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Greece's Democratic Left, the smallest party in the ruling coalition, will decide on Friday whether to continue in the government after a row over the closure of state broadcaster ERT, two party officials said on Friday. _0"> The party's lawmakers will meet at 0730 GMT on Friday to discuss their position, the officials told Reuters. "The Democratic Left will decide whether it will continue to back the government or not," one official said.   Another party official, Dimitris Hatzisokratis, said it was not the party's intention to push the country to early elections.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has agreed to pay New York state $250 million for deleting information from $100 billion in wire transfers that authorities could have used to police transactions with sanctioned countries like Iran . The settlement, announced on Thursday, is the latest example of New York state's chief financial regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, flexing the agency's muscle. Lawsky extracted a much bigger sum than the U.S. Treasury Department, which settled with the bank over sanctions violations in December 2012 for $8.57 million.   Lawsky has gone his own way before, drawing criticism from other regulators. Last year, when a group of government authorities were investigating Standard Chartered Plc, the New York regulator threatened to revoke the bank's state license, and stopped working with other agencies. In August, Standard Chartered agreed to pay the state $340 million over transactions linked to Iran and other countries. Four months later, the bank set

The European Union will seek on Friday to forge rules to force losses on large savers when banks fail, a sensitive reform that could shape how the euro zone deals with its sickly banks. Finance ministers in Luxembourg will try to resolve one of the most difficult questions posed by Europe's banking crisis - how to shut failed banks without sowing panic or burdening taxpayers.   "The costs of future restructurings can't be wished away," said a senior EU official involved in the talks. "We need a mechanism to shift the burden away from taxpayers." The European Union spent the equivalent of a third of its economic output on saving its banks between 2008 and 2011, plundering taxpayer cash but struggling to contain the crisis and in the case of Ireland , almost bankrupting the country. But France and Germany are divided over how strict the new rules should be, with Paris worried that imposing losses on depositors could prompt a bank run. A draft EU law th

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." There is an ongoing review of the Greek bailout program, the IMF said on Thursday. "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 brief 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. Greece's creditors - euro zone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - agreed last Decembe

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