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The U.S. Army has decided not to withold payment on disputed bills involving billions of dollars for Iraq contract work after Halliburton threatened that delays in payment could lead to an interruption of crucial support services to the U.S. military.

The $4 Billion difference in what Halliburton says it will cost to provide food, housing and other services for U.S. troops this year dramatizes the cost crunch that is well beyond initial White House estimates.

The Coalition Provisional Authority may have paid salaries for thousands of nonexistent employees in Iraqi ministries, issued unauthorized multimillion-dollar contracts and provided little oversight of spending in possibly corrupt ministries, according to the report by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

The U.S.-led authority that governed Iraq after the 2003 invasion did not properly safeguard $8.8 billion of Iraq's own money and this lack of oversight opened up these funds to corruption, said a U.S. audit.

At least 232 civilians have been killed while working on U.S.-funded contracts in Iraq and the death toll is rising rapidly, according to a U.S. government audit sent to Congress. n addition, 728 claims were filed for employees who missed more than four days of work. Several hundred more were reported from neighboring Kuwait where companies working in Iraq have logistics and support operations.

If Sunday's election triggers a civil war between Sunni and Shiite Iraqis, reconstruction may grind to a halt. If, however, the election gives the country's government greater legitimacy among ever-skeptical Iraqis, it could make the work of companies far easier.

Riggs Bank pleaded guilty to helping former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the leaders of oil- rich Equatorial Guinea hide hundreds of millions of dollars. The federal judge questioned whether a $16 million fine agreed to by prosecutors was enough.

Halliburton Co., the world's second- biggest oilfield services company, became the sixth-largest U.S. military contractor last year on the strength of its work to help rebuild Iraq and care for U.S. troops, the Pentagon said.

Global food companies are aggravating poverty in developing countries by dominating markets, buying up seed firms and forcing down prices for staple goods including tea, coffee, milk, bananas and wheat, according to a report to be launched today.

While the world's biggest CEOs and politicians gather in Davos, Switzerland to network and negotiate, activists and NGO-workers meet halfway around the world in Porto Alegre, Brazil to imagine other, more humanity-focused possibilities.