Business news with words people+plans. 60 or more news.

Farrah Gray, author of "Get Real, Get Rch: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You From Success" says that consumers and investors making New Year's resolutions should start the process by exchanging hopes and dreams for a plan. In a radio interview, Gray said that most people let themselves get sidetracked from their goals because they don't have a plan to reach them, so they keep hoping to reach their targets without actually plotting the course to take to make good things happen.

The Halifax bar where 38 people were arrested after a brawl last week may become the first in Canada to allow police and liquor inspectors to monitor its security cameras over the internet, a plan that worries privacy experts.

Nifty Nut House will expand its operation on North St. Francis in 2008, starting with a new Internet site and continuing with facilities expansion that should be complete in a year. Owner Steve Jahn has finalized plans for a larger retail store and manufacturing facility at the current 537 N. St. Francis location, with completion planned before the 2008 Christmas season. He has purchased land and a vacant building on the south side of the St. Francis lot for future expansion, including parking. Jahn is trying to plan for the next decade for his nuts and candy business, which has a 10 to 15 percent annual sales growth. "People only remember mistakes, so I've been fairly cautious with our growth," he said.

Plans for the break-up and subsequent sale of the £5.7 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link are likely to be sketched out early in March, according to people familiar with the auction.

CHINA'S Agriculture Bank will start restructure early next year, the governor of the country's central bank said in Beijing today. Reform plans for the Beijing-based Agricultural Bank will come out at the beginning of next year, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said at the sideline of a financial forum this morning.

THE yuan climbed to the strongest since a link to the US dollar was scrapped two years ago after the central bank said exchange-rate flexibility will rise, spurring speculation it plans to widen the daily trading band. The yuan rose 0.3 percent to 7.3475 per US dollar at 5:30pm in Shanghai, bringing gains this month to 0.7 percent. The central bank set the reference rate at 7.3315 yesterday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The rate touched 7.3405 yesterday, the highest since the peg ended in July 2005. The People's Bank of China said in a statement last Friday that it will let the market play a bigger role in setting the exchange rate.

The Gloucester-based holiday company goes into administration, leaving as much as 40,000 people scrambling to rearrange their vacation plans

AUTO maker BMW AG said yesterday that it plans to cut thousands of jobs in 2008 as it moves to reduce costs. Daniel Schmidt, a spokesman at the Munich-based company, did not say exactly how many jobs would be cut, but news magazine Der Spiegel reported on its Website that the figure was 8,000 jobs. Schmidt said that most of the cuts would come in Germany. BMW employs more than 106,000 people worldwide.

GENERAL Motors Corp is considering increasing interest rates for car loans in China as part of moves to offset mounting expenses. GMAC-SAIC Automotive Finance Co, a local auto financing tie-up of GMAC, the auto financing business of GM, plans to raise the lending rate at the same pace of the benchmark increase offered by People's Bank of China for previous contractors, industry sources said. For new clients, the rate will be even higher, the source said, adding details would be announced later. China's central bank yesterday raised the interest rate for the sixth time this year by adding a 0.09-percentage point on the benchmark one-to-three year lending rate to 7.56 percent and 7.74 percent for three-to-five year loans. GMAC-SAIC now offered annual car loans for one-to-three year contacts at 11.38 percent while 11.6 percent was capped for a three-to-five year loan. It would be the third time GMAC has raised the interest rate this year following a series of tightened monetary

The lawsuit filed by the city of Neodesha against oil giant BP Corp. North America Inc. came down during closing arguments to a dispute on whether the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was incompetent in its oversight of the cleanup of pollution left behind by a former oil refinery in Neodesha. "The city really takes the position they don't really care what KDHE wants. This is their city and this is what they want done," Steven Lamb, attorney for the defendants, told jurors Wednesday. Neodesha attorney John Edgar told jurors on Tuesday that BP used the Department of Health and Environment as a "bodyguard" to get state approval for its plans and criticized an agency employee for not knowing how to do her job and not representing the people of Neodesha. But Lamb countered on Wednesday that the state agency has been reviewing the company's work and did not have a problem with the progress on their cleanup. "This isn't fraud," Lamb said. "KDHE knew exactly what we were doing."

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Apple is making plans to take the iPhone into Japan and has held talks with NTT DoCoMo , The Wall Street Journal Asia reported, citing people familiar with the situation. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs recently met with NTT DoCoMo's president, Masao Nakamura, to discuss a deal to offer its iPhone in Japan through Japan's dominant mobile operator, the report said. Apple has also been talking to No. 3 operator Softbank Corp., the report said.

LOS ANGELES - Ticketmaster plans to launch a Web site next year where people can resell tickets to pro football games, the latest push by the event ticketing company into the lucrative secondary ticket market.

Mobile handset giant Nokia plans to open a three-floor retail shop on Regent Street early next year. The shiny, shocking blue outlet will change more than just the face of the 19th century building previously occupied by the Dickins & Jones department store, which closed last year. The West End shop, across the street from the Apple store, will signal a reversal of power in the $730bn (361bn) mobile industry, away from operators and towards handset and internet companies.

Wealthy Americans who claim nondomicile status in Britain have complained to the Government that they will be unfairly singled out under its plans to impose a new tax on foreign workers. Proposals for a £30,000 charge on nondomiciled residents (or so-called nondoms), outlined in a Treasury consultation paper last week, have prompted an angry response from Americans. The US Embassy has met British representatives to outline the US nondoms’ concerns that they will be unfairly charged. The Americans also argue that they may be forced to complete two separate tax returns, creating a headache for accountants. But the Treasury has hit back, saying its proposals are fair and that any fault lies with the US tax system. The new charge was outlined by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, in his PreBudget Report in October. It would be paid annually by anyone who has claimed nondom status for seven out of the past ten years, and is due to begin in April. The aim is to redress the unfair system under which foreign workers, who pay no tax to their home country while working in Britain, can also exempt themselves from tax on their overseas earnings. But unlike almost every other country, the US imposes taxes on its citizens even when they are working abroad. Americans can usually offset British taxes against their US bill. But the US Embassy has told the Treasury that the proposed charge cannot be offset, because it has no equivalent in the US tax code. A spokesman for the US Embassy said: “The US Government is studying the potential impact on American citizens of the proposed tax changes in the recently released consultation paper issued by HM Treasury. “We have heard concerns raised by the American community in the UK about this and have, and will continue to, pass on those concerns to HM Government officials in our meetings with them.” Americans who choose to end their nondom status will not have to pay the charge, but will face the hassle of filling in tax returns for both jurisdictions. A Treasury official confirmed that the embassy had explained how the proposals would work for US citizens, who make up a large proportion of the estimated 110,000 nondoms in Britain. But he said: “It is quite right that people who have made their home in the UK should make a fair contribution to the UK. The US charges people on their worldwide income, as opposed to by residence, which is

A hanging garden on a dance club's facade is the seed of plans to give people a place to get down without the green guilt.

POLIMEX-MOSTOSTAL SA, Poland's biggest construction company, plans to hire "several thousand" new workers next year to meet demand for new bridges and factories, Chief Executive Officer Konrad Jaskola said. "I have an unlimited need for people," Jaskola said in an interview with Bloomberg News yesterday at the company's Warsaw headquarters. Polimex already increased its workforce by 50 percent to about 13,000 this year, he said. Construction in Poland rose 20 percent in the first nine months of 2007 as the economy grew at an annual pace of 6.7 percent. Polimex needs to offer higher salaries to engineers and managers as skilled workers move abroad and local competition increases, Jaskola said. The company, which is building a desulphurization plant for Electrabel SA in Poland as well as sports halls, roads and bridges, reported a 19 percent gain in third-quarter profit to 21.6 million zloty (US$8.7 million). Sales increased by 41 percent to 934.8 million

Dow Chemical and PIC, an arm of Kuwait Petroleum, announced plans to form a joint venture that will employ more than 5,000 people world-wide.

HSBC plans to break even at its first rural bank in China in three years and eyes more such branches around the country, senior bankers said today. HSBC opened its first rural bank in Suizhou, Hubei Province, today as the first overseas lender to test the market. The rural bank – Hubei Suizhou Cengdu HSBC Rural Bank Co Ltd – is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp and has registered capital of 10 million yuan (US$1.35 million). The bank started its initial phase of operations with deposit-taking from businesses and individuals. It will also provide trade finance and transactional banking services for export-oriented rural enterprises with an initial staff of 22 people. It plans to expand its services to include the provision of business-related loans to individual rural farmers in its second phase of operations that wll begin next year. Peter Wong, the executive director of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, or the Asian division of HSBC,

California's top insurance regulator has accused Blue Shield, one of the state's largest health plans, of 1,262 violations of claims-handling laws and regulations that resulted in more than 200 people losing their medical coverage.

Japan backs a set of proposals to help small firms and people on low incomes cope with high oil prices.