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The Defense Department is investigating a pool of former senior military and civilian Defense managers now working for government contractors for possible criminal violations of federal conflict-of-interest rules, according to law enforcement officials.

At least 232 civilians working on U.S. military and reconstruction contracts have been killed there, many in violent but largely overlooked slayings, according to a report issued to Congress several weeks ago, but the death toll actually could be far higher.

The relentless shifting of employment to countries like India and China that has occurred in manufacturing, back-office work and computer programming is now spreading to a crown jewel of corporate America: the medical and drug industries.

At least 90 Private Military Companies are involved in the business of war and killing innocent people by operating in 110 countries worldwide, says a report by journalist Nasir Mahmood.

Cambodian riot police fired assault rifles and used electric batons on Tuesday to break up a protest by 1,300 workers demanding redundancy payment from a garment factory that shut down in January.

Today, though, the major threat on Baghdad's notorious airport road may no longer be snipers, insurgents or suicide bombers. What drivers most need to fear: trigger-happy security contractors. "Civilian contractors fire indiscriminately."

The Rock is just one part of the complicated balancing of government, military and private interests all across Iraq every day. On one side are U.S. intelligence officers warily declassifying information. On the other are contractors seeking access to sensitive data to do jobs once done by soldiers: protecting VIPs, transporting goods and guarding vulnerable targets.

William Taylor, a U.S. diplomat who oversees Iraqi reconstruction efforts, said the Iraq's violent insurgency creates a "security premium," gobbling up money that otherwise would have been spent to provide clean water, electricity and sanitation for Iraqis.

Some 40 organizations launched an international campaign aimed at pressuring the French oil giant Total to pull out of Myanmar, where they said the company's activities support a military dictatorship, a French activist collective announced.

The $2.9 billion plant that bankrupt U.S. energy giant Enron built was a technological breakthrough and still represents the largest single foreign investment in India. But since shutting down almost four years ago, it has proven more of an embarrassment than a showcase.