Headlines

A Delaware bankruptcy judge is moving ahead with plans for a hearing next month in a dispute between Nortel Networks and the Internal Revenue Service, Forbes reported on an Associated Press story. Judge Kevin Gross had earlier granted a request from Toronto-based Nortel for quick handling of its objection to a $3 billion tax claim from the IRS. He set an Oct. 13 hearing date and gave the IRS until Wednesday to turn over documents sought by Nortel.

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that “the global economy has turned a corner” after the harrowing start to 2009 but that only a thorough restructuring of the financial system could prevent a return to crisis and pave the way for solid growth within the next 18 months, The New York Times reported. In its Global Financial Stability Report, an assessment that has brought widespread praise from economists as a thorough analysis of the system’s health, the I.M.F. praised the mixture of bank rescue and stimulus packages.

The Bank of Japan may decide as soon as next month to let its emergency corporate-debt buying programs expire as businesses regain access to private funding, people with direct knowledge of the discussions said, Bloomberg reported. Officials are concerned that maintaining their purchases of corporate bonds and commercial paper beyond the scheduled end in December would distort capital markets, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations are private.

Incompetent and delinquent insolvency practitioners will be banned by courts from operating as liquidators, voluntary administrators and receivers, Commerce minister Simon Power warned today, the National Business Review reported.

An international adoption agency that collapsed this summer, stunning hundreds of would-be adoptive parents who had put up thousands of dollars, was moved out of bankruptcy yesterday, The London Free Press reported. The proposed restructuring of Imagine Adoption was approved by a Kitchener court yesterday. Its new directors can take control from bankruptcy trustees who had been running the organization since mid-July. The Cambridge-based agency, which facilitated adoptions largely from Ethiopia, went bankrupt in mid-July amid questions from its then-board about staff spending.

Japan's economic stimulus appears to be petering out after figures released today showed industrial output rose in August but at a slower rate for the fourth month in a row, The Guardian reported. The data comes as Japan's new government attempts to reconcile plans to cut spending and meet demands for an extra budget to drive the world's second-biggest economy towards recovery. The economy, trade and industry ministry expects production to rise 1.1% this month and by 2.2% in October.

Lithuania's central bank said on Wednesday it had ordered the country's sixth-largest bank, Snoras, to raise capital and imposed limits on its risk taking, Reuters reported. Snoras, 67.3 percent owned by Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov, reported a consolidated unaudited net profit of 1.75 million litas ($743,400) for the first half of the year, down from 41.4 million litas in the same period of 2008. The Baltic states have seen their economies nose-dive over the last year, and banks are facing rising losses from bad loans.

Ukrainian officials held talks in London with investors in hopes of winning a reprieve on $500 million worth of Eurobonds issued by the state energy company Naftogaz that mature Wednesday, Newsday reported on an Associated Press story. The debt-laden company, a crucial link for supplies of Russian natural gas to Europe, is seeking to restructure $1.65 billion in foreign debt coming due this year, including the Eurobonds.

Swedish banking group SEB said on Tuesday it would inject more capital into its operations in Lithuania and Latvia due to rising bad loan provisions. SEB spokeswoman Viveka Hirdman-Ryrberg said the bank made 5.95 billion Swedish crowns ($847 million) of loan loss provisions in the first half of the year due to the global financial crisis. Lithuania's economy nosedived into its worst recession since early 1990s with gross domestic product falling 20.2 percent in the second quarter.

More uncertainty was injected into the planned sale of General Motors Co.'s Opel to a group led by Magna International Inc. as Spain urged European regulators to investigate the agreement and Germany's Free Democrats, consistent critics of the deal, were poised to win a powerful voice in Germany's new government, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal has run into steady fire from Magna customers and European governments alike since the Canadian auto-parts maker reached a preliminary agreement to buy a majority stake in Opel earlier this month.