Europe

A union representing flight attendants, ground workers and pilots staged the first strike against the new Alitalia on Monday, a week after the privatized airline took off, the Associated Press reported. The four-hour strike by the SDL union was called to protest hiring policies at the new Italian carrier and began at 10 a.m. Alitalia said the strike caused the cancellation of four flights. Wildcat protests at Rome and Milan airports marred the launch of the new Alitalia last Tuesday, causing some delays and cancellations, but Monday's was the first scheduled strike in the company's new life.

Lithuania's troubled FlyLAL airline said Saturday it has suspended its operations after a buyout deal by Swiss investment firm SCH Swiss Capital Holdings failed, the Associated Press reported. Airline officials said it terminated a preliminary agreement with the Swiss company after it failed to pay $1 million (€756,000) that would have cleared FlyLAL's debts and potentially saved it from bankruptcy. Company Chief Executive Vytautas Kaikaris said the suspension was one of the few options left to try to save his company.

Talks between stricken Hypo Real Estate and the German bank aid fund heated up on Friday with sources saying a rescue would inject more than €10 billion ($13.3 billion) of fresh capital. Earlier in the week, sources close to the talks told Reuters that the German government is set to take a stake in Hypo, a move that would mark the second part-nationalisation of a German bank this year.

With taxpayers tethered to its fate, Orchestra London moved a step closer yesterday to getting nearly a half-million dollars from city hall, The London Free Press reported. London's board of control unanimously recommended giving the operating grant to the symphony. Effectively, it had no choice: Without it, the orchestra would default on a $500,000 loan council guaranteed last month. The loan guarantee and grant make possible a turnaround by a symphony that had been on pace to run a fourth straight deficit topping $300,000.

Telecom operator TeliaSonera has given notice to 1,200 employees in Sweden as the recession continues to claim its victims, PC World reported. TeliaSonera is under pressure from trends including lower broadband tariffs and a move to mobile and IP (Internet Protocol) based services from fixed telephony, which is its main revenue source. The personnel cuts are part of a plan announced by TeliaSonera last February. The goal is to reduce its staff by 2,900 employees and save approximately 5 billion Swedish kronor (US$609 million).

British music and entertainment retailer Zavvi will close another 18 stores and cut 353 jobs, the collapsed company's administrators said Wednesday. Administrators at Ernst & Young, appointed to run the company after it filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 24, said they had received many expressions of interest in Zavvi's operations, but did not found a buyer for all the stores, the Associated Press reported. The administrators said they still hope to all or part of the remaining 74 stores. Zavvi's flagship store in central London is one of those earmarked for closure.

The German government has agreed to take stakes in any large industrial companies facing insolvency because of credit shortages, according to leaders of chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, the Financial Times reported. Ms Merkel, whose government will today adopt a two-year, €50 billion ($67 billion, £44 billion) fiscal package, the largest stimulus in Europe since the start of the financial crisis, said measures would also include a €100 billion "Germany fund" that would issue credit guarantees to help cash-starved businesses raise debt.

According to information from Creditinfo Iceland, 5,938 companies and 17,541 individuals were in default on January 1, Iceland Review reported. said. According to Rakel Sveinsdóttir, managing director of Creditinfo Iceland, default claims had increased slowly but surely for a year before the collapse of the Icelandic economy in October. After that the speed of new defaults being registered increased fivefold. The Central Bank of Iceland has requested data from the Icelandic banks on the debts of individuals and companies to examine the effect the crisis has on the real economy.

U.S. private-equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP has signed a letter of intent to acquire certain assets of Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the historic crystal and ceramic maker that filed for insolvency this week, the group's administrators, Deloitte LLP, said Thursday. Deloitte said it was continuing to talk to other potential buyers as well, The Wall Street Journal reported. Deloitte and KPS officials said they couldn't comment on the size of the potential deal.

Clifford Chance LLP has disclosed that the economic downturn may force it to lay off up to 8 percent of the lawyers currently at its London office, the third round of layoffs at the firm in the past year or so, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. “Our clients and their legal services needs have undergone significant change over the past year,” said Jeremy Sandelson, London regional managing partner. “We need to reflect that in the London office, and that includes ensuring that our level of staffing is appropriate for today's economic realities.