Alcoa slashes output, sacks 13,500 workers: Alcoa Inc., the world’s largest aluminum maker, announced its third production cut in as many months and said it will reduce its global workforce by 13,500 in response to declining demand and prices.

The moves will lower the company’s annual smelting capacity by about 750,000 metric tons, or about 18%, New York-based Alcoa said today in a statement. The company also will incur charges of as much as $US950 million related to restructuring costs, impairments and worker dismissals, which amount to about 13% of Alcoa’s employees. — Bloomberg

German billionaire Merckle kills himself: Crushed by watching his life’s work slip through his fingers, Adolf Merckle, the 74-year-old Swabian billionaire, walked out into the bitter cold Monday night and threw himself under a speeding train. Though he led a quiet life, mountain climbing among his few personal passions, Merckle was thrust into the headlines in November as it emerged that he lost several hundred million euros when he got caught on the losing end of a short sale of Volkswagen shares. It is believed that he lost as much as 500 million eruos. His trouble was made worse by the spreading financial crisis, which hit his corporate empire hard. — Time

German Chancellor Merkel spruiks new stimulus package: Amid a dispute over tax cuts, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition has prepared the groundwork for a new economic stimulus package designed to protect Germany from recession. The package, which could amount to between 40-50 billion euros over the next two years, is expected to include investments in schools, public works and energy efficiency – Deutsche Welle

iTunes goes copyright free — for a price: Apple and the three largest music labels didn’t take any half steps in walking away from copy-protection software at Macworld 2009 Tuesday. Apple could have announced, as expected, simply that the iTunes Store would begin offering songs stripped of digital rights management from now on. Instead, the country’s largest music retailer secured licenses that will enable users to upgrade their existing DRM-wrapped music and strip it of the controversial software–but it’s going to cost them. For an additional 30 cents per song, a user can receive a DRM-free version of their existing tracks at a 256-kbps bit rate. — CNET

Enron’s Jeff Skilling could get a new trial: A US federal appeals court today upheld the conviction of Jeff Skilling, the former Enron chief executive. But it left open the possibility that he could win a new trial later because of what the appeals judges called the government’s “troubling” failure to disclose one statement made to the FBI by the principal witness against Mr. Skilling. That new trial request may represent Mr. Skilling’s best remaining hope to avoid spending most or all of the rest of his life in prison. – New York Times Blogs