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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Corinthian Colleges Inc. and the U.S. Department of Education have reached an agreement that will allow the for-profit education company to receive an immediate $16 million in federal student aid funds and keep operating.

The announcement comes just days after Corinthian cautioned that it may have to shut down because of its clash with U.S. regulators over student data and at a time when Corinthian is looking to sell off some of its schools.

Corinthian — which owns the Everest College, Heald College and WyoTech schools — said last week that the Education Department had limited its access to federal funds after it failed to provide documents and other information. The Education Department said it heightened its oversight of the Santa Ana, California-based company after requesting data "multiple times" over the past five months.

The Department of Education said Monday that Corinthian must provide enrollment documentation to back up the funding request. An independent monitor approved by the agency will review matters related to ongoing operations at Corinthian and will have full access to the company's financial and operating records.

Corinthian said that the memorandum of understanding reached with the Education Department will allow its schools to maintain daily operations without interruption. It currently serves about 72,000 students.

Corinthian said an operating agreement with the Education Department will allow it to continue to pursue strategic options for its operations, including the sale and "teach-out" of schools. In a "teach-out," no new students are enrolled but current students are able to complete their programs or transfer to another school.

Corinthian said it will look for new owners for most of its campuses and hopes to have sales agreements in place within about six months.

The company plans to continue with the "teach-out" of schools that are underperforming or whose participation in Title IV student aid programs was ended by the Education Department.

U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell said in a statement that the agency will continue to monitor the sale or "teach-out" of the schools to make sure students can finish their education without interruption and that employees have minimal disruptions.

Corinthian said the memorandum of understanding with the Education Department is a "positive step," but it still needs additional liquidity to fund its operations. The company also disclosed that the Education Department is considering denying recertification or removing certification of institutional Title IV eligibility for certain Corinthian schools. Corinthian said many of its schools have provisional Title IV program participation agreements with the government, while other schools' agreements have expired or are about to expire.

Corinthian said the Education Department could decline to renew expiring participation agreements or end existing agreements if it identifies "significant institutional failures." Corinthian said depending on the school, that could have a material adverse effect on the company.

Details of the memorandum of understanding are expected to be finalized in an operating agreement by July 1.

Corinthian's stock rose 8 cents to 41 cents in afternoon trading. Its shares have fallen 76 percent in the last three months.

BAGHDAD (AP) — America's top diplomat said Monday that leaders of Iraq's factions must keep their commitments to seat a new government next week, before a Sunni insurgency sweeps away hopes for a lasting peace.

Meeting with all factions, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had a dire message to leaders of Iraq's bitterly divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political coalitions who have lived through more than three decades of dictatorship, sanctions and wars.

"This is a critical moment for Iraq's future," Kerry said at a press conference in Baghdad. "It is a moment of decision for Iraq's leaders and it's a moment of great urgency."

Sunnis frustrated with being cut out of power are increasingly joining the ISIL, a bloody insurgency that has been emboldened by battlefield successes in neighboring Syria's civil war and has made rapid and record gains in Iraq over the past two weeks.

Kerry is seeking to hold the officials to a government transition that the U.S. believes will stave off the threat of a new civil war by giving more power to Iraq's minorities.

Kerry offered few details of his closed-door meetings in Baghdad. But he said each of the officials he met with — including Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — committed to seat a new parliament by July 1 as the constitution requires.

"The very future of Iraq depends on choices that will be made in the next days and weeks, and the future of Iraq depends primarily on the ability of Iraq's leaders to come together and take a stand united against ISIL," Kerry said, referring to the insurgency known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. "Not next week, not next month, but now."

He also said no country — including the U.S. — should try to pick new leadership for Iraq. "That is up to the people of Iraq," Kerry said.

Al-Maliki is facing growing calls for his resignation as disgruntled Sunnis say they do not believe he will give them a greater voice in the government.

After suffering together through more than eight years of war — which killed nearly 4,500 American troops and more than 100,000 Iraqis — Washington and Baghdad are trying to shelve mutual wariness to curb the very real prospect of the Mideast nation falling into a fresh bout of sectarian strife.

Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, one of Iraq's top-ranking Sunnis, told Kerry that the insurgents pose "a threat to the entire world." Al-Nujaifi, is from Mosul, Iraq's second largest city which was overrun earlier this month by militants.

Of the insurgents, al-Nujaifi said "we have to confront it through direct military operations, political reforms so that we can inject a new hope into our own people so that they can support the political process and the unity of Iraq."

Iraqi officials briefed on Kerry's talks with the Iraqi prime minister said al-Maliki urged the United States to target the militants' positions in Iraq and neighboring Syria, citing training camps and convoys with airstrikes. The officials said Kerry responded by saying a great deal of care and caution must be taken before attacks are launched to avoid civilian casualties that could create the impression that Americans are attacking Sunnis.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record.

President Barack Obama, in a round of television interviews that aired in the U.S., said al-Maliki and the Iraqi leadership face a test as to whether "they are able to set aside their suspicions, their sectarian preferences for the good of the whole."

"And we don't know," Obama said. "The one thing I do know is that if they fail to do that then no amount of military action by the United States can hold that country together."

Kerry arrived in Baghdad just a day after the Sunni militants captured two key border posts, one along the frontier with Jordan and the other with Syria, deepening al-Maliki's predicament. Their latest victories considerably expanded territory under the militants' control just two weeks after the al-Qaida breakaway group started swallowing up chunks of northern Iraq, heightening pressure on al-Maliki to step aside.

The offensive by ISIL takes the group closer to its dream of carving out an Islamic state straddling both Syria and Iraq. Controlling the borders with Syria will help it supply fellow fighters there with weaponry looted from Iraqi warehouses, boosting its ability to battle beleaguered Syrian government forces.

On Monday, gunmen ambushed a police convoy transferring prisoners about 85 miles (140 kilometers) south of Baghdad, killing nine policemen and 13 prisoners, according to police officials. The officials said some of the prisoners, some of whom were convicted of terrorism-related charges, were being taken to a high-security prison in the southern city of Nasiriyah 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Baghdad. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The militants' stunning battlefield successes in the north and the west of Iraq have laid bare the inadequacies of the country's U.S.-trained forces. In the north, troops fled in the face of advancing militants, abandoning their weapons, vehicles and other equipment. In some cases in the west, they pulled out either when the militants approached or when they heard of other towns falling.

Sunday's capture by the militants of crossings bordering Jordan and Syria followed the fall on Friday and Saturday of the towns of Qaim, Rawah, Anah and Rutba, all of which are in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where the militants have since January controlled the city of Fallujah and parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi.

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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

MILAN (AP) — Giorgio Armani's fashion must-have for men next summer: A white bag.

"You cannot NOT have a white bag," the designer told journalists backstage after his Emporio Armani menswear preview on Monday, the third day of Milan Fashion Week.

Emporio's white bags for next summer include backpacks and hand luggage, and they are counterpointed with versions in black and black-and-white geometric patterns.

Armani seems to be onto something.

Gucci also featured a large white leather duffel bag — among an array of other colors. And U.S. department store menswear buyer, Kevin Harter of Bloomingdales, says another leather manufacturer this season was pushing white bags, saying "It will sell."

PRESIDENTIAL FASHION ADVICE

Armani says he thinks Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is doing a good job so far, but he has a piece of fashion advice: wear a tie. The designer said Renzi's frequent appearances in a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up project an image that doesn't quite match his office.

When someone pointed out that Barack Obama sometimes appears without a jacket, Armani countered that Obama wears a tie. "A shirt with a tie has a slightly sexy touch."

ROCK 'N' ROLL FASHION

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry took in the Emporio Armani show from the front row. Asked on his way in if he wears Armani, Perry responded, "since I could afford to." Aerosmith plays in Milan Wednesday night, its only Italy date.

EMPORIO ARMANI GETS BACK IN LINE

Armani says he has done a whole sale clean-up of looks for his Emporio Armani collection for next spring and summer.

The black-and-white collection has a strong graphic component, with lines radiating, transmitting energy from the garment, as steady pulses, webs and waves into full black and white bold stripes. Color makes cameos in contrasting stripes of turquoise and aqua-green.

"After years of doing a little bit of everything, a melange, florals and ethnicity, finally a little cleaning," Armani said.

The silhouette is loose and easy, with pleated trousers or drawstring athletic pants. Silk and cotton shirts loosely cling the frame, and T-shirts, worn under coats, are soft.

There are fewer sports jackets than usual and despite Armani's advice to Renzi to wear a tie, the Emporio line, for men with a younger mindset, included no ties, but a few foulards tied snugly around the neck — a trend this season in Milan.

White shoes have graphic lines that distinguish them from traditional shoes and make them more "refined," the designer said.