Telecommunications giant Qwest Communications International Inc. agreed to pay $250 million to settle fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has turned over the setting and promotion of financial planning standards abroad to a newly established nonprofit standards-setting body, so that it can focus its efforts on promoting and setting planning standards in the U.S.

The Securities and Exchange Commission sanctioned KPMG LLP, two former partners and a current partner and senior manager for improper professional conduct in connection with audit failures involving licensing and advertising revenue in the past audits of Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc.

The Securities and Exchange Commission stepped up to a formal probe its previous informal inquiry into accounting issues at mortgage giant Fannie Mae this week, the company disclosed in an SEC filing.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will provide its full inspection reports to states that agree to honor Sarbanes-Oxley confidentiality provisions, the board's chairman told state regulators this week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named former Andersen partner Julie A. Erhardt to serve as deputy chief accountant.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the sole accountant in the Senate, is spearheading a bipartisan effort to block the proposal by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to require the expensing of stock options, claiming that it would harm the small business owner.Last week, FASB said that it would delay the implementation of its options expensing proposal by six months. However, Enzi's effort wants to derail the proposal entirely.In a statement, Enzi said, "FASB is right to slow down its stock option proposal, but a delay should occur because FASB is working to test the accuracy of the evaluation formulas, not because it wants to give companies more time to prepare for implementing a flawed proposal. The development of entrepreneurial companies and the small business community should not have to absorb the shock of a proposal that has not been thoroughly tested and could cause irreversible harm."Enzi has also voiced concerns that FASB's plans for estimating the value of options are inaccurate.Enzi earlier had offered up S. 1890 -- a bill requiring options expensing only for larger companies -- but that measure has met with a cold reception from colleagues such as Senate Banking Committee chair Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill.Meanwhile, in July, the House passed H.R. 3574, a diluted options expensing measure that requires companies to expense options given to the top five executives. Supporters of FASB's expensing plan are fearful that Enzi and like-minded allies will avail themselves of FASB's six-month delay to gather enough support to kill the proposal.