MUNICH, Germany- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued uncompromising challenges to both the United Nations and NATO over Iraq on Saturday, warning that the global bodies risked ridicule and discredit and cautioning three of America’s European partners that delaying plans to defend Turkey weakened the Atlantic alliance.

NEW YORK - As president, he crushed one of the few labor unions whose endorsement he won as a candidate.

DALLAS — Directors of American Airlines' parent company likely won't make a decision when they meet Wednesday to consider a possible merger with US Airways, even as momentum for a deal is building.

McALLEN, Texas -- Corruption along the U.S.-Mexican border takes many forms.

MedAire, a Tempe-based company that provides medical and health services to remote travelers all over the world, hopes to become a U.S. public company in 2006 and use the additional capital for continued growth.

SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison, a longtime fixture on the list of the world’s richest people, is now ensconced atop The Associated Press’ rankings of the top-paid chief executives in the United States.

A federal grand jury this week indicted a 61-year-old Scottsdale woman on charges that she bilked investors of millions, spending $4.8 million on a Paradise Valley home, homes for two daughters and pieces of art, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - America's largest technology companies are working to persuade the Department of Homeland Security against consideration of costly new computer-security rules, arguing that companies already are taking aggressive steps to defend against hackers.

A new ruling Friday by the state's high court will bar victims of securities fraud from legally pursuing those who helped the people who defrauded them.

The U.S. Department of Education plans to review two years of paperwork filed by for-profit education company Apollo Group Inc. to ensure it complied with federal student financial aid rules at its University of Phoenix chain.

Scottsdale-based Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation filed notice Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is re-examining its patent for the acne treatment Solodyn.

A Scottsdale trader and a Mesa-based performer have pleaded guilty in federal court for participating in stock manipulations schemes, according to a statement from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Scottsdale-based InPlay Technologies, which develops human interface devices such as digital panes and touch-screen technology for electronic products, said it sold its Duraswitch electronic switch business unit to Memtron Technologies Co, "This transaction streamlines our operations and focuses our efforts on what we believe is a significant opportunity in the mobile computing and communications space with our FinePoint products," said InPlay CEO Steve Hanson in a statement.

Shareholders at Phoenix-based Swift Transportation voted Friday to sell the company back to ousted founder Jerry Moyes in a deal valued at about $2.74 billion.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Radical Bunny, a fundraising group for Mortgages Ltd., and four of its principals with orchestrating a mortgage-lending scheme that attracted hundreds of investors by making false and misleading statements about the safety and performance of their investments.

WASHINGTON - In approving a defunct $2.2 billion buyout by Bain Capital Partners LLC and its Chinese partner, 3Com shareholders cleared the way for a legal battle over a $66 million breakup fee.

Arizona Corporation Commissioners said they were troubled by the news Tuesday that the government had filed criminal and civil fraud charges against former and current executives of Qwest Communications International.

The announcement this week that Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is under criminal investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for reportedly “illegally collaborating with his campaign committee to raise campaign funds, promising a job to the leader of that committee and helping funnel money, an estimated half-million dollars, from his brother-in-law to the committee” is just the latest in a series of questionable acts involving Horne.

It appears that President Obama, Leon Pinetta (Def.Sec) and Gen. Dempsey (JCS) are excited over instituting a Combat Infantry Roll for our Women in the military. I certainly hope these men did not make their their decision on “Band Wagon Appeal” only?

I don’t suppose some Arizona voters will care about Tom Horne’s lifetime trading ban by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (along with people like Bernie Madoff and Michael Milkin) or his failure to report a 1970 bankruptcy in several annual reports for his law firm during his primary run for attorney general. But they certainly should care about his eight-year record as superintendent of public schools. They should care that he proudly gives himself an “A” for the job he did, while our school system slid from about 40th overall in the nation to its present position of dead last. Now he’s running for attorney general — the lawyer for us, the people of Arizona. I don’t think we want our lawyer to be either unethical or a proven failure. Tom Horne is both.

A Phoenix-based trucking company hit by heavy losses in recent years has filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $700 million and pay off some of its existing debt.

An attorney who represents a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office sergeant accused of violating federal security laws says his client has been wrongly accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Scottsdale-based Rural/Metro Corp. is out of compliance with creditors and