Headlines

Creditors of the collapsed JD's Jam Factory in Young are owed an estimated $2.5 million, ABC News reported. The Australian tourist attraction went into voluntary administration last month and its full-time workforce of four lost their jobs. The administrator, Schon Condon of Condon Associates of Sydney, says there are about 50 creditors, including staff. The next creditors' meeting will be held in Sydney by the end of the month.

China unexpectedly ratcheted up pressure on the United States in a widening trade dispute on Sunday evening, taking steps toward imposing tariffs on American exports of automotive products and chicken meat in retaliation for President Obama’s decision late Friday to levy tariffs on tires, The New York Times reported.

Iceland's Finance Ministry said on Sunday it had agreed to final terms with administrators for recapitalizing collapsed bank Glitnir and compensating its creditors, Reuters reported. Iceland's three biggest banks -- Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing -- folded within a week last October, owing more than $60 billion to foreign lenders. The banks were brought down by the global financial crisis, plunging the Icelandic economy into deep recession and forcing the nation of just 320,000 to seek billions of dollars in aid from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is having to defend the sale of the troubled carmaker Opel to a Canadian-Russian consortium, just days after hailing the deal, The New York Times reported. Criticism grew sharper over the weekend on the terms of the deal, which was announced on Thursday in Berlin, beginning with unions that said more jobs would be cut than expected. Among the most vocal critics were government representatives of the Opel Trust, which was established in May to oversee the search for a buyer of 65 percent of Opel.

Hundreds of millions of euros in German state aid planned for carmaker Opel is earmarked for operations in Russia, an Opel trustee with reservations about the project was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview. "More than 600 million euros ($876 million) of the 4.5 billion (in German aid) is supposed to be used to modernize the Russian automotive industry according to the Magna plan," Dirk Pfeil told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview, part of which was released ahead of publication on Monday.

Members of the U.K. opposition Conservative Party will soon appoint a panel of financial-center experts and former regulators as they look to push their plan to transfer regulatory powers from the U.K's financial-services regulator to the Bank of England, a senior party official said Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move, which will come before year's end, underscores the party's determination to counter concerns that the abolition of the Financial Services Authority could disrupt financial supervision.

Australian Gold Coast businessman Dudley Quinlivan faces the prospect of being banned as a company director for three years as his real estate-focused empire continues to crumble, The Courier Mail reported. The man once denounced in State Parliament as the "King Con" of property marketeering schemes learnt last year that the Australian Securities & Investments Commission decided to ban him after he presided over the collapse of companies with $40 million in debts. No unsecured creditors were paid and the liquidator lodged an adverse report with ASIC, court records show.

Indian metals maker Sterlite Industries Ltd said on Friday it raised its offer price for bankrupt U.S. copper miner Asarco to $2.565 billion, Reuters reported. Sterlite, a unit of India-focused mining company Vedanta Resources, has been facing off with Mexican miner Grupo Mexico for the assets of Asarco, which has been under bankruptcy protection since 2005. Last month a U.S. bankruptcy court recommended that Grupo Mexico be allowed to take control of Asarco as it was more likely to pay Asarco's creditors in full.

Quelle, the mail order unit of insolvent German retailer Arcandor, has secured financing until the end of the year, the administrator said on Friday, paving the way for a sale, Reuters reported. The insolvency administrator and creditor banks came to an agreement for Quelle's factoring, in which banks pay the company upfront for accounts receivable from customers. Quelle's previous agreement ran out early last week and banks had in principle agreed on further advance funding of about €438 million ($639.7 million), but renegotiated how much risk each bank would take on.

An exclusive resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands that catered to celebrities and offered personal butlers and a pillow menu has closed after less than two years of operation, The Associated Press reported. The owner of Nikki Beach Resort & Spa — Leeward Resort Ltd. — has been placed into receivership, General Manager Jonathan Steers said. The resort, which the Travel Channel rated No. 2 on its list of the "21 Hottest Caribbean Escapes" this year, is the latest one in the region to close amid the global economic crisis.