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A federal grand jury in Houston has charged a former executive of a Willbros Group subsidiary with conspiring to bribe Nigerian officials as part of an alleged scheme to win a major natural gas pipeline contract.

Blackwater North, as the North Carolina-based firm calls its new site, is designed primarily as a tactical training ground for domestic law enforcement and contractors. Using civilians schooled in military warfare, the site offers training in weaponry, hostage dealings and terror reaction. Still, the sudden appearance of Blackwater is attracting criticism and questions from miles around. Anti-war activists and locals are wary about the new training site.

European commissioners, the continent's regulators, have been criticised by their own watchdog for refusing to divulge details of meetings they and their staff have held with lobbyists.

Billy Rautenbach, a former kingpin of the mining world in southern Africa becomes the newest "persona non grata" in the new DRC regime's attempt to rid its mining industry of corruption.

Over a year after a torrent of liquid mud at an Indonesian oil exploration site inundated four villages, killing almost 100 people, the local community is still awaiting clean-up and proper compensation. This is despite the fact that the drilling company is owned by the family of a senior Indonesian minister.

Amid a barrage of criticism, the Securities and Exchange Commission is temporarily suspending an online list intended to spotlight companies doing business in countries tied to terrorism.

Nigerian consortium Bluestar, led by tycoon Aliko Dangote, has pulled out of a deal to take stakes in oil refineries after protests by trade unionists.

Contractors hired to clean up after Hurricane Katrina are fuming over delays in getting paid by FEMA, and some politicians fear the red tape will discourage companies from bidding on the big rebuilding projects that lie ahead for New Orleans.

Taking the place of enlisted troops in every American army before this one, contract employees in Iraq cook meals, wash clothes, deliver fuel and guard bases. And they die and suffer alongside
their brothers and sisters in uniform. About 1,000 contractors have been killed in Iraq since the war began; nearly 13,000 have been injured. The consequences of the war will be lasting for many of them and their families, ordeals that are largely invisible to most Americans.

MPs called for legislation yesterday to make British retailers pay their garment workers overseas a living wage.