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Bernard J. Ebbers, the founder and former chief executive of World Com who was found guilty of fraud by a New York jury in March, agreed yesterday to surrender nearly all of his personal fortune - about $40 million - to investors who lost billions when the company spiraled into bankruptcy almost three years ago.

In closing arguments, the attorney for two whistleblowers asks for more than $10 million in damages against the Rhode Island-based company accused of war profiteering in Iraq.

The Matanza-Riachuelo river basin, the most polluted in Argentina for more than a century, could begin to see some cleaner waters as the result of an innovative ruling by the National Supreme Court of Justice -- considered a landmark in the history of Latin American environmental law.

• 174 War & Disaster Profiteers Campaign

• 124 War & Disaster Profiteering

A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away.

KBR hires out subcontractors whose job is to recruit, transport, house, feed and pay "third-country" nationals to stock, prepare, serve and clean up at the dining facilities at 43 bases across Iraq. As pressure to keep contract costs down, subcontractors have moved from country to country in search of cheaper labor markets.

Drugmaker Merck & Co.'s research facility in West Point dumped a chemical compound that included cyanide into the sewer system, killing more than 1,000 fish in Wissahickon Creek, federal authorities said Thursday.

The Jordan Times releases an editorial that is based primarily on the research of Iraq, Inc.

Americans were as wrong about the health of Iraq's infrastructure as they were about their welcome as liberators and the insurgents know that depriving Iraq of power is at least as effective as killing soldiers and policemen.