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"Private soldiers" have been operating in a legal limbo, with precious few rules governing their activities. However, a handful of legal cases in the U.S. are beginning to define the legal boundaries under which these companies can operate.

In a little-noticed shift, for-profit outfits have replaced the Pentagon as the chief trainers of the country's fledging police force. Just over 700 contractors -- more than previously disclosed -- are now training more than half the Iraqi Police Service.

The difference between Kroll and DynCorps, two private security companies is night and day. Kroll was like commuting to the office. We generally obeyed simple traffic laws. A trip with DynCorps is the proverbial "E-ticket" ride.

Public relations giant Omnicom has received almost a quarter of a billion dollars in contracts from the federal government for public relations work. At least one has been labeled "covert propaganda," another involved paying off a journalist and opinion-maker.

Kimberly-Clark is a tissue product manufacturer that relies on massive amounts of virgin fibre to produce its products - it uses over 2.5 million tonnes of virgin tree pulp each year and less than 19% of its fibre in North America comes from recycled sources.

O Globo newspaper says that more than 500 Brazilians have been hired as mercenaries to watch US military facilities in Iraq and the Brazilian Labor Ministry will investigate whether there were irregularities or not in the employment of Brazilians.

Federal prosecutors yesterday charged W.R. Grace & Co. with exposing mine workers and residents in a small mountain community in Montana to deadly asbestos and covering up the danger.

Republican senators who have mauled the United Nations in its handling Iraqi oil revenues went strangely quiet over the news that the Coalition Provisional Authority saw $8.8 billion go absent without leave in just 14 months. It is 55,000 times as much as Mr Sevan is alleged to have been paid.

This year, the affordable urban real estate attracted international tenants including Hewlett-Packard, HSBC and McKinsey and Marsh & McLennan.

The Balkans Web site has articles and commentary by about 50 journalists who are said to have be paid by European Command through a private contractor, Anteon Corp., an information technology company based in Fairfax.