A St. Louis maker of heat-resistant products has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in hopes that it can better manage the legal liabilities it assumed about 13 years ago. The Christy Refractories Co. LLC filed its petition last week in the bankruptcy court in St. Louis because of mounting asbestos lawsuits, according to a court filing.

Microsoft Corp. plans to invest $60 million in South Korea over the next three years, President Lee Myung-bak’s office said Monday.

Japan cut interest rates for the first time in seven years on Friday, expecting severe stress in the global economy to persist, while UK banking giant Barclays said it was raising $12 billion in capital.

French manufacturing confidence dropped to a 21-year low in October as new orders fell because of the global financial crisis, suggesting the economy will probably contract in the fourth quarter, the Bank of France said.

Weighed down by debt, media giant CanWest Global Communications Corp. isn’t ruling out possible asset sales after buying itself some wiggle room by renegotiating debt covenants and cutting 560 jobs across the company.

ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. plans to trim five per cent of its workforce – or about 170 jobs – by next spring after reporting a quarterly net profit of $9.3 million, up from a year-ago loss of $18.8 million.

Unemployment in Spain is surging ahead of job losses in other EU countries and there are fears it could hit depression-like rates above 20 per cent as 14 years of economic boom give way to a protracted slump.

The current economic malaise and corresponding drop in energy demand means motorists across the metro area are paying almost half as much for fuel as they did seven weeks ago, when Hurricane Ike drove crude oil and gasoline prices to near-record levels.