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Senator Bill Nelson said contractor Booz Allen Hamilton had hired an employee convicted of lying to the U.S. government for a position in which he would handle classified documents. Nelson, a Florida Democrat, called on the Senate Intelligence Committee to conduct an investigation broadly into how contractors are handling employees with top secret clearance. He said he is alarmed by the combination of this incident and the more recent revelation that a National Security Agency contractor who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton leaked sensitive government documents.   Nelson, in a letter to Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein, said these incidents merit a probe "to determine more broadly how private contractors are managing the hiring and monitoring of employees who have top secret clearance from the government." A spokesman for Booz Allen Hamilton declined to comment. Nelson said he was reminded earlier this week of a situation in which Booz Allen Hamilton hired a man

The bulk shipper STX Pan Ocean Co Ltd filed for protection under U.S. bankruptcy law on Thursday to shield its assets from creditors in the United States, less than two weeks after filing for court receivership in South Korea . _0"> STX sought protection under Chapter 15 under the U.S. bankruptcy code with the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan. The company had previously said it needed protection because it faced "a liquidity crunch" that left it unable to obtain sufficient funds to repay its debt, which recently totaled about 5.51 trillion won (now US$4.81 billion).   In Thursday's filing, two court-appointed administrators for STX said the company has struggled with a shrinking profit margin amid a decline in the value of dry bulk shipping contracts. They said STX has several long-term contracts that will prove profitable and around which it intends to reorganize. The filing seeks recognition of the Korean proceeding as a "foreign main proceeding

Greece's small Democratic Left party could pull out of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's ruling coalition after talks to resume state television broadcasts collapsed, party officials said on Thursday, plunging the nation into fresh turmoil.   Lawmakers from the leftist party - which was angered by the abrupt shutdown of broadcaster ERT last week - will meet at 0730 GMT on Friday to decide whether to continue backing Samaras, who in turn warned he was ready to press ahead without them. "I want us to continue together as we started but I will move on either way," Samaras said in a televised statement, vowing to implement public sector reforms demanded by lenders. "Our aim is to conclude our effort to save the country, always with a four-year term in our sights. We hope for the Democratic Left's support." Samaras's New Democracy party and its Socialist PASOK ally jointly have 153 deputies, a majority of three in the country's 300-member parliam

The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. _0"> * The possibility of a bankruptcy filing by the city of Detroit has raised concerns about the fate of 62 classic cars managed by the city's historical society. () * The U.S. Federal Reserve, increasingly confident in the durability of economic growth, expects to start pulling back later this year from its efforts to stimulate the economy, the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, said on Wednesday. ()   * Europe's top antitrust enforcer continued a crackdown on drug company efforts to keep low-cost generic versions of their medicines off the market, a campaign that is taking place on both sides of the Atlantic. () * George Zimmer, the founder of Men's Wearhouse Inc and a frequent presence in its commercials, was fired on the day of its shareholders' meeting. A disagreement between Mr. Zimmer and the board ap

The German unit of FCC's Alpine Bau has filed for insolvency, following a similar move by its Austrian parent construction company on Wednesday. _0"> Alpine Bau Deutschland has operations in the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and the United Arab Emirates as well as Germany , and employs 1,500 people. It had sales of around 600 million euros ($804 million) in 2012. "We have a clear goal of cleaning up Alpine. The insolvency proceedings... are an appropriate way to create the necessary basis for a future of the company," Alpine Bau Deutschland Chief Executive Frank Jainz said in a statement late on Wednesday.   The company said it was looking for a new investor. ($1 = 0.7461 euros) (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Patrick Graham)

More than 1,000 creditors of the European operations of failed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers will share a 3.5 billion pound ($5.5 billion) payout next week, its administrators said on Thursday. _0"> The payout means the recovery so far for creditors from one of the banking collapses at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis is 68.5 cents in the dollar.   PricewaterhouseCoopers, joint administrators for Lehman Brothers International (Europe), said a dividend of 43.3 percent of what creditors were owed - the second so far - would be paid on June 28. The administrators for what is the biggest bankruptcy in history said in their last progress report in April that unsecured creditors could be paid in full and there could be surplus funds. Tony Lomas, lead administrator of LBIE and partner at PwC, said the latest payout followed resolution of a number of multi-billion pound disputes with affiliates and a reduction in creditor claims reserves through settlements with majo

Eastman Kodak Co said on Thursday that it had reached a $895 million financing deal with three Wall Street banks that will help fund its rebirth as commercial imaging business after the former film pioneer emerges from bankruptcy. _0"> Affiliates of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and Barclays Plc will be joint lead arrangers for a senior secured term loan package of $695 million. The three banks will also arrange an asset-based revolving credit facility of $200 million.   Kodak will use the money to pay off loans that funded its bankruptcy as well as for working capital once it exits bankruptcy, which is expected later this year. The loan agreement is contingent on approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, which is overseeing the Chapter 11 reorganization of Rochester, New York-based Kodak. On Wednesday Kodak said it would seek court approval for a $406 million rights offering, selling 34 million shares, or 85 percent of the equity in the reorga

Austrian construction group Porr has abandoned for now a 150 million euro ($201 million) bond issue planned for the start of July after peer Alpine filed for insolvency, Chief Executive Karl-Heinz Strauss said on Thursday. The move by Alpine Bau, the Austrian construction unit of Spanish group FCC, meant Porr would not now be able to sell the bond at the interest rate it wanted, he told Reuters in an interview.   "We have postponed our bond plan indefinitely," he said. "Alpine's insolvency offers both risks and opportunities," Strauss said, reiterating his company could buy parts of its ailing rival and take on 3,000 to 4,000 workers in Austria. He said he had no interest in Alpine's foreign business, saying it had too many "legacy burdens". Alpine Bau GmbH, Austria's second-biggest construction firm, filed for insolvency on Wednesday with liabilities of up to 2.6 billion euros in what could become the country's biggest corporate col

Dutch sports car maker Spyker NV said on Thursday it will appeal a U.S. judge's decision to dismiss its $3 billion lawsuit accusing General Motors Co of trying to bankrupt Swedish automaker Saab. _0"> Spyker, which now owns Saab, said in a statement posted on the company's website that it would appeal the decision following a "careful review" of the court's opinion. No further details were disclosed and Spyker Chief Executive Victor Muller was not immediately available to comment.   U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin Drain said on June 10, in tossing the lawsuit, that GM had a contractual right to approve or disapprove the proposed sale of Saab to China's Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. Saab, one of Sweden's best-known brands, stopped production in May 2011 when it could no longer pay suppliers and employees. It went bust in December 2011, less than two years after GM sold it to Spyker. Spyker sued GM in August 2012, seeking damages an

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is ordering a joint investigation into the city's two pension funds, in search of evidence of suspected fraud, corruption, waste and other possible malfeasance. Orr, a restructuring attorney appointed to reduce the city's runaway debt, signed an order on Thursday that calls for the city's auditor general and inspector general to investigate the funds, which handle pension benefits for more than 20,000 retirees.   "There have been many questionable investments that have been made by the fund boards, and some of those investments were made without the advice of their financial adviser," Orr's spokesman, Bill Nowling, said on Thursday. "We want to find out what happened." Orr called for a preliminary report to be issued within the next 60 days. "The EM believes that any such waste, fraud, abuse, or corruption in the administration operation or implementation of Benefit Programs harms the City and its reside

The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff's victims suffered a big defeat as a federal appeals court rejected his bid to recover nearly $30 billion from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other banks he accused of aiding in the swindler's fraud.   The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said on Thursday trustee Irving Picard lacked standing to pursue a variety of claims on behalf of former Madoff customers. It also said that because Picard "stands in the shoes" of the former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, he could not pursue other claims on behalf of the firm's bankruptcy estate over a fraud that the firm itself orchestrated. Thursday's 3-0 decision, written by Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, is a victory for JPMorgan, which had been Madoff's main bank, as well as Britain's HSBC Holdings Plc, Italy's UniCredit SpA and Switzerland's UBS AG . Unless Picard successfully appeals, it also limits how much he will have to distrib

Blackstone Group LP agreed to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit that had sought $8.4 billion for its role in the sale and subsequent bankruptcy of hotel chain Extended Stay Inc. _0"> Citigroup Inc, an adviser to the private equity firm that took control of Extended Stay in a 2007 leveraged buyout, agreed to pay $200,000, according to a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on Thursday. Bank of America Corp , which advised Blackstone, was also released from the lawsuits as part of the settlement.   The lawsuits stemmed from the 2009 bankruptcy of Extended Stay Inc, which creditors blamed on a leveraged buyout of the chain two years earlier. In 2007, Blackstone sold the chain of about 680 hotels for $8 billion to a little-known private equity investor, David Lichtenstein. The settlement excluded Lichtenstein. After Extended Stay filed for bankruptcy, a trustee acting for the benefit of its creditors filed five lawsuits in 2011. The lawsuits alleged that Black

Two British businessmen were released from custody in Cuba this week but a Canadian remained behind bars after courts delivered verdicts in two high-profile corruption trials, sources close to the cases said on Thursday. Amado Fakhre and Stephen Purvis, the top executives of British investment and trading firm Coral Capital Group Ltd, were found guilty of minor charges and released for time served, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. But Canadian businessman Sarkis Yacoubian, originally from Armenia and the owner of import firm Tri-Star Caribbean, and his cousin and associate, Lebanese citizen Krikor Bayassalian, were found guilty of bribery and other related charges. Yacoubian, who provided evidence to the government after he was arrested and his company closed two years ago, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Bayassalian received a four-year prison term. The four were tried in two separate cases last month. Yacoubian, who along with Bayassalian i

An economic take-off in Mozambique driven by bumper coal and gas discoveries two decades after the end of a civil war is facing disruption from disgruntled former guerrillas who feel they have not benefited from the post-conflict dividend. A public threat by the ex-rebel Renamo opposition party to paralyze central rail and road links has put the Frelimo government on alert and alarmed diplomats and investors.   A slide back into the kind of all-out war that crippled the former Portuguese southern African colony between 1975 and 1992 looks unlikely. Nevertheless, Mozambique's rebirth as an attractive tourism and investment destination could lose some of its momentum after armed attacks in the last two months blamed on Renamo. The raids in central Sofala province killed at least 11 soldiers and police and three civilians and came after Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama returned with his civil war comrades to the Gorongosa jungle base where they operated in the 1980s. "It does

Liberia sent about 50 troops to Mali on Thursday to join the U.N. peacekeeping mission, a first for the West African nation since its 14-year civil war ended a decade ago. _0"> The 12,000-strong U.N. force, known as MINUSMA, will take over peacekeeping duties next month from an African regional mission deployed after France launched an offensive in January to drive Islamist rebels from northern Mali.   Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, joint winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, urged the soldiers to be professional and disciplined during their mission. "You are the pride of Liberia," Sirleaf told the troops at a ceremony in the capital, Monrovia. The peacekeeping deployment is only the second in Liberia's history, after it sent peacekeepers to Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1960s. The Mali mission is the first since it rebuilt its army from scratch after the civil war, which was characterized by the use of child soldiers by rival warlords an

President Francois Hollande's plan for a cautious reform of the pension system is not extensive enough, the head of France's largest union said on Thursday. _0"> Laurent Berger, who heads the reformist CFDT union, criticized Hollande as unions, employers and officials launched three months of talks on how to fix a pension system seen running a 20-billion-euro ($26 billion) deficit by 2020.   The debate is aimed at yielding recommendations that are non-binding for the government, but will serve as the basis for a draft law to be put before parliament in September. On Sunday, the Socialist Hollande said he wanted adjustments to the system rather than an overhaul, as he tries to ease a strain on public finances without setting off street protests. "The principles laid out by the president... are principles that should lead us toward a systemic reform of the pension system," he told journalists. "He is loath to go there. That's a mistake." The

Iran has detained 12 United Arab Emirates nationals and one Indian who were aboard two boats which crossed into what Iran claims as its territorial waters in the Gulf, the English-language Press TV reported on Thursday. _0"> "The (Iranian) forces at Abu Musa Marine Patrol Base detected two intruding UAE vessels while fishing in the Persian Gulf waters and issued the order for capturing them," Press TV quoted base commander Colonel Ali Vesali as saying.   Vesali said those arrested were transferred to a military dock, without giving further details. Political relations are strained between the two oil-rich countries which face each other across the Gulf. The three islands of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb are claimed by both countries but have been held by Iran since 1971, shortly before the seven Gulf emirates gained full independence from Britain and formed the UAE, now allied with Washington. In May, the United Arab Emirates criticized a visit by Irani

Islamist supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi will rally in Cairo on Friday in a show of approval for him to upstage opposition protests planned to mark his first year in office at the end of the month. Preparations for renewed street action after some months of calm have raised fears of violence of the kind that has punctuated the two-and-a-half years since Hosni Mubarak fell.   Mursi's opponents, who say at least 13 million people have signed a petition calling on him to step down, hope protests on June 30 will force him out. Their demand has angered Islamists who see it as an undemocratic bid to remove an elected leader. His allies will rally after Friday prayers in Cairo. A year after Mursi won election - with 13.2 million votes - the split between his supporters and a diverse opposition that accuses his Muslim Brotherhood of trying to Islamise the state is deeper than ever. It has fuelled political instability that is hampering Egypt's recovery from a deep

Police questioned one of Israel's top religious officials, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, on Thursday on suspicion of bribery, fraud and money laundering, a police spokesman said. _0"> Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld gave no details about the allegations against Metzger and three other suspects but said the questioning had followed an undercover investigation. A spokesman for Metzger had no comment on the matter. Metzger is one of two state-appointed chief rabbis who oversee official religious policy and conduct state ceremonies. He has also been one of the Jewish state's main interlocutors with the pope.   Metzger represents Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestry originates in eastern Europe but he and Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who represents Jews of Middle Eastern origin, hold relatively little sway over ultra-Orthodox Jews who answer to their own rabbis. The 10-year term of both chief rabbis is set to end next month when elections for successors are due to be held. Metzger is the

Turkey warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday not to play politics with its European Union ambitions as Berlin blocked moves to open a new chapter in Ankara's EU membership talks next week. Turkey said failure to open the chapter would be a major setback in Ankara's relations with the bloc and one senior Turkish official said it would "draw a strong reaction".   Many EU capitals want to take the long-awaited step on Turkey's path towards the EU next Wednesday, arguing Europe should capitalize on Ankara's rising influence in the Middle East. But Germany has criticized Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's heavy-handed response to weeks of anti-government protests and refuses to agree to open a new negotiation area, potentially the first such step in three years. Germany blocked the opening of the new chapter, dealing with regional funding issues, at a meeting of EU ambassadors on Thursday, EU diplomats said. The EU has so far not cancelled ne

Guinea's opposition parties on Thursday pulled out of U.N.-mediated election talks with the government, accusing police and youths of attacking one of their leaders and his supporters. The negotiations aim to secure opposition participation in long-delayed parliamentary polls, which are meant to seal the mineral-rich nation's transition to civilian rule following a coup in 2008. Cellou Dalein Diallo, who heads the UFDG party, announced earlier on Thursday that he was pulling out of the process after the attack by stone-throwing youths and police near his home in the capital Conakry on Wednesday.   The opposition said 17 people were injured in the clashes. Other opposition parties decided to withdraw from the talks after a meeting on Thursday. "We decided to suspend our participation in the dialogue to protest against the aggression suffered yesterday by former Prime Minister Diallo," said opposition spokesman Aboubacar Sylla. He said the opposition would not r

Two people were killed on Thursday in a massive explosion and fire at a fireworks plant near Montreal, provincial police in Quebec said. _0"> The early-morning blast at the B.E.M. Fireworks factory rocked the suburb of Coteau-du-Lac about 37 miles southwest of the city. Police evacuated the surrounding area and temporarily closed a nearby highway. Residents were returning to their homes by midafternoon and roads had reopened, they said. The cause of the blast and subsequent blaze is not known. The company was not immediately available for comment. B.E.M. on its website says it has more than 25 years of experience "in the conception, production and performance of fireworks displays."   An amateur video of the explosion posted online showed a plume of smoke and debris billowing into the sky and a building in flames. The Montreal Gazette newspaper quoted eyewitnesses as saying there had been two explosions about one hour apart and that they felt the ground shake.

An Ethiopian opposition party called on Thursday for the government to scrap an anti-terrorism law it says is used to stifle dissent, threatening a repeat of protests that brought thousands onto the streets of Addis Ababa early this month. The rally on June 2, organized by another opposition group, was the first large-scale protest in the Ethiopian capital since a disputed 2005 election ended in street violence that killed 200 people.   Opposition groups in the Horn of Africa country were vibrant until that vote but have since largely retreated from public view, the result, analysts say, of harassment by the authorities and divisions within their ranks. They routinely accuse the government of intimidating and imprisoning their members and rigging elections against them. Ethiopia's 547-seat legislature has only one opposition member. The anti-terrorism law ratified in 2009 makes anyone caught publishing information that could induce readers into acts of terrorism liable to jai

Neighboring Iraq warned that Syria's civil war is tearing the Middle East apart and Lebanon's president urged his country's Hezbollah movement on Thursday to pull its fighters out of the conflict. After two years of fighting that has killed more than 93,000 people, Syria's turmoil is dragging its neighbors into a deadly confrontation between Shi'ite Iran supporting President Bashar al-Assad and Sunni Arab Gulf nations backing the Syrian rebels. The insurgents have suffered a series of setbacks on the battlefield and are besieged in the outskirts of Damascus facing a slow but steady advance by Assad's forces, which have begun to regain the upper hand.   In a sign of the devastation being wrought by the war, the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO put the six World Heritage Sites in Syria on its danger list of imperiled monuments on Thursday, urging international efforts to protect them. Both Iraq and Lebanon have suffered growing violence at home as the

Afghanistan and Pakistan traded accusations in the U.N. Security Council on Thursday over the whereabouts of Islamist extremists on their porous border as the United Nations described increased tensions between the neighbors as "unfortunate and dangerous." Afghanistan's U.N. envoy, Zahir Tanin, told a council debate on the situation in Afghanistan that "terrorist sanctuaries continue to exist on Pakistan's soil and some elements continue to use terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy."   Pakistan's U.N. ambassador, Masood Khan, said "terrorists operate on both sides of the porous border" and many attacks against Pakistan were planned on Afghan soil. He said aggressive policing and border surveillance were needed. "I reject most emphatically Ambassador Tanin's argument - root, trunk and branch - that terrorist sanctuaries exist in Pakistan and some elements continue to use terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy,"

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday urged Greece to speedily deliver on its bailout program, adding that doing so would ensure the country encounters "no financing problems." _0"> "If the review is concluded by the end of July, as expected, no financing problems will arise because the program is financed till end-July 2014," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement. The Financial Times reported on Thursday the IMF might suspend aid to Greece next month unless euro zone leaders plugged a funding gap in the Greek rescue program.   Reuters reported on Wednesday that European foot-dragging could leave Greece some 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) short this year as some euro zone creditors were reluctant to roll over their Greek debt holdings. (Reporting by Alister Bull and Timothy Ahmann)

A suicide bomber killed seven people at an Iraqi vote counting center on Thursday evening, police said, hours after polls closed in two Sunni Muslim-dominated provinces. _0"> Most Iraqis voted for provincial councils in April but the Shi'ite-led government postponed elections in Anbar and Nineveh, citing security concerns after months of protests by the country's Sunni minority. The decision to delay voting in those governorates was criticized by the United States, which said it would compound a sense of Sunni marginalization that has fuelled a wave of violent unrest.   More than 1,000 people were killed in militant attacks in Iraq in May, making it the deadliest month since the height of sectarian bloodletting in 2006-07. The suicide bomber blew himself up at a vote-counting center in the city of Ramadi in Anbar province, killing seven people, four of whom were members of Iraq's electoral commission. Earlier on Thursday, a roadside bomb hit a bus carrying fi