Also

* Aleris International Inc., a maker of aluminum sheets from recycled metal, said it would stop work next year at a plant in Carson where it employs 163 workers.

* Time Warner Inc. may have its long-term credit rating cut by Moody’s Investors Service after announcing plans to increase its debt relative to profit. The three biggest ratings companies now are considering downgrading Time Warner’s debt.

* Microsoft Corp. said it had signed a deal to scan 100,000 books from the British Library and put them online. Readers will be able to search through about 25 million pages of material next year without having to pay any fee.

* XO Communications Inc., a telephone company controlled by financier Carl Icahn, said it would sell its national wire-line telecommunications business for $700 million in cash to Icahn’s Elk Associates. The proceeds of the sale will be used to repay debt, and XO Communications will create a national broadband wireless company.