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Treasury Debt-Purchase Plan May Be Smaller Than Anticipated at $20 Billion The U.S. Treasury Department may begin its program to spur purchases of mortgage-backed securities from banks with about $20 billion in public and private money, down from as much as $100 billion when it was announced in March, two people familiar with the matter said.

ThyssenKrupp Said to Abandon Sale of Unit After Potential Buyers Pull Out ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany’s largest steelmaker, scrapped the sale of an industrial services unit as part of a 1 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) disposal of assets after buyers pulled out, people familiar with the situation said.

Wiedeking Era at Porsche Runs on Fumes as Volkswagen Takeover Backfires Wendelin Wiedeking, hailed as “the man who outfoxed the market” by Fortune magazine in January, is fighting to save Porsche SE -- and his job -- as a strategy to take over Volkswagen AG unravels.

Australia Facing `Full Brunt' of Global Recession as Exports, Lending Drop Australia’s economy, which has so far skirted the global recession, may stall after reports showed exports dropped to a 14-month low, bank lending fell and home- building approvals declined by the most since 2002.

Escada Is Optimistic of Rescue as Dressmaker Suffers, CEO Saelzer Says Escada AG Chief Executive Officer Bruno Saelzer said he’s optimistic investors will back a refinancing plan and avert insolvency at the German dressmaker whose celebrity clients include actress Katie Holmes.

Halabi Companies Fail to Fix $1.9 Billion Commercial Mortgage Bond Default Investor Simon Halabi’s real-estate companies failed to remedy a default on 1.15 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) of commercial mortgage bonds at a time when, according to Fitch Ratings, “pretty much” all such European deals would breach loan-to-value conditions if they were tested.

Ferrovial, Westfield Shift Cash to Conservatives as Brown's Support Wanes British units of companies including Grupo Ferrovial SA, Westfield Group and Deutsche Bahn AG are shifting cash to the Conservative opposition from the Labour Party as Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s popularity ebbs.

GM to Hold `Garage Sale' for Hazardous Plants, Golf Course, Parking Lots As General Motors Corp. prepares to sell its best assets to a streamlined new entity, the worst of what it owns will be auctioned off in bankruptcy court, including contaminated factory sites, parking lots in Flint, Michigan, and a nine-hole golf course in New Jersey.

Geneva Sees Opportunity in Bern's Predicament of Conceding on Bank Secrecy On a hot Saturday morning in May at the Rolle yacht club on Lake Geneva, Guy de Picciotto, chief executive officer of Switzerland’s Union Bancaire Privee, smears on sunblock as he rallies a professional, lycra-clad crew of six to race his 35-foot, $600,000 catamaran.

Oil Refiners Exxon, Valero Face New Curbs on Carcinogenic Gas Under Obama President Barack Obama is considering new curbs on U.S. oil refineries whose gas emissions pose a cancer risk to hundreds of thousands of people living near the plants, setting up a potential conflict with companies over the cost of new regulations.

Gazprom Seeks African, Caspian Supplies to Build Gas Grid Circling Europe OAO Gazprom, the Russian company that ships a quarter of Europe’s gas, is seeking supply deals in the Caspian, Africa and around the world to anchor its lead in areas where European buyers may turn to rival producers.

Pakistan's Assault on Taliban Chief's Hideaway May Not Satisfy U.S. Goals Pakistan’s assault on the country’s biggest Taliban stronghold may end in disappointment for the Obama administration, which has pushed the army to escalate the fight and restore a measure of government control in the region.

Murdoch's Sky Deutschland Pay-TV Struggle May Curb Ambitions in Europe Rupert Murdoch’s German pay- television channel may need more than a new moniker for a turnaround.

Yara May Buy Companies, Assets With Access to Cheap Natural Gas, CEO Says Yara International ASA, the world’s largest fertilizer maker, is interested in buying companies or assets in countries with access to cheap natural gas, a major component in its products.

Unwinding AIG Prompts Pasciucco to Ponder Trades Risking Systemic Failure Gerry Pasciucco stared out from his fourth-floor office at the hurly-burly of midtown Manhattan’s 48th Street, weighing the riskiest trade of his life. Over a 26- year career, he had risen to managing director at Morgan Stanley and earned a seven-figure-plus pay package. It was October 2008, and Edward Liddy, the new chief executive officer of insurer American International Group Inc., had just asked Pasciucco to head the subsidiary at the vortex of the world financial cataclysm: AIG Financia

Ruble Bonds Exceed Dollar Sales for 1st Time Since '06 on Stable Currency Russian companies shut out of the international debt markets are selling more ruble bonds than dollar notes for the first time since 2006 as the domestic currency recovers from its 35 percent devaluation.

Slim's Telmex to Face Tighter Rules After Probe, Telecom Regulator Says Telefonos de Mexico SAB, the phone company controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, is likely to face more government scrutiny after antitrust regulators concluded it has too much power, a telecommunications official said.

Biogen to Pay Up to $510 Million for Rights to Acorda MS Pill Outside U.S Biogen Idec Inc., the world’s largest maker of drugs for multiple sclerosis, will pay as much as $510 million for rights to market Acorda Therapeutics Inc.’s experimental MS pill outside the U.S.

`Bundesbank Colossus' Loses Ability to Dictate ECB Rate as Weber Weakened Germany’s Bundesbank, which once dictated interest rates for a continent, is losing influence to smaller nations as the European Central Bank tries to reverse the worst recession since World War II.

World's Most Dangerous Airlines Face Scrutiny Following Fatal Yemeni Crash The fatal crash of a Yemeni Airbus jet into the Indian Ocean is heightening scrutiny of the safety standards of developing nations and their airlines.