry a $50,000 bounty on their heads, his stepmother said yesterday.

Investigators said Aegis Defence Services could not correctly document that employees are qualified for weapons use and that many of its Iraqi workers have not been not properly screened for security jobs. Ageis had little prior experience in the Middle East before landing a $293 million contract in Iraq and its main shareholder, former British army officer Tim Spicer, has been at the center of several controversies, including an arms deal that broke a U.N. embargo in 1998 and questions raised by Irish Americans over his military record in Northern Ireland.

Longtime U.S. involvement in Colombia may be transforming and expanding from a "war on drugs" into a Washington-led, oil-company fueled destabilization campaign against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Under CAFTA American pharmaceutical giants would gain a five-year edge on the development of new drugs by low-cost competitors. Generic versions of name-brand drugs are the main weapon for battling the AIDS pandemic in the developing world.