Headlines

Woolworths Group PLC said Monday that talks with BBC Worldwide about the possible sale of Woolworth's stake in their DVD publishing joint venture are ongoing, amid press speculation that the potential value of the deal has dropped dramatically since Woolworths collapsed last month, the Associated Press reported. Woolworths published the statement in response to speculation that it could sell its 40 percent interest in 2Entertain to BBC Worldwide for 40 million pounds ($59 million), Woolworths spokesman Peter Hewer said.

Italian airport officials say 14 flights at Rome's main airport have been canceled because Alitalia ground workers are in union meetings, the Associated Press reported. The officials say the flights, including eight destined for other countries, were scrapped Monday morning at the peak of the Christmas holiday season at Leonardo da Vinci airport. The workers are protesting hiring procedures by the new Alitalia, which is launching on Jan. 12 after a group of Italian investors officially took possession of the bankrupt company's profitable assets.

King Albert II of Belgium named a former premier to begin consultations on forming a new government after Prime Minister Yves Leterme was toppled by the financial crisis, Bloomberg reported. Wilfried Martens, 72, who ran nine Belgian coalitions from 1979 to 1992, was tapped by the monarch to take soundings from political leaders and report back “quickly” with recommendations, according to a statement late yesterday. Leterme quit over his cabinet’s role in the breakup of Fortis, knocked from its perch as Belgium’s biggest financial-services firm by the banking crisis.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is preparing to take over key businesses in mining, banking and manufacturing as his international isolation deepens, two members of the ruling party’s politburo said. The 84-year-old leader said two days ago that he may form an “Economic Revolutionary Council” to overcome sanctions, the officials said. Mugabe’s plans suggest he doesn’t intend to bow to calls to step down as the economy collapses and cholera spreads.

Ireland's finance ministry said it will inject €5.5 billion ($7.66 billion) into three banks and take large stakes in them, days after a loan-accounting scandal at Anglo Irish Bank Corp. further weakened the country's already fragile banking sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government said it would make an initial investment of €1.5 billion in Anglo Irish in exchange for preference shares that will give it 75% of the voting rights of the bank.

Word that the federal and Ontario governments will provide the struggling auto sector with $4 billion in emergency loans was blasted by opposition critics and was lauded by industry and union spokesmen, the Canadian Press reported. The announcement Saturday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in Toronto came a day after President George W. Bush offered US$17.4 billion in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler. Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had promised Canada would offer 20 percent of the U.S.

Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers' insolvency practice, headed by receiver John Waller, has earned more than $6 million in fees from work on finance company receiverships, Companies Office filings show. That is more than two-thirds of the $9.2 million or so in receivers' fees charged so far on about 30 finance companies that have failed over the past three years, The New Zealand Herald reported today. The figures do not include hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars more in legal and advisory fees associated with receivers' work.

Troubled memory-chip maker Qimonda AG on Sunday secured a rescue package of €325 million ($452 million) in loans from a German regional government, parent company Infineon and a Portuguese state bank, the Associated Press reported. The Economy Ministry in the German state of Saxony, where Qimonda has a major plant, said in a statement that it achieved a "breakthrough" when Portugal agreed to join the rescue package through its state investment bank. The company has a facility in Porto, Portugal.

The administrators of British furniture chain MFI said Friday they had failed to find a buyer for the firm and that all its stores had been closed with the loss of 1,400 jobs, the Associated Press reported. MCR, which took on responsibility for the struggling retailer last month after it filed for a form of bankruptcy, said the company had ceased trading. Founded in 1964, MFI was once Britain's top furniture retailer, specializing in selling home-assembled, flat-packed furniture to aspiring homeowners.

Mortgage law experts say the incentive to walk away from a home loan is highest in states that have anti-deficiency statutes, which prohibit lenders from suing borrowers for additional funds after foreclosure, the Associated Press reported. "These anti-deficiency laws make a huge impact on foreclosure rates because they are basically 'get out of jail free' cards," said Todd Zywicki, a law professor at George Mason University and senior scholar with the Mercatus Center think tank who's writing a book on consumer bankruptcy and consumer credit.