Dura Automotive Systems Inc. has received U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval for the $160.2 million sale of its Atwood Mobile Products unit and an equity plan with Pacificor LLC to support its reorganization.

Dura, which filed for bankruptcy in October 2006 in Delaware, announced the approvals late on Wednesday. It expects to emerge from court protection in the fourth quarter.

The agreement with Pacificor provides a $140 million to $160 million commitment and would make Dura a privately held company upon its emergence from Chapter 11, with protections for minority shareholders, Dura said.

Several parties objected to an earlier equity plan led by Pacificor, but Dura filed an amended agreement earlier this week to address the objections.

Private equity firm Insight Equity is acquiring the Atwood unit from Rochester Hills, Michigan-based Dura. Atwood is based in Elkhart, Indiana.

Total losses from the subprime mortgage meltdown may be in the order of $50bn to $100bn, according to estimates cited by Ben Bernanke in testimony to Congress on Thursday.

The Fed chairman said:"There clearly will be some significant financial losses associated with defaults and delinquencies on these mortgages."

Mr Bernanke also cautioned Congress against legislating narrowly on China's exchange rate, rather than addressing this in combination with the need for structural reform.

He said the exchange rate was "not a subsidy in the legal sense" but rather the cause of distortions in the Chinese economy that channel resources towards exports rather than production for domestic demand.

Under the terms of the settlement, Sony will pay $8.5 million in overtime wages to current and former employees, and will also "reclassify class members with a job title of Associate Artist and Artist 1 as nonexempt employees under the wage and hour laws of California and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act."

In spite of the settlement, Sony has denied the allegations in the suit and has admitted no liability or wrongdoing. According to a statement from the law firm, the settlement is conditional, "contingent upon court approval, and the settlement may be rescinded if a sufficient number of class members opt out of the settlement."

The Colgate-Palmolive announcement comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers to avoid any toothpaste made in China after inspectors found DEG in tubes sold at two stores.

Colgate-Palmolive said the counterfeit toothpaste was found in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It can be recognized because it is labeled as being manufactured in South Africa, and the company does not import toothpaste to the United States from South Africa.

The packaging also contains several misspellings, Colgate said. It said it is working with the FDA to help to identify those responsible for the counterfeit product.

DEG-contaminated toothpaste has also been seized in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Nicaragua. It was also found in cough syrup in Panama that led to the deaths of at least 100 people last year.

The FDA issued its alert about Chinese toothpaste after seizing a batch of Cooldent found to contain 3% DEG. Inspectors found the toothpaste at a Dollar Plus store in Miami and at a store called Todo a Peso in Puerto Rico.

Brands seized earlier included Cooldent, Clean Rite and Oralmax that are usually found at discount retailers, the agency said.

The FDA identified products by Goldcredit International Enterprises, Goldcredit International Trading Co. and Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Co as containing DEG.

Goldcredit International Enterprises is a unit of JiangsuXingda Stationery Group, a manufacturer of glue and office supplies. Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals also makes soap and pet products.

Wild Oats Markets Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc. will go to court late next month in an attempt to keep the planned merger between the two companies alive.

The Federal Trade Commission has raised concerns about whether the two natural foods grocers should be allowed to merge. The two have agreed to a temporary restraining order, pending the July 31 hearing. The hearing is expected to conclude the next day.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will rule on whether to approve the FTC's request for an injunction to block the merger.

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) and Boulder, Colo.'s Wild Oats (NASDAQ: OATS) agreed in February to merge. Whole Foods offered $18.50 a share, plus taking over all of Wild Oats' debt.

Whole Foods has 195 stores, including two in New Mexico, and annual sales last year of $5.6 billion, while Wild Oats has 109 stores, including four in New Mexico, and $1.2 billion in sales.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, a former state attorney general who prosecuted some of the biggest firms in the United States, said on Tuesday that recent options trading ahead of takeovers was "deeply problematic."

In past months, announcements of proposed buyouts such as a $32 billion takeover of utility TXU Corp. (TXU.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research purchase of aQuantive Inc. (AQNT.O: Quote, Profile, Research and Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion offer for Dow Jones & Co. Inc. (DJ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, have been preceded by unusual spikes in options trading, raising questions about whether the news was leaked.

"Some smart prosecutor somewhere is going to be dropping a lot of subpoenas wanting to know who placed all these options purchased in the 48 to 72 hours before the deals were announced," Spitzer predicted in an interview on CNBC.

"There are a lot of people who should be very nervous about that," he said.

Authorities are already looking into some of these deals. Earlier in May, federal prosecutors in New York brought charges against a junior-level investment banker at Credit Suisse Group (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, charging he divulged inside information on TXU and other yet-to-be-announced merger deals to a banker in Pakistan.

Also in May, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit against a husband and wife in Hong Kong over trading in Dow Jones shares.

Options contracts give investors the ability to bet on a steep rise or decline in a stock price without having to put up the money to buy the actual shares.

As attorney general of New York, Spitzer made a name for himself by filing charges against famous individuals such as former American International Group Inc. (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research Chief Executive Maurice Greenberg.

He won a $10 billion settlement from the largest U.S. investment banks for biased research.