The Financial Accountant Standards Board issued a final standard aimed at improving the financial reporting of certain hybrid financial instruments by requiring more consistent accounting and eliminating exemptions.

China will adopt International Financial Reporting Standards by Jan. 1, 2007, the country's minister of finance announced.

Risk management and compliance software provider Movaris has joined XBRL International -- the nonprofit consortium of roughly 350 companies working toward the development and support of the Extensible Business Reporting Language.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 4 -- "Reporting on Whether a Previously Reported Material Weakness Continues to Exist."

The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to make improvements to its hiring and personnel practices, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has outlined a productive year that includes a host of projects coordinated with the International Accounting Standards Board, an exploration into the fundamental concepts of accounting, four substantive standards projects and a half-dozen implementation documents.Arguably, FASB's most far-reaching project is its work on the Conceptual Framework. Any decisions reached on this project - which is being developed in conjunction with the IASB - would impact virtually every accounting standard that will be set in the United States and around the world.

Practitioners and industry observers concur with the call by Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson for tax simplification.Although legislation calls for the Taxpayer Advocate to list at least 20 of the most serious problems facing taxpayers, Olson went a step further and included a major section on tax simplification.