Headlines

Nortel Networks, the bankrupt Canadian maker of telecommunications equipment, said over the weekend that Ericsson of Sweden had won an auction of its wireless technologies unit with an offer of $1.13 billion, thwarting a bid by a rival, Nokia Siemens Networks, The New York Times reported. Last month, Nortel signed a deal to sell the division, which is profitable, to Nokia Siemens for $650 million. A bank owned by the Canadian government also agreed to provide $300 million in financing for the deal.

When top US and Chinese officials meet on Monday for the first high-level talks of the Obama administration, the American complaints about China’s currency that long bedevilled relations will barely be on the table, the Financial Times reported. For years, Washington alleged that Beijing unfairly manipulated its currency, the renminbi, to support exports, and demanded that China allow it to appreciate to force structural changes in its economy.

Russia plans to overhaul its bankruptcy laws to help crisis-hit companies survive financial restructuring without being broken up, the Financial Times quoted an adviser to President Dmitry Medvedev as saying. Economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich said less than 10 of 100 Russian companies that had gone through bankruptcy procedures had survived as going concerns. He told the newspaper the government would present new bankruptcy legislation to the Duma to be passed into law by the end of the year.

Asian countries are beginning to build extensive social-welfare programs like those that long have existed in the West, a move they hope will encourage their people to save less, spend more and help put the region -- and the world -- on a stronger economic footing in the years ahead, The Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts have long worried that Asians lack sufficient health, unemployment and other benefits to tide them over when downturns or emergencies occur, or to prepare for old age. Only about 30% of Asia's elderly receive a pension, according to the United Nations.

The Austrian government debt agency’s two-year old foray into subprime investments has turned into a political hot potato and sparked an increasingly heated debate between the Social Democrats and conservatives, caught in an uneasy but coalition government without viable alternative, Reuters’ Global Investing blog reported. Austria’s audit court last week revealed that the agency, which in its staid day job issues government bonds and makes sure state coffers are full when they need to be, started to moonlight on money markets in 2002 to earn a little extra money on the side.

The Irish government is expected to publish draft legislation this week which will make the Irish "bad bank" National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), one of the world's biggest repositories of toxic loans, Finfacts reported.

Failed advisory firm Storm Financial is to be investigated in a public examination funded by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Brisbane Times reported. Storm Financial, which claimed to have about $4.7 billion of funds under management and more than 14,000 clients, went into administration in January. Liquidators Raj Khatri and Ivor Worrell, of Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants, said in a statement today that ASIC had provided $450,000 for a public examination of Storm, expected to start in early September.

Canadian Superior Energy Inc. said Friday a court has extended its creditor protection to Sept 15, the Calgary Herald reported. The oil and gas producer said the extension under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) by a Calgary court, meant it could continue to operate, while keeping creditors at bay. Canadian Superior and its financial adviser, Jennings Capital Inc., would continue to assess all strategic alternatives available to the company, it said.

High-flying childcare entrepreneur Eddy Groves has been grounded, after agreeing today to let the corporate watchdog keep his passport for nearly a year, The Australian reported. Mr Groves, the founder of failed childcare corporation ABC Learning, made an undertaking to the Federal Court in Sydney to let the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) retain his passport until June 30, 2010. ASIC is investigating the circumstances around the collapse of ABC, which was once the nation's largest private operator of childcare centres.

Spanish unemployment continued to spiral higher in the second quarter, though at a slower rate than in previous quarters, as the beginning of the summer tourism season and a government infrastructure plan helped to create new jobs, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to data Friday from Spain's National Statistics Institute, or INE, the rate of Spanish unemployment rose to 17.92% in the second quarter from 17.36% in the first quarter and 13.91% in the fourth quarter.