SETTLEMENT

Swiss bank Credit Suisse said it was likely to pay a hefty $536 million to settle a U.S. probe into payments made between 2002 and 2007 involving parties that are subject to U.S. economic sanctions.

Thousands of Jewish West Bank settlers and their supporters demonstrated near the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest his 10-month building freeze.

Israel reduced spending on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank during 2009, according to official figures which show just four building starts funded in the third quarter.

Israeli inspectors armed with aerial maps and empowered to confiscate construction equipment have begun enforcing a limited government moratorium on new building in West Bank settlements, officials said on Monday.

Israel announced on Wednesday it was limiting settlement construction for 10 months to try to revive peace negotiations with the Palestinians, but they said the step fell short of their terms for talks.

Israel's president said Sunday expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank was a marginal issue blocking resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Wells Fargo Investments LLC has agreed to repay about $1.3 billion to clients whose funds were frozen in the auction-rate securities market in a settlement with state securities regulators, an industry association said on Wednesday.

Israel declined comment on Tuesday on a report of new U.S. demands it curb settlement round Jerusalem, but it reaffirmed its determination to go on building on occupied West Bank land that it has annexed to the city.

Vonage Holdings Corp said on Monday that it would pay $3 million to settle a previously disclosed investigation of its business practices in 32 states by state attorneys general.

The settlement agreement between Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc does not change a lawsuit filed against Intel last week by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a source familiar with the matter said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington does not accept Israeli settlement activity as legitimate but believes that resuming peace talks is the quickest way to achieve a freeze.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is in settlement talks with several large financial institutions to resolve investigations into the awarding of municipal investment contracts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

A federal judge ordered State Street Corp (STT.N) to pay $89.75 million to settle a lawsuit over mortgage losses, rejecting the bank's argument that the accord may prove unfair depending on how a related regulatory probe is resolved.

American International Group Inc and its former Chief Executive Maurice Hank Greenberg are in advanced talks to settle their legal disputes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Authors and publishers asked a U.S. judge on Tuesday to delay a hearing on whether to approve a controversial settlement that would allow Google Inc to create a massive online digital library.

Google Inc and a group of authors and publishers are in talks with the U.S. Justice Department about possibly modifying an agreement struck last October to publish millions of books online, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Google Inc and a group of authors and publishers are in talks with the U.S. Justice Department about possibly modifying an agreement struck last October to publish millions of books online, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Lawyers for Bank of America Corp and former Merrill Lynch & Co brokerage chief Robert McCann were in talks Wednesday to resolve his lawsuit accusing the bank of blocking him from taking a job with a rival.

The United States and Israel ended another round of talks on Wednesday with no sign yet of a deal on a West Bank settlement freeze, but a U.S. envoy planned to meet again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.

A federal judge on Monday rejected Bank of America Corp's and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's $33 million settlement over Merrill Lynch & Co bonuses as a contrivance that deprives shareholders of the truth.

Google Inc's plan to digitize millions of books as part of a class action settlement wrongly creates a virtually compulsory license for books, the U.S. register of copyrights said on Thursday.