A series of bombings, meanwhile, ripped through Baghdad, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 60, police said. The deadliest attack was a car bombing in a parking lot near the Health Ministry and the city's main morgue that claimed seven lives.

The Interior Ministry said Monday that Blackwater — a Moyock, N.C.-based company that protects U.S. diplomats and other dignitaries and projects in Iraq — was banned from working in the country after Sunday's deadly shootings that apparently occurred after a car bombing in western Baghdad.

The shootings have touched a nerve and raised scrutiny over what many Iraqis consider a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country.

Blackwater is one of three private security firms employed by the State Department to protect its personnel in Iraq, and a decision to force it to pull out would create tremendous difficulties for the U.S. government.

The two other firms, both of which are headquartered in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, are Dyncorp, based in Falls Church, Va., and Triple Canopy, based in Herndon, Va.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said he understood the need for protection for Westerners and dignitaries but that preliminary findings showed Blackwater used excessive force.

Citing Interior and Defense ministry initial findings, al-Dabbagh told CNN that more than 20 people were killed. Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, however, said 11 were killed. The discrepancy could not be reconciled.

Blackwater has insisted its employees acted in self-defense and that those killed were armed combatants who threatened State Department personnel.

Both Iraqi officials appeared to soften the government's position after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of a fair and transparent investigation.

"We have to protect the people. At the same time we have to show the sovereignty of the government in Iraq," al-Dabbagh told CNN.

But he stressed the ban on Blackwater was temporary pending the final investigation: "We are not intending to stop them and revoke their license indefinitely, but we do need them to respect the law and the regulation here in Iraq."

Khalaf said the important thing was "to know the truth and to protect the rights of the victims and to reach the best means in order to prevent such incidents in the future."

Blackwater and other foreign contractors accused of killing Iraqi citizens have gone without facing charges or prosecution in the past, and it was unclear why the shooting Sunday drew such a fierce reaction by the Iraqi government.

Al-Maliki, under political pressure, may have seen a straightforward way to gain political ground by lashing out at a practice unpopular with all Iraqis. Unlike many deaths blamed on foreign contractors, Sunday's shootings took place in a crowded area in downtown Baghdad with dozens of witnesses.

The Interior Ministry also has recently clamped down on weapons permits for the foreign security companies with a series of conflicting measures that have created some confusion among Iraqi security forces as well as the contractors.

The circumstances surrounding Sunday's attack were uncertain. Blackwater said its employees came under fire.

"Blackwater regrets any loss of life but this convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life," Blackwater's spokeswoman, Anne E. Tyrrell, said in a statement.

U.S. officials said the motorcade was traveling through Nisoor Square on the way back to the Green Zone when the car bomb exploded, followed by volleys of small-arms fire that disabled one of the vehicles.

Al-Dabbagh said the preliminary report by the Interior and Defense ministries showed helicopters fired on the crowd; Blackwater has denied any aircraft were used.

Al-Sadr called for all contracts of foreign securities firms to be annulled and blamed the government for failing to protect Iraqis, noting the shootings occurred on a busy square filled with Iraqi troops.

"This aggression wouldn't have happened had it not been for the presence of the occupiers who brought these companies," al-Sadr's political committee said in a statement issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf.

It also called for a speedy investigation, the referral of those involved to the Iraqi justice system and compensation for families of the victims.

Amid allegations that the foreign security contractors operate with impunity, al-Maliki's Cabinet held a meeting Tuesday and confirmed that "it is necessary to review the status of local and foreign private security companies working in Iraq according to what is suitable with Iraqi laws."

Order No. 17, a law issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq before the Iraqis regained sovereignty in June 2004, gave the companies immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

Al-Dabbagh insisted the government was now sovereign and had the right to act against the contractors, "but we don't want to do so because we don't have the services which they are providing for the diplomats and for the American Embassy here in Iraq."

Hassan al-Rubaie, a member of the parliament's Security and Defense Committee, said an investigative committee has been formed and members would consider abolishing the immunity law.

"There are reports that they were subjected to fire but this does not give them the right to kill innocent civilians," he said.

The Supreme Court said murders triggered by family disputes should not always result in the death penalty. Crimes of passion should take into account the offender's payment of compensation, it said.

Similarly, those convicted of economic crimes should be treated more leniently if they help to recoup money that was defrauded. The court suggested greater use of two-year suspensions on death penalties - allowing them to be converted to imprisonment. However, it continued to back capital punishment as a deterrent.

"We must hand down and carry out immediate capital punishment in regard to heinous cases, with iron-clad evidence that result in serious social damage," its statement said.

The most high-profile execution this year was of the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, for taking 6.5m yuan ($860,000; £430,000) in bribes and for dereliction of duty.

In 2005, an estimated 1,770 executions were carried out and nearly 4,000 people were sentenced to death, human rights group Amnesty International says.

But China says the number has fallen since an amendment came into force this January requiring the Supreme People's Court to approve all death sentences.

The main topics of interest are expected to be decisions relating to two issues raised by the Commission's March 2004 order against Microsoft, which included a $613 million fine and determinations that the company engaged in a number of anticompetitive practices.

One issue to be addressed by the court deals with whether Microsoft stifled competition by bundling its Media Player with Windows, the market's dominant operating system. The other issue focuses on whether Microsoft provided adequate interoperability protocol information to competitors.

If the court hands the Commission an overwhelming defeat on both the interoperability and Media Player issues, the Commission could find itself neutered, say legal experts.

In recent years, the Commission has aggressively pursued or investigated other technology industry titans, including chipmaker Intel, which faced allegations the company wooed customers with marketing dollars in exchange for their exclusive use of Intel chips. The Commission also took on mobile-phone chipmaker Qualcomm over antitrust issues surrounding its patents for its 3G chipsets, and recently began an antitrust review of Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of online ad company DoubleClick.

Given the Commission's fearlessness in taking on major technology companies over competitive issues, a major defeat in court may leave it with the "wind taken out of its sails," noted Thomas Vinje, an antitrust attorney with Clifford Chance in Europe. The Commission, as a result, may temper the pace and energy with which it pursues cases, he noted.

But should the Commission soundly defeat Microsoft, legal observers say, it's doubtful European regulators will suddenly go on a rampage and pursue marginal antitrust cases.

"The effect of a really big loss would be greater than the effect of a really big win for the Commission," Vinje said.

The $613 million fine called for in the March 2004 order was increased by $357 million last year, after the Commission alleged the software giant had not complied with its original ruling. The Court of First Instance will also issue a decision on the multimillion-dollar fines.

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The court's decision is also expected to have some affect on the Commission's view toward other Microsoft products it is currently investigating, such as the Vista operating system, said Michael Reynolds, an antitrust attorney with Allan & Overy in Europe. The software giant announced in October that it made changes to Vista to accommodate concerns raised by antitrust regulators in Europe and South Korea.

"There already has been some intervention by the Commission," Reynolds said. "But everyone wants to see what the court says, before (finalizing) negotiations with the Commission."

While the court's ruling may have an affect on how antitrust cases are addressed by the EC, one legal expert said it is unlikely Google, Intel, Rambus or Qualcomm will be affected by the Microsoft decision next week.

Google's market share is far lower than that of Microsoft and no barriers exist to prevent users from migrating to another search engine, said Maurits Dolmans, an antitrust attorney with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Europe.

And while Intel chips are in a majority of all computers, it has a rival, Advanced Micro Devices, and allegations that the chipmaker engaged in predatory pricing in Europe are far different from the issue Microsoft is facing over bundling its Media Player and the interoperability of its server protocols, said Dolmans.

Nonetheless, antitrust attorneys say the decision will be closely watched by a number of parties, from high tech companies to the legal community to other antitrust agencies around the world.

"As a practical matter, I think a lot of the smaller competition jurisdictions will put a lot of weight behind what the Court of First Instance does," said Chris Compton, an antitrust attorney with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. "Korea and Japan may either feel embolden to take action against companies like Microsoft or Intel, or it will constrain them."

As a result, Compton noted, the decision by the Court of First Instance is expected to the most closely watched antitrust decision on a global scale.

"This is a decision," said Compton, "that will have hundreds, if not thousands, of lawyers who'll want to take it apart."

Abe, 52, a nationalist who entered office as Japan's youngest postwar premier, did not announce a date for his departure from office.

Word of Abe's resignation comes after his scandal-scarred government lost control of the upper house of parliament to the resurgent opposition. The LDP still controls the more powerful lower house, which chooses the prime minister.

Abe's resignation marks a rapid fall from power for a prime minister who came into office a year ago with ambitious plans to repair frayed relations with Asian neighbors, revise the 1947 pacifist constitution, and bolster Japan's role in international diplomatic and military affairs.

The prime minister, whose grandfather was premier and whose father was a foreign minister, initially met with success in fence-mending trips last autumn to China and South Korea.

But a string of scandals starting late last year quickly eroded support for Abe. Four Cabinet minister were forced to resign over the past nine months, and one — his first agriculture minister — committed suicide over a money scandal.

Abe also was facing a battle in parliament over extension of the country's refueling mission in support of the U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan.

Abe had said he would quit if he failed to win parliamentary passage of legislation extending the Afghan mission, in which Japanese ships refuel coalition vessels in the Indian Ocean.

"I have pondered how Japan should continue its fight against terrorism," Abe said Wednesday. "I now believe we need change. So Japan must continue its fight against terrorism under a new prime minister."

The plenary session of the lower house was to be delayed, media reports said, but an official of the lower house said she could not confirm that.

Opposition lawmakers said it was about time Abe resigned.

"It is irresponsible for him (to quit) after he gave a policy speech and was to face parliament questioning. He should have quit right after the upper house elections," Mizuho Fukushima, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party, told NHK.

Authorities have rounded up hundreds of supporters of two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his politician brother, Shahbaz, apparently in the hope of thwarting big welcome rallies if and when the two end seven years of exile on Monday.

The return of the prime minister he ousted in 1999 is a serious challenge for Musharraf, whose popularity has been sliding as he prepares to try to get re-elected by the national and provincial assemblies between September 15 and October 15.

He aims to hold a general election around the year-end.

"There's complete panic in government ranks," said a spokesman for Sharif, Ahsan Iqbal.

With political tension rising, a senior U.S. official arrived to prepare for a scheduled "strategic dialogue" session next week. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher is likely to meet Musharraf for talks.

The United States is keen to ensure nuclear-armed Pakistan sustain efforts in the global war on terrorism and has been encouraging army chief Musharraf to work with liberal-minded former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf has been negotiating with Bhutto on a package of proposals that would likely see Musharraf quitting his post as army chief to become a civilian president, and Bhutto being cleared of corruption charges and coming back for elections.

But the ruling could also revive a long-held debate on South Korea's powerful and controversial "chaebol" -- the family-run conglomerates which opponents say have been given special treatment owing to their importance to Asia's fourth-largest economy.

"Hyundai Motor is the top enterprise because of its ripple effect on the whole economy. The accused, Chung Mong-koo, is a symbol of Hyundai Motor and our country's automobile industry," Lee Jae-hong, the presiding judge at the Seoul High Court, said while handing down the sentence.

"I did ask many people, including restaurant waiters, taxi drivers and reporters. The ordinary people leaned toward a suspended sentence," he said. "That means the accused should work hard."

Hyundai Motor shares rose as much as 2.2 percent on the ruling and closed 0.6 percent higher. The broader KOSPI (.KS11: Quote, Profile, Research) ended up 1.2 percent.

Instead of a jail term, Chung was asked to pay an 840 billion won ($894.9 million) donation, previously pledged by the family, to deliver speeches about transparent management and to write essays about governance to be published in domestic media.