The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to approve new guidelines yesterday that would make it easier for small companies to comply with the auditing provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. See the WSJ story here and NYT here.
Amnesty International said the U.S. fight against terrorism had undermined human rights worldwide in its annual report released yesterday. "One of the biggest blows to human rights has been the attempt of Western democratic states to roll back some fundamental principles of human rights -- like the prohibition of torture," Amnesty's Secretary General Irene Khan said before the report's launch. See the AP story here.
President Bush withdrew his nomination of top lobbyist Michael Baroody to be chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The move came amid a fresh wave of criticism from Democratic lawmakers concerned about his close ties to manufactuers after news surfaced that he would receive a $150,000 severance package from National Association of Manufacturers, where he is executive vice president. Baroody asked Bush to withdraw his nomination after it became clear that it would be rejected by the Senate Commerce Committee that was scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing today. See the WP story here and the NYT here.
Another round of wide ranging U.S.-China economic and trade discussions yielded few results. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson failed to secure an agreement from China to combat copyright piracy or win any concessions regarding the country’s practice of keeping its currency weak against the dollar. See the WSJ story here.
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