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Iraq’s parliament speaker warned Monday that human rights violations are putting the country’s fragile democracy at risk, the latest pronouncement in a rapidly developing sectarian spat that threatens to destabilize the country after U.S. troops pulled out.

The televised comments by Osama al-Nujaifi, one of the country’s top Sunni officials, are the latest salvo in a growing political crisis sparked when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government issued an arrest warrant for the country’s top Sunni politician last month.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, controls the ministries that oversee Iraq’s police and military. Some of Iraq’s minority Sunnis, who fear being marginalized, accuse the prime minister of using the security forces to try to consolidate power.

“The armed forces should not be a tool to repress people and the armed forces should not interfere in political matters,” al-Nujaifi said.

“Human rights will not become a reality in a situation where the political process is snarled. … Losing these rights will destroy democracy,” he added.

The parliament speaker, a member of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, al-Maliki’s main political rivals, spoke a day before parliament was scheduled to hold its first session of the new year pay day advance.

Iraqiya suspended its participation in parliament last month to protest al-Maliki’s control of key posts, particularly those overseeing security forces.

U.S. troops completed their pullout from Iraq two weeks ago after a nine-year war.

Also Monday, a group that tracks casualties in Iraq said the number of civilians killed in the country’s violence increased slightly in 2011.

In its annual report posted online, Iraq Body Count recorded 4,063 civilians killed last year, up from 4,045 in 2010.

On Sunday evening, a convoy carrying Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi was struck by a roadside bomb in Ishaki area, 70 kilometers north of Baghdad, according to Zayed Majid, an adviser to the minister. He said the minister was not hurt, and two bodyguards were wounded.

The head of the provincial health directorate where the blast occurred, Dr. Raed Ibrahim, confirmed the account.

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The United States has reached a deal to sell $3.48 billion worth of missiles and related technology to the United Arab Emirates, a close Mideast ally, as part of a massive buildup of defense technology among friendly Mideast nations near Iran.

Pentagon spokesman George Little announced the Christmas Day sale on Friday night.

He noted that the U.S. and U.A.E. have a strong defense relationship and are both interested in “a secure and stable” Persian Gulf region.

The deal includes 96 missiles, along with supporting technology and training support that Little says will bolster the nation’s missile defense capacity.

The deal includes a contract with Lockheed Martin to produce the highly sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, weapon system for the U.A.E.

Tom McGrath, vice president and program manager for Lockheed Martin’s THAAD program, said in a statement released in Dallas that it was the first foreign military sale of the THAAD system.

THAAD interceptors are produced at Lockheed Martin’s Pike County Facility in Troy, Ala. The launchers and fire control units are produced at the company’s Camden, Ark., facility.

Wary of Iran, the U.S. has been building up missile defenses of its allies, including a $1.7 billion deal to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s Patriot missiles and the sale of 209 Patriot missiles to Kuwait, valued at about $900 million instant payday loan.

On Thursday, the Obama administration announced the sale of $30 billion worth of F-15SA fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

Under the fighter jet agreement, the U.S. will send Saudi Arabia 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more. Production of the aircraft, which will be manufactured by Boeing Co., will support 50,000 jobs and have a $3.5 billion annual economic impact in the U.S.

All the sales are part of a larger U.S. effort to realign its defense policies in the Persian Gulf to keep Iran in check.

The announcement came as U.S. officials weighed a fresh threat from Tehran, which warned this week it could disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Persian Gulf oil transport route, if Washington levies new sanctions targeting Iran’s crude exports.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, the third-ranking U.S. diplomat, will travel to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. next week to discuss “ongoing developments” in the region with senior officials of the two nations, the State Department said Friday.

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China will balance

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China

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Companies cranked out more goods in December and pending sales of existing homes jumped in November for a second month, pointing to a pickup in U.S. economic growth as 2011 comes to a close.

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its business barometer (CHPMINDX) was little changed at 62.5 from a seven- month high of 62.6 in November. The index of signed contracts (USPHTMOM) to buy previously owned houses rose 7.3 percent after climbing 10.4 percent the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said. Both figures surpassed the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

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President Barack Obama said he will nominate two former U.S. Treasury Department officials for the Federal Reserve Board, including one who served in a Republican administration.

Jerome Powell, an attorney who was a Treasury undersecretary for former President George H.W. Bush, and Jeremy Stein, a Harvard University economist who has advised the current administration, are Obama

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Insurance giant Aon has agreed to pay more than $16 million in fines to settle charges that its subsidiaries bribed foreign government officials, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday.

Aon will pay $14.5 million to the SEC and $1.7 million to the Department of Justice to settle alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the SEC said in a statement. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Aon subsidiaries paid over $3.6 million in bribes in countries including Egypt, Costa Rica and Myanmar between 1983 and 2007.

Aon earned over $11 million in profits as a result of these unlawful payments, the complaint claims.

"Aon’s liability is not premised on an isolated instance of misconduct," Kara Brockmeyer, head of the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement division, said in a statement. "Rather, for years, Aon’s subsidiaries repeatedly engaged in misconduct around the world."

SEC settles charges with Notre Dame’s ‘Rudy’

The Chicago-based Aon is an insurance and reinsurance brokerage with 61,000 employees in more than 120 countries. The firm said in a statement Tuesday that it had instituted "a comprehensive, global and robust anti-corruption program" since it began reviewing the issues raised by the SEC in 2007.

A lawyer for Aon (, Fortune 500) did not immediately return a request for comment. Aon settled the case without admitting or denying the charges.

The SEC has been under fire lately for allowing firms to settle cases without admitting or denying the allegations against them, a practice that federal judge Jed Rakoff described last month as "hallowed by history, but not by reason," when he rejected a proposed settlement with Citigroup (, Fortune 500). The agency has settled cases against a number of other large firms in recent months including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo. 

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The past 12 months in law and technology were exceptionally active, with legislative battles over privacy and copyright, near-continuous controversy at the CRTC, and an active Supreme Court of Canada docket. A look back at 2011 from A to Z:

A is for the Amazon one-click patent, which is at the centre of a long-running fight over the validity of business-method patents in Canada.

B is for Baglow v. Smith, an Ontario Superior Court decision which ruled that comments on a blog should not necessarily give rise to a claim in defamation, when the person alleging defamation has a right of reply in the same blog.

C is for Century 21, which won a major case over Rogers Communications and its real estate search site Zoocasa. The case included important findings on online contracts, trespass and copyright.

D is for the digital television transition, which finally occurred on Aug. 31.

E is for eHarmony, the online dating site that was the subject of a privacy commissioner investigation leading to changes to its customer data deletion practices.

F is for false news, which erupted as a controversy after the CRTC quietly proposed a significant change to the rules on false or misleading news broadcasts on radio or television.

G is for Adam Guerbuez, the Montreal-based spammer who mocked the government as it delayed finalizing anti-spam regulations that are needed to bring the law into effect.

H is for Hurt Locker lawsuits, which made their way to Canada with dozens of file-sharing legal actions launched against individuals in Quebec.

I is for the iPod tax, which surprisingly emerged as an election issue during the spring campaign.

J is for Jon Newton, whose case on liability for hyperlinking led to a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision against creating such liability.

K is for Jason Koblovsky, the founder of the Canadian Gamers Organization, which filed a complaint against Rogers Communications over interference with online games arising from its throttling practices.

L is for Leon

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Centene Corp.

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A year ago, economists Ken Matheny and Gary Thayer were both optimistic about 2011. Going into 2012, they’re decidedly less so.

“You have a lot of things coming along in early 2012 that really slow the economy down,” says Matheny, of Macroeconomic Advisers in Clayton.

The biggest problems are the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and a tighter federal budget in the U.S. In 2011, the economy also had to weather an earthquake in Japan and flooding in Thailand, both of which disrupted global supply chains.

All things considered, we should be thankful we’re not heading back into recession.

“This year may turn out to be a year that proves slow growth isn’t necessarily fragile growth,” says Thayer, who is chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisers pay day loans. “The economy still has some resilience to it.”

Both Matheny and Thayer think that gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced in the U.S., will grow just 2.2 percent next year. That’s perhaps a step above anemic, but well short of vigorous. (Matheny says his forecast might be up to half a percentage point higher if Congress extends the payroll tax cut that’s due to expire Dec. 31. The effect will be less if the tax cut is offset by other tax increases or spending cuts.)

These two economists are brave

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