Bankrupt commercial printer Quebecor World Inc on Tuesday gained approval of its bankruptcy reorganization plan from judges in the United States and Canada, clearing the way for the company to exit bankruptcy protection. Quebecor World, which expects to emerge from its insolvency proceedings in July, prints books, magazines, directories and advertising materials. It filed for court protection in January 2008 and has about 20,000 employees. In a rare joint cross-border hearing conducted via video teleconference, Judge James Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan also gave U.S.

Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, said Tuesday that an official he had appointed had secured lines of credit worth $950 million from China, President Robert Mugabe’s longtime ally, The New York Times reported. Mr. Mugabe’s party has mocked Mr. Tsvangirai for failing to bring home much aid from his three-week tour of the United States and Europe. Zimbabwe’s government — a virtually bankrupt contraption led by Mr. Mugabe and his rival, Mr. Tsvangirai — needs an estimated $8 billion to rebuild the country’s ruined economy.

A British company has won its bid to buy a Chicago-based clothier that made inaugural and election night suits for President Barack Obama, The Associated Press reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago on Friday approved the sale of Hartmarx Corp. to Britain-based Emerisque Brands and SKNL North America BV for $119 million. Hartmarx creditor Wells Fargo & Co. had previously rejected an $83 million offer. Hartmarx was forced into bankruptcy protection in January after lenders cut it off. Wells Fargo had pushed for a liquidation because Hartmarx couldn't repay $114 million.

Further fattening its offer to reclaim bankrupt mining company Asarco LLC, Grupo Mexico SAB de CV affiliate Americas Mining Corp. has filed another reorganization proposal for Asarco, under which it would make $3.1 billion available to pay back claims — including setting up an asbestos liability trust — and bring the company out of Chapter 11, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The upped bid is one of three competing plans to reorganize bankrupt Asarco. Under the other plans, Asarco would either be sold to India-based Sterlite Industries Ltd.

Antigua and Barbuda's government on Tuesday dismissed the country's chief financial regulator over his alleged role in the Allen Stanford fraud case, and vowed to root out further corruption "cancer" if it existed, Reuters reported. Leroy King had already been suspended last week as head of the Caribbean nation's Financial Services Regulatory Commission over U.S. charges that he collaborated with Texas billionaire Stanford in a $7 billion "massive Ponzi scheme". In announcing the Antigua and Barbuda cabinet's decision, Attorney General Justin Simon told Reuters he had received from U.S.

Strains in pensions systems, in both private and public provision, threaten to turn the financial crisis of the past two years into a social crisis lasting for decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Tuesday. In its annual analysis of the health of pensions systems globally, the Paris-based organisation found private pension plans lost 23 per cent of their value last year, while higher unemployment “leaves little room for more generous public pensions”, the Financial Times reported.

Business and political leaders are reacting with a surprisingly philosophical sense of calm to the final breakup of Nortel Networks, the Financial Post reported on a Canwest News story. New owners will replace old ones, they say, and there’s still opportunity for innovation and jobs, whether the employer is a century-old Canadian icon, a foreign-based multinational, or a startup run by ex-Nortel staffers. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives for its part said "a shift of ownership by itself may not be a bad thing" for Nortel, or for any company sold to a foreign firm.

Insolvent printing giant Quebecor World Inc. is a step closer to exiting from bankruptcy protection after its Canadian creditors strongly endorsed its restructuring plan yesterday, The Globe and Mail reported. The yes vote, concluded at a downtown Montreal hotel, was a positive indicator of the outcome of a similar vote by U.S. creditors. The tally of that vote was not expected until late yesterday, said Quebecor World spokesman Tony Ross.

Nokia Siemens Networks says it will hang onto about 800 Canadian employees of Nortel Networks Corp. as part of the plan to buy a major portion of the former technology giant's wireless business, The Canadian Press reported. Simon Beresford-Wylie, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens, said Monday in a conference call that about 2,500 Nortel employees would transfer to Nokia Siemens, with about a third of them in Canada. About 500 of those jobs are expected to stay in Ottawa, where the company houses most of its Canadian operations. Most of the other jobs will be at Nortel's U.S.

Nortel Networks, once a technology giant, has decided to sell itself off in pieces rather than attempt to emerge from bankruptcy as a restructured company, the Associated Press reported. Nokia Siemens Networks agreed to buy some wireless operations of Canada's Nortel Networks Corp. in a $650 million deal as the more than century-old Nortel announced it is looking for buyers for the rest of its assets.