Headlines

President Mohamed Nasheed told delegates of the World Bank he inherited a nation “on the verge of bankruptcy” at a management retreat this morning, Minivan News reported. Speaking at the World Bank Maldives Country Management Retreat, the president said the previous government hiked up wages for civil servants as a means of patronage and commercial loans were taken for infrastructure projects with the intention of winning votes. “The fiscal irresponsibility of our predecessors has left a big black hole in our treasury,” he said.

Frank Stronach, an immigrant from Austria, began in 1957 making sun visor brackets for General Motors in a Toronto garage. On Thursday, Mr. Stronach’s vision of becoming a full-fledged automaker came full circle. His company, Magna International of Canada, is likely to take control of the European operations of G.M., The New York Times reported. G.M. told the German government that it had decided to sell a 55 percent stake in the European unit to Magna and its Russian investment partner, Sberbank. G.M. will retain 35 percent, and Opel’s employees will hold the remaining 10 percent.

The parent company of Greek telecommunications company Wind Hellas Thursday said it has begun contacting strategic and financial investors about selling its assets, as part of a process to restructure the firm's €3.2 billion debt pile. Hellas II said in a statement that it expects to receive expressions of interest during the week of Sept. 21. The company said the assets it is looking at selling are shares in Wind Hellas and another of its subsidiaries, Hellas IV, as well as intercompany debt.

There are signs in the Northern Mariana islands to declare the national pension fund bankrupt, a move that would put an abrupt stop to fortnightly payments to retirees, Radio Australia reported. The Retirement Association has angrily opposed the idea, calling on the government to cut back spending on what it sees as "bloated" agencies to ensure pension payments aren't jeopardised. It's a sorry turn-around for the fund, which five years ago was worth close to half a billion US dollars, but is now down to $US140 million. It's having to draw on its assets to meet pension payments.

Verizon Communications says it is ready to oppose the sale of the enterprise business unit of Canadian telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks to Avaya Inc for $475 million, citing public safety and security concerns, Reuters reported. Verizon, a U.S. telecom company, buys and resells a range of Nortel networking technology. As well as numerous private companies, the customer base for these products includes U.S. government arms as diverse as the military, anti-terrorism agencies, the Congress and the court system. In a court filing made earlier this week, Verizon said that if Avaya, a U.S.

Istithmar World, the Dubai sovereign wealth fund, is halting investments as part of a restructuring effort after spending more than $25 billion this decade on stakes ranging from a yacht marina to luxury retailer Barneys New York, according to people familiar with the plan, Bloomberg reported. The process may result in a sale of the fund or its assets, they said. Istithmar, run by David Jackson, said this week that co-chief investment officers John Amato and Felix Herlihy would leave the firm. Jackson’s job is under review, the people said.

By helping a Swedish sportscar maker in its bid for Saab, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. may have found another way to get what it wanted in its failed bid for Opel: access to the same advanced GM technology that drives cars from both Opel and Saab, The Wall Street Journal reported. Turned down once by GM, which owns both Opel and Saab, Beijing Auto has struck a deal to take a minority stake in Koenigsegg Group AB and help Koenigsegg close the funding gap it needed to buy Saab.

Japan Airlines Corp., the recipient of three government bailouts since 2001, will find out soon if the rules have changed, Bloomberg reported. The Democratic Party of Japan, which takes power Sept. 16, pledged to cut what incoming Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama called “wasteful” government spending. Japan Air, with 235 billion yen ($2.6 billion) in loans from a state-owned bank, likely will seek more aid after it submits a mid-term business plan by Sept. 30, according to analysts.

Russia's steel makers, seeking to repay billions of dollars in debts, will struggle to sell foreign assets that have contributed to substantial first-half losses because potential buyers have little cash to spare, Alibaba.com reported. This will force companies to idle plants and seek bankruptcy protection for some units, with Severstal likely to be the worst hit, analysts said. While some have divested peripheral assets, no Russian steel maker has been able to rid itself of the big-ticket items from earlier acquisitions that had piled up $30 billion in debt by the end of last year.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to continue his government's aggressive stimulus efforts, saying the world's third-largest economy faces persistent problems and uncertainties from the global recession despite an upturn in growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. Speaking to business leaders and others at a World Economic Forum meeting, Mr. Wen said "the pickup in China's economy remains unstable, unconsolidated and imbalanced," pointing to uncertainties that continue to cloud the global economic outlook.