Business news for Tue, 18 Dec 2007 & with words billion+department. 3 news.

(Crain's) -- Navistar International Corp. on Tuesday received order for 1,500 armored trucks for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan worth more than $1.18 billion. The latest order from the U.S. Department of Defense pushes the Navistar's total orders for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected ...

"Legal and other policy issues have to be considered by legal experts and related to policy about return or non-return of spectrum. But every megahertz of spectrum has to cost somehow," the committee, headed by additional secretary in the Department of Telecom R Bandhopadhyay, said in a note. At present, mobile operators get start-up spectrum virtually free as it comes bundled with the licence. Companies need to pay Rs 1,651 crore (Rs 16.51 billion) for a pan-India licence.

Wheat prices surged above $10 a bushel for the first time Monday amid concerns that strong demand globally could result in a grain shortage in the United States next year -- worsening food price inflation. Wheat supplies in the U.S. have dwindled this year as one wheat crop after another around the world has been damaged by poor weather, most recently in Australia and Argentina. That's sent buyers scrambling for stockpiles at any cost. U.S. wheat exporters already have sold more than 90 percent of the 1.175 billion bushels the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects will be exported during the whole marketing year, which ends in June 2008. Kansas wheat producers likely won't benefit much from the spike, as most of last year's crop has already been sold, said Marsha Boswell, a spokeswoman for Kansas Wheat. "Last year during harvest, we had flooding and also freeze damage in April, so there was a lot of wheat we were not able to harvest," she said. "So there's not a lot of wheat left in the state to be sold at that price right now." However, the higher bushel price is good news for farmers looking ahead to futures pricing for next year's harvest.