The request filed Wednesday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York seeks to cut those benefits to 15,000 salaried retirees as soon as April 1. The Troy, Mich.-based company said the moves would save about $70 million annually, or $200 million through 2011.

Cutting the benefits also would allow Delphi to reduce its balance sheet liabilities by $1.1 billion, the company said.

Delphi said in the filing that its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection had been based on assumptions of industrywide light vehicle production of 14.2 million units in 2009 and up to 16.3 million units in 2011.

The forecast also included expectations that General Motors Corp., the supplier's former parent and still largest customer, would build at least 3.15 million light vehicles in 2009 and up to 3.61 million in 2011.

But the overall industry took a turn for the worse in the fourth-quarter of 2008 and the U.S. based automakers now say that the best the industry will be able to do this year will be about 12 million to 12.5 million units, Delphi said in its filing.

Delphi has been operating under Chapter 11 protection since October 2005. A hearing on the request is set for Feb. 24.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware ordered trading restrictions on shares of Nortel Networks Corp., the Canadian telecommunications equipment maker said Friday.

Toronto-based Nortel said restrictions were set on trading of its common shares and on two types of preferred shares - cumulative redeemable class A preferred shares series 5 and non-cumulative redeemable class A preferred shares series 7.

Nortel also said the court's order informs shareholders of claims against the company and the possibility of debt trading restrictions in the future.

The company, which has seen a large drop in orders from phone companies, filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and the U.S. on Wednesday. It is the first major technology company to do so during the economic downturn.

The company's stock, which is traded over-the-counter, closed at 6 cents Monday, well off the $5.61 it traded at a year ago and a sharp drop from the more than $20 it traded for just a few years ago.

Chesapeake, which makes paper cartons and plastic containers for the health care, beverage and food markets, has been cutting jobs and realigning operations in an effort to foster growth and reduce costs. The company struggled earlier this year to complete a $250 million credit line with a group led by GE Commercial Finance Ltd. and General Electric Capital Corp. to refinance prior debt.

The company's shares were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in October. Chesapeake last month reported a loss for the nine months ended Sept. 28 of $277.1 million as the company booked hefty environmental cleanup and other charges and as sales slipped to $752.5 million due to lost business with British American Tobacco and less demand for drug and health care packaging. In its 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chesapeake listed total assets of $936.6 million as of Sept. 28 and $937.1 million in total liabilities.

Chesapeake filed for bankruptcy Monday in the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond under Chapter 11, which allows a company to reorganize. Non-U.S. units are not included in the filing.

Joseph Diekemper, 60, of Carlyle, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud, making a false statement to the Department of Agriculture and perjuring himself during earlier bankruptcy proceedings.

His wife, Margaret Diekemper, 64, pleaded guilty last week to a federal charge of conspiring with her husband to commit bankruptcy fraud and agreed to help authorities.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Hudson would not comment after Wednesday's hearing. However, federal prosecutors have said Diekemper filed for bankruptcy in 2004, then hid farm equipment, allowed vehicle titles to be put under other people's names and fraudulently obtained agricultural subsidies on land that already had been turned over to a creditor.

As part of the scheme, authorities say, Diekemper stashed a tractor behind a false wall in an outbuilding on property rented by George and Linda Weedon.

The Weedons were found shot to death in April 2007, just days after George Weedon approached the FBI about the tractor and told an investigator he worried Joseph Diekemper would burn down his house if he ever found out, according to an FBI memo filed in the fraud case. When the couple's bodies were found, their rental home was ablaze.

It said it decided to file for bankruptcy protection because it was facing pressure from vendors who threatened to withhold products during the holiday shopping period. The company also said it cut 700 more jobs at its headquarters, after announcing a week ago that it would close 20 percent of its stores and lay off thousands of workers.

Circuit City filed under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, which will allow it to hold off creditors and continue operations while it develops a reorganization plan. Its Canadian operations also filed for similar protection.

Doing so "should provide us with the opportunity to strengthen our balance sheet, create a more efficient expense structure and ultimately position the company to compete more effectively," James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive, said in a statement.

Britain's Office for National Statistics said 17,341 people declared bankruptcy in the three months through September — up from 15,842 in the same quarter of 2007. The number of bankruptcies was 12 percent higher than it was in the previous quarter.

British companies were hit even harder by the economic downturn, the statistics office said, with 26 percent more businesses — or 4,001 — going under in the third quarter of this year than did last year.

Britain's economy contracted 0.5 percent last quarter and the Bank of England expects the country will be in a technical recession — defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative growth — by the beginning of next year.

Some legal experts say the case, in which a criminal case in Connecticut intersects a bankruptcy judgment filed in St. Louis, shows a need for Congress to revise the nation's bankruptcy laws to better treat people who are awarded money as part of ruling in a criminal case.

"This is an outrageous decision," said Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St. John's University and a bankruptcy expert. "I think it's a miscarriage of justice."

"I can't even begin to fathom it," Poveromo said. "Crime does pay."

The case began in 2006, when Poveromo hired Mark R. Koch of Illinois for an $80,000 project to construct a building for his pet food business in Thomaston, Conn. Poveromo paid $39,500 up front, but Koch never did any work, according to court documents.

Poveromo filed a criminal complaint, and Koch was convicted in Connecticut of first-degree larceny in April 2007 and ordered to pay restitution. Koch paid $25,000 and began monthly payments to Poveromo on the balance, but that's when the law turned on Poveromo.

Two months before his conviction, Koch filed for bankruptcy protection in St. Louis, halting any monetary claims against him. Poveromo says notices of the bankruptcy filing was sent to Poveromo's old business address and he didn't see them.

Koch then filed a complaint to the bankruptcy court accusing Poveromo of intentionally violating the stay on claims by having him arrested to collect on his debt.

Judge Charles Rendlen III agreed with the builder. In a ruling filed in December, and without hearing from Poveromo, Rendlen noted "the highly suspect timing" of Koch's arrest and conviction after filing for bankruptcy.