Australian education and childcare services provider A.B.C. Learning Centres Ltd filed for bankruptcy in a Delaware court Wednesday, more than 18 months after the company went into administration in Australia, Reuters reported. The filing comes after an Arizona jury ruled against the company earlier this month in a lawsuit over certain development contracts and ordered it to pay more than $47 million in damages to RCS Capital Development LLC. The company filed under Chapter 15 of U.S. bankruptcy law, which deals with cases involving more than one country and allows U.S.

The global campaign to harmonize rules for financial firms is swerving off course, threatening efforts to curb the risky bets that rocked the world economy two years ago, The Washington Post reported. As U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner lands in Europe on Wednesday, differences are growing among world leaders over how to keep the promise they made at the height of the financial crisis: that they would work together to reshape how finance is governed. Their aim was to avoid another upheaval by making financial rules consistent across borders and closing loopholes.

AbitibiBowater Inc, the world's largest newsprint maker, plans to emerge from bankruptcy with a simplified structure so it can take on the challenge of declining demand, its chief executive said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Montreal-based company said on Monday it has the support of unsecured creditors for a reorganization plan that would swap unsecured debt for equity. Post-bankruptcy, the company would have consolidated its debt with the parent company, eliminating debt that was issued by dozens of U.S.

U.S. celebrity fashion house BCBG Max Azria Group is backing the bid led by billionaire Nicolas Berggruen for insolvent German department store chain Karstadt, Reuters reported. A spokesman for Berggruen said on Tuesday Azria was supporting Berggruen's bid, which he launched late on Friday.

AbitibiBowater Inc. is seeking the green light from a U.S. bankruptcy judge to rework its accounts-receivable securitization facility to take advantage of improving business conditions, a move the company says will save it millions of dollars in the coming months, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The Canadian paper maker, which sought bankruptcy protection more than a year ago to restructure its crushing debt load, says it can save $4 million over the next five months by reworking the securitization program with a group of banks led Citigroup Inc. and Barclays Capital Inc.

Planet Organic Health Corp. is set to be acquired by its principal creditor, the Edmonton-based natural and organic products retailer said Friday. Planet Organic received bankruptcy protection last month under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act when more than $31.1 million in debt was called in by Catalyst Capital Group Inc., the Edmonton Journal reported. The Toronto private-equity firm, which invests in distressed companies, had bought the debt from Ares Capital Corp. in April.

Newfoundland and Labrador struck out for a second time Tuesday in its efforts to force AbitibiBowater to pay for a costly environmental cleanup, The Canadian Press reported. Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Jacques Chamberland denied the province's request for leave to appeal a ruling by Quebec Superior Court Justice Clement Gascon. "It is my view that the province's application raises no issue which satisfies the test for granting leave to appeal under CCAA (Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act)," he wrote.

Supermarket operator Controladora Comercial Mexicana could soon become the first major test of Mexico's overhauled insolvency laws as it readies to file a "pre-pack" debt restructuring that would end months of negotiations with creditors. As shoppers filled their carts at the company's stores around Mexico, behind the scenes its creditors were hammering out a deal to resolve more than $2 billion of derivatives losses the country's No. 3 supermarket operator suffered at the height of the financial crisis.

Fraser Papers Inc. will sell off its remaining assets over the next 18 months as the insolvent company grapples with up to $500 million in claims from hungry creditors, the Telegraph-Journal reported. On Monday, the man pegged with guiding Fraser Papers through its final days detailed the obstacles still facing the company. Glen McMillan, appointed last week as chief restructuring officer, says the company's "key challenge" is selling its remaining assets. At this point, those assets primarily consist of a paper mill in Gorham, New Hampshire and two lumber mills in northern Maine.

Corporate debt restructuring in Mexico has jumped over the past few years as companies struggled with bad bets on derivatives as well as the effects of the global recession. While large Mexican companies rarely use the country's insolvency law, some major debt deals have been reached in the past year. Cemex S.A.B. de C.V., the world's No. 3 cement maker, which was hurt by a poorly timed $16 billion purchase of Australia's Rinker in 2007 and loaded up on debt just before the global financial crisis crippled its sales. Comercial Mexicana S.A.B. de C.V., the country's No.