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According to a recent United Nations report, South Africa is among the top three suppliers of personnel for private military companies operating in Iraq next to the US and the UK. At least 10 South African based companies have been sending people to Iraq. Most of those recruited operate as drivers and bodyguards, protecting supply routes and valuable resources.

Halliburton Co. and the U.S. Army have resolved a lengthy billing dispute over meals served to U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait, with the Pentagon ultimately refusing to reimburse $55 million worth of bills. At stake was $200 million in disputed costs incurred during the first nine months of the war and occupation, first in Kuwait and then in Iraq.

Halliburton will receive about 95% of what it billed, despite numerous concerns by Pentagon auditors that the company couldn't provide adequate documentation to justify its expenses. The favorable settlement is an indication the military brass is willing to treat Halliburton leniently since a large portion of the disputed services were performed in a theater of war.

The U.S. Army will pay $1.8 billion to a Halliburton subsidiary for dining services in Iraq and Kuwait but retain $55 million out of about $200 million in payments suspended during a long-running billing dispute.

Halliburton has struck a deal with the U.S. Army on food service provided to U.S. troops in Iraq, resolving a 14-month long billing dispute.

The head of a five-member Kuwaiti investigative committee said the U.S. military and Halliburton have failed to fully cooperate in the investigation of a contract for fuel deliveries to Iraq. "We sent them a letter to clarify some points, but we have not received an answer for three months," he said.

"The ministries with big cash, the Water Ministry, Electricity Ministry, Housing Ministry, Oil and Gas Ministry, Education Ministry, they are the guys with big money," project manager for Rebuild Iraq 2005 Fadi Kaddoura said.

Companies with billions of dollars of U.S.-funded projects are seeking to recruit new Iraqi sub-contractors and international companies are encouraged by signs of declining violence in Iraq, but red tape and graft could offset the improved security situation, executives taking part in a huge reconstruction expo said on Monday.

Hundreds of firms have headed for Jordan for the latest in a string of conferences intended to drum up business for Iraq's reconstruction.

A man with ties to New Mexico working in Iraq as a security coordinator for a subsidiary of Halliburton was severely beaten last week by a group of fellow employees reportedly called the "Redneck Mafia."

A 41-year-old Halliburton employee from Albuquerque is recovering from a beating in Baghdad that authorities say came not at the hands of Iraqi insurgents but from his own American co-workers.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who chairs the armed services subcommittee that oversees Army and Air Force programs, said he had serious concerns about the suitability of an "other transaction authority," or OTA, as the contract vehicle for the Future Combat Systems, noting Congress approved such agreements for small research or limited prototype projects, especially those intended to attract nontraditional defense contractors.

Based on a review of recently distributed federal-procurement documents, the U.S. government is actively soliciting the help of mercenaries whose sole function will be to locate and rescue missing or captured Drug War personnel.

Halliburton is launching an ad campaign featuring real employees as the government services contractor faces lawsuits claiming that a truck convoy ambushed by insurgents April 9, 2004, was used as a decoy to draw attention away from another group delivering fuel.

When Paul Bremer, fresh from Kissinger Associates, first arrived in Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority made a lot of changes other than just disbanding what was left of the Iraqi army. He annulled all of Saddam Hussein's rules and regulations overseeing the Iraq economy, except one: He kept Saddam's laws banning labor unions.

Outburst by US security firm in Iraq is attacked by human rights groups.

But what happened to Dennis Moore and his colleagues in 18 harrowing hours underscores some of the missteps that have hindered efforts to rebuild Iraq. Since last April, instability throughout the country has forced RTI and many other contractors to scale back their work, sowing even more disillusionment among Iraqis.

If deterioration of the global environment over the past several decades is any guide, the coming century does not hold out much promise for reversing these trends, many environmentalists are warning as the millennium comes to a close.