Headlines

A senate Inquiry has been told that hundreds of overseas students from the failed Sterling College in Sydney have still not been transferred to new courses, a month after the college collapsed, ABC News reported. The Federation of Indian Students of Australia says only 34 students have been found new places. About 500 mainly Indian students were affected when the college, which offers courses in information technology and community welfare, went into voluntary administration at the end of July. Read more.

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Wednesday it was not eyeing a purchase of Nortel Network Corp's stake in LG-Nortel, refuting a South Korean media report, Reuters reported. "It's definitely not us. There must be some kind of confusion. I'm sure if it's something of that importance, I would know about it", said Aldo Liguori, Corporate Vice President Global Communications at Sony Ericsson.

Slovakia-based low-cost airline SkyEurope Holding AG, which was struggling to restructure its debts, has filed for bankruptcy, according to an announcement on the Vienna bourse Web site on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The airline, which had started its operations in 2001 and flew its first passenger in February 2002, obtained a three-month creditor protection in Slovakia in June and was since trying to restructure and pay its outstanding debt.

Three former directors of collapsed managed investment scheme spruiker Timbercorp will be targeted in a class action by lawyers acting for 1600 out-of-pocket Timbercorp investors, The Age reported. The class action, the work of Dandenong law firm Macpherson Kelley, includes several big Timbercorp investors who are being pursued by the company's liquidator, KordaMentha, for failing to repay debts to a Timbercorp subsidiary. They include financial adviser Peter Holt who had more than 40 loans with a Timbercorp subsidiary.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the U.K. administrator for bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is reportedly preparing a nearly $100 billion claim against the collapsed investment bank, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Germany is calling on the world’s largest economies to adopt joint measures to prevent banks from becoming “too big to fail” and holding governments to ransom in future financial crises, the Financial Times reported. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said on Monday – following a meeting in Berlin with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France – that steps to prevent excessive risk-taking by large banks should rank high on the agenda of the summit of the Group of 20 largest economies in Pittsburgh later this month.

Grupo Mexico SAB should be allowed to regain control of its bankrupt U.S. copper mining unit, Asarco LLC, by giving creditors almost $2.5 billion, a judge said, rejecting an offer from Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd., Bloomberg reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard Schmidt today sent his recommendation to a district court judge who will make the final decision about what will happen to Asarco, more than five years after the company filed bankruptcy.

Bankrupt Lyondell Chemical Co has sought an injunction against some of its bondholders to prevent them from collecting money when an agreement ends next month, arguing that allowing them to do so would be "disastrous" and threaten its European units, Reuters reported. Lyondell, part of the U.S. units of LyondellBasell Industries, warned in a filing on Friday in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan that if the court did not prevent those bondholders, it could trigger a default and force its European units, which were not part of a bankruptcy in January, into insolvency.

The board of Italian real estate developer Risanamento SpA on Monday said that it will reconvene in the following days to decide on a restructuring plan that could save it from bankruptcy, Dow Jones reported. In a one-line statement, the Milan real estate developer said that it gave a mandate to its chairman to approve and take emergency measures, without further elaborating. Risanamento is facing bankruptcy if it doesn't present a plan to a bankruptcy court in Milan by Tuesday. Read more. (Subscription required.)

According to Lebanese media sources, Lebanese businessman and Hizbullah publishing executive Hajj Salah Ezzedine has declared bankruptcy, Al Bawaba reported. Ezzedine, from the town of Maaroub near the southern port city of Tyre, is the director of the Hizbullah-owned Dar Al-Hadi Publishing House, which has played a critical role in Hizbullah’s media campaign.