The World Bank said Monday it is prepared to offer $3 billion in aid to Ukraine this year to support economic reforms and development by its beleaguered new interim government The Bank received a request from the Kiev authorities, which took power last month after Ukraine's former Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted. "We are committed to supporting the people of Ukraine in these difficult times and very much hope that the situation in the country stabilizes soon," Bank president Jim Yong Kim said. The bank said the Ukraine economy faces some serious challenges that will require "urgent action in the short term", as well as sustained reform over the longer term.

Mt. Gox, once the world's largest bitcoin exchange, received U.S. bankruptcy protection on Monday to temporarily halt U.S. legal action against the Japanese company by traders who allege the operation was a fraud. Judge Harlin Hale in Dallas granted temporary bankruptcy protection to Mt. Gox, which had filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan in February. Attorneys for Mt. Gox said without bankruptcy protection the company would be irreparably harmed by a proposed class action in Chicago federal court and a breach of contract case in Seattle federal court.