Isuzu Motors said Thursday it would cut 1,400 jobs and slash domestic production by 10 percent, the latest in a slew of layoffs by Japanese automakers to cope with the financial crisis.

`With the way things are, we had no choice but to make adjustments,` said a spokeswoman for Japan`s second-biggest truckmaker.

Shares in French bank BNP Paribas fell on Wednesday on rumours over a possible capital increase and uncertainty over its acquisition of the Belgian operations of finance group Fortis.

Shares in BNP Paribas closed down 11.2 percent at 36.245 euros, taking losses so far this week to more than 22 percent.

Shares in French bank BNP Parisbas fell in morning trading on Wednesday on rumours over a possible capital increase and uncertainty over its acquisition of the Belgian operations of finance group Fortis.

BNP`s shares were showing a drop of 8.50 percent to 37.34 euros in an overall Paris market which was down 0.80 percent. The stock had fallen by 5.13 percent on Tuesday.

Shares in French bank BNP Parisbas fell in morning trading on Wednesday on rumours over a possible capital increase and uncertainty over its acquisition of the Belgian operations of finance group Fortis.

BNP`s shares were showing a drop of 8.50 percent to 37.34 euros in an overall Paris market which was down 0.80 percent. The stock had fallen by 5.13 percent on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - GMAC Financial Services said Wednesday it was restructuring its mortgage unit, Residential Capital (ResCap) and cutting 3,000 jobs, citing 'severe weakness' in the credit and housing markets.

The US company said it would eliminate about 25 percent of the ResCap worldwide staff of 12,000, as it streamlines the unit's operations to meet changing market conditions.

The measures were being taken 'as severe weakness in the housing market and mortgage industry continues to prevail,' said GMAC, which employs 31,000 people worldwide.

FRANKFURT, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Potential buyers are crowding around an Airbus plant in Laupheim, southern Germany, and the European plane maker should decide this year which will get the site, a press report said Monday.

The Financial Times Deutschland cited industry sources as saying 14 German and foreign concerns had expressed interest in the facility, which produces cabin equipment.

LONDON, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Britain's BP announced Thursday a wide-ranging restructuring to revive the troubled energy giant, which has been tarnished in recent times by fatal safety issues and a major boardroom overhaul.

The group will comprise two divisions -- Exploration and Production, and Refining and Marketing -- compared to three currently, BP said in a statement following a six-month operational review aimed at closing the gap with rivals.

FRANKFURT, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - The German aerospace group Voith has dropped out of bidding for three plants that belong to European aircraft maker Airbus, Voith boss Hermut Kormann told a press conference Tuesday in Heidenheim, southern Germany.

Airbus' parent group EADS is selling three German plants as part of a broad restructuring aimed at saving billions of euros (dollars) and streamlining its manufacturing processes.

One of the facilities is in the southern German city of Augsburg, while the others are in the northern port of Nordenham and nearby Varel.

NEW YORK, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - US aluminum giant Alcoa said Thursday it was preparing to sell its packaging and consumer operations as part of a wide-ranging reorganization.

Alcoa said it is is 'near a definitive agreement' to sell its automotive castings business by the end of the year.

The company said it would divest its packaging and consumer operations which produce items like aluminum foil and packaging for the food and health care industries, among others.

BERLIN, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Shareholders in the German car maker formerly known as DaimlerChrysler agreed on Thursday to change the name of the company to Daimler, reflecting the group's divestment of its troubled US unit Chrysler.

A resolution proposing the name change was presented to shareholders at a meeting here late on Thursday and approved by 98.76 percent of the votes.

A small group of shareholders had sought to change the group's name back to Daimler-Benz, arguing that Daimler sounded 'cold and unfeeling' whereas Daimler-Benz AG was 'familiar and warm.'

NEW YORK, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - US investment bank Bear Stearns said Wednesday it was merging two mortgage subsidiaries and eliminating 310 jobs to better deal with market conditions related to the ailing housing sector.

In the year to date, Bear Stearns has slashed its workforce in mortgage businesses by 40 percent in moves to weather a broader credit crunch stemming from a crisis in the subprime mortgage sector, where loans are given to people with patchy credit.

FRANKFURT, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - German automaker DaimlerChrysler is to be renamed simply Daimler AG on Thursday, reflecting the company's divestment of its troubled US unit Chrysler.

Shareholders meeting in Berlin are expected to approve the new name despite some scepticism and the fact that Daimler will still own almost 20 percent of the US car company.

'Daimler AG sounds cold and unfeeling. Daimler-Benz AG sounds familiar and warm,' said Paul Russmann, the spokesman for shareholders who oppose the move.

FRANKFURT, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) of India wants to use Germany as a base to become one of the top 10 IT companies in Europe, vice chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said Tuesday.

'We have three priorities in Europe,' Chandrasekaran told Financial Times Deutschland, 'Germany, Germany, Germany.'

Starting with Europe's biggest market, TCS planned to expand across the continent, he added.

'We want to be among the top 10 suppliers' of Information Technology services in Europe, Chandrasekaran said, without identifying a time frame.

FRANKFURT, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - European aerospace group EADS wants to sell three German plants that belong to its aircraft unit Airbus in one deal, chief executive Louis Gallois said in an interview to appear on Friday.

The three factories have attracted interest from three candidates, the US group Spirit Aerosystems, and the German groups Voith and MT Aerospace, Gallois told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

One of the facilities is in the southern German city of Augsburg, while the others are in the northern port of Nordenham and nearby Varel.

FRANKFURT, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Shares in the German automaker BMW jumped in early trading here Thursday on a broker upgrade that anticipated an unveiling of the group's strategy for the future.

BMW shares leapt 4.31 percent higher to 48.67 euros on the Frankfurt stock exchange, while the DAX index of leading shares had gained 0.86 percent overall.

FRANKFURT, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - German luxury car group BMW might set up a fourth passenger car brand in addition to its current BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce lines, a press report said Thursday.

But BMW has no plans to acquire Volvo from the US automaker Ford, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper added, citing sources.

It said a new brand was one of the topics to be addressed in a review of the company's future strategy, details of which BMW was to disclose later in the day.

FRANKFURT, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - The European aerospace group EADS has decided to sell its production plant in the southern German city of Augsburg, the Financial Times Deutschland reported Tuesday, citing industry sources.

EADS said in early August it was considering selling the plant, which employs 2,000 full-time and 700 part-time workers.

The report said an EADS spokesman confirmed only that the decision on Augsburg was at an 'advanced stage'.

BRUSSELS, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - A Belgian subsidiary of US medical supplies group Johnson & Johnson is to cut nearly 700 jobs at two sites in the north of the country, company and union officials said Tuesday.

The job cuts at Janssen Pharmaceutica will allow the company to focus on research and development by outsourcing administrative and maintenance activities, a spokesman said.

NEW YORK, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - AOL unveiled Monday a global advertising platform it said marked another step in a restructuring for the once-dominant Internet firm that has been losing ground in recent years.

AOL, media titan Time Warner's Internet subsidiary, announced a series of changes aimed at positioning the company 'as the world's largest and most effective advertising network.'

FRANKFURT, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - Frankfurt's stock market, the Deutsche Boerse, said Thursday it had declined to bid for a 31-percent stake in the London Stock Exchange being sold by the US high-tech market Nasdaq.

The purchase of a minority holding in the LSE is not 'attractive' and would not increase the overall value of Deutsche Boerse, a spokesman said.

The market's boss, Swiss national Reto Francioni, has declined to comment on the subject.

FRANKFURT, Sept 9, 2007 (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a meeting of DaimlerChrysler and other German shareholders of the European Aerospace and Defense Company on September 18, a government spokesman said Sunday, confirming a report in Focus magazine.

The spokesman said the meeting would discuss the restructuring of EADS.

Focus said the main topic of discussion would be the sale of Airbus plants in the German cities of Varel, Nordenham, Laupheim and Augsburg.

WASHINGTON, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - Germany automaker Volkswagen said Thursday it would move its US headquarters to a Washington suburb as part of a reorganization of its American operations.

Some 400 jobs are being eliminated in the restructuring, according to a statement by Volkswagen of America.

The company will relocate its US corporate headquarters, the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan, to Herndon, Virginia, starting in April 2008.

TOKYO, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - Troubled Japanese consumer electronics maker Sanyo Electric is considering exiting the market for major household appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, a report said Thursday.

Sanyo may withdraw from white goods to focus on more profitable areas such as batteries, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported in its evening edition without naming any sources.

The company said in response that it had not ruled anything out on the fate of the business but that no decision had yet been taken.

MILAN, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Loss-making Italian airline Alitalia outlined a new rescue strategy on Thursday that included plans to launch another capital increase and cut an unspecified number of jobs.

'The board has given a mandate to the chairman to rapidly launch a first singling out of potential investors and their industrial and financial plans, and to complete this in the shortest time possible,' Alitalia said in a statement.

MILAN, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Loss-making Italian airline Alitalia is preparing a major capital increase and a job-cutting plan, which are to be discussed by the group's board on Thursday, the company said.

The Italian government failed to privatise the state-controlled company earlier this year because of a lack of bidders, and the latest measures are designed to make the company more attractive to potential buyers.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - Hewlett-Packard has become the first multinational to be exempted from selling 30 percent of its business in South Africa to black investors, the US computer giant and government said on Monday.

Under an agreement reached with the government, the company will instead invest millions of dollars in a new business institute to provide training for 1,800 students over the next six years.

Hewlett-Packard said the deal demonstrated the company's commitment to racial transformation of the business sector in South Africa.

PARIS, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - European plane maker Airbus has delayed by one month its decision on who will buy the plants it has put up for sale as part of its restructuring plan, French newspaper Lesotho Echos reported on Wednesday.

The paper, which did not cite sources, said the group now planned to annonce its decision around September 20 because it was looking at putting another German factory on the auction block.

BERLIN, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Dresdner Bank plans to join other German banks that have withdrawn from Iran, amid US pressure and excessive administration costs, the Financial Times Deutschland said in its Wednesday edition, quoting a bank spokesman.

'Dresdner Bank is ending its activities with Iran and in Iran,' the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying.

He said the bank was faced with excessive 'bureaucratic expenses'.

The US government has accused Iran of supporting terrorist groups and has tried for years to cut off international finance to the country.

WASHINGTON, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - Regional banking group SunTrust Banks said Monday it would shed some 2,400 jobs by the end of 2008 as part of a restructuring program aimed at trimming costs and improving shareholder value.

The cuts represent about seven percent of the workforce of the Atlanta-based bank, mainly in 'non-customer contact employee positions,' according to a statement.

SunTrust, the ninth largest US bank holding company by assets, said it would set aside 45 million dollars in the third quarter to cover the costs of the job cuts.

PARIS, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - European aerospace group EADS, the parent group of plane maker Airbus, said Thursday it was considering putting another German plant up for sale in addition to others already on the auction block.

Under a vast restructuring plan announced earlier this year, EADS said six Airbus plants in Europe would be either sold outright or partly divested.

'EADS will evaluate the inclusion of its Augsburg plant into the sales process of Airbus aerostructures sites,' the company said in a statement.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - The bridge on highway I-35 that collapsed Wednesday over the Mississippi River was built 40 years ago and was under repair for minor problems, Minnesota state authorities said.

Constructed in 1967, the mainly steel structure stretches 581 meters (1,906 feet) across the river outside Minneapolis and rests on 14 spans.

NEW YORK, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - US health and consumer products maker Johnson & Johnson plans to slash at least 3,600 jobs worldwide as part of an overhault to trim costs and focus on fast-growing segments of the industry.

The program aims to save a total of 1.3 billion to 1.6 billion dollars in annual operating costs by 2008. The company will take a charge of 550 million to 750 million dollars to pay for the restructuring.