Business news for Sat, 15 Mar 2008. 536 news.

With a few exceptions, nearly every grocery category measured by the Labor Department, which compiles the official inflation numbers, has increased in the last year. Milk is up 17 percent, as are dried beans, peas and lentils.

Pakistan's interim government raised fuel prices about 7 percent Saturday, a decision likely to spark public anger at a time when food prices are also rising. The hike by the Pakistan Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority came as world oil prices continue...

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An explosion at an Albanian army depot near Tirana killed at least five and injured more than 215 people. The prime minister said he feared there could be many dead.

Japanese ISPs agree to cut off connections of users found illegally copying gaming software and music files.

Tech journalist and ZDNet blogger Russell Shaw passed away on Friday.

An economist's perspective on investing in today's economy. Paul Lufkin shares his warnings and investing tips as our economy continues to slide. This is part one of a five part series. www.WealthLifelines.com

Researchers from Microsoft analyzed 30 billion Microsoft Instant Messenger conversations, finding that average path length, or degree of separation, among the anonymized users probed was 6.6.

The neighbors of the widow of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay have sued her, accusing her of not paying her share of fees associated with living in one of Houston's most exclusive high-rises.

BEAR Stearns Co's 85 years as an independent Wall Street firm may be coming to an end as JPMorgan Chase and Co considers buying the crippled company. Teetering on the brink of collapse from a lack of cash, Bear Stearns got emergency funding on Friday from the United States Federal Reserve and JPMorgan in the largest government bailout of a US securities firm. The move failed to avert a crisis of confidence among Bear Stearns' customers and shareholders, who drove the stock down a record 47 percent. After denying early last week that access to capital was at risk, Bear Stearns Chief Executive Officer Alan Schwartz said the company's cash position had "significantly deteriorated" by Friday. The Fed agreed to provide financing through JPMorgan for up to 28 days, the bank said in a statement. Insiders said JPMorgan, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, is now considering buying Bear Stearns, Bloomberg News reported. No agreement has been reached and it's

CHINA Huaneng Group will buy Singapore's Tuas Power Ltd for S$4.24 billion (US$3.1 billion) in China's second-biggest overseas acquisition this year. The Beijing-based company has signed an agreement to buy Tuas Power from Temasek Holdings Pte, Huaneng, China's biggest power producer, said on its Website Friday. The transaction is expected to be completed by March 24, Singapore's state investment company said in a separate statement. The purchase "represents a major step for China Huaneng in its goal to diversify its assets across geographies and technologies," Vice President Huang Long said in the statement. Tuas Power, the first of three utilities Temasek is selling, was set up in 1995 and has 2,670 megawatts of capacity built at a cost of S$2 billion. Its power station at the western end of the city state comprises four blocks of natural-gas-fired combined cycle plants and two units of steam plants. "The move is a natural extension of the Chinese power

SINGAPORE created a record 9.4 percent more jobs last year as demand for goods and services pushed companies such as UBS AG and Novartis AG to boost hiring. Employers added 234,900 new workers, exceeding the 176,000 in 2006, the Manpower Ministry said. The jobless rate fell to 1.6 percent last quarter, the lowest in a decade. Financial services and biotechnology companies are hiring more workers as they expand or set up new businesses in Singapore, offsetting job losses in electronics production as some manufacturers shift operations to lower-cost countries. Still, signs that the United States, Singapore's biggest export market, is heading for recession may hurt jobs this year, economists say. "As the slowdown in the US gets more and more apparent, we will see unemployment start to creep up," said Alvin Liew, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. "Wages are likely to grow more slowly as well." Salaries rose 6.2 percent last year.

AUTO production and sales remained stable in China last year, but growth was a bit slower because of lukewarm demand for vehicles of low engine displacement. China produced 8.88 million motor vehicles and sold 8.79 million, up 22.02 percent and 21.84 percent respectively over the previous year. But the growth rate for production was 5.3 percentage points lower than the year-earlier level, and that for sales, 3.29 percentage points lower. Passenger-vehicle sales went up 21.86 percent last year to 6.3 million units nationwide, Ministry of Commerce sources said yesterday. The total included 4.73 million cars, representing a year-on-year growth of 23.46 percent and accounting for 53.76 percent of the nation's total auto sales. Cars with an engine displacement of 1-2 liters each made up 3.92 million units, or 82.89 percent. Sales of commercial vehicles rose 22.25 percent to 2.49 million units nationwide. The growth rate was 8.02 percentage points higher.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia file a class action lawsuit against thirty seven leading banks, insurance companies, and brokers alleging widespread price-fixing and bid-rigging in the multi-billion dollar municipal derivatives industry dating back to 1992.

A bomb exploded in the parking lot of an upscale hotel in Thailand's restive south on Saturday, killing two people and wounding 14 others. Police found and defused a second bomb in a hotel restroom.

SEATTLE (MarketWatch) -- Financial stocks will fall a lot further and make you handsome profits over the coming six- to 12 months if you're positioned correctly.

ONE of Australia's most powerful trade unions has been accused of extorting money from transport companies and double-crossing its own members.

Chicago's two largest food companies face a deeper cut at the butcher's block. Rising beef and pork costs signal added pressure on margins for Kraft Foods Inc. and Sara Lee Corp., both already squeezed by surging coffee, dairy and wheat prices. With Americans staring at escalating inflation and a ...

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Dr John Hood, is hosting the Oxford India Business Forum in Mumbai on 14 March 2008.