Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with word city. 39 news.

Eric Volz was ordered freed after an appeals court threw out his conviction in the murder of his Nicaraguan lover. The real-estate broker had been convicted despite evidence that placed him in another city at the time of the murder.

Research In Motion Ltd. has picked the telecommunications hub of suburban Dallas as the site of its U.S. headquarters, with a plan to employ more than 1,000 people in the city of Irving within the next several years.

CHINA Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, the nation's third-largest insurer, raised 30 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) in its Shanghai initial public offering yesterday, the second-biggest mainland share sale by a Chinese insurance company. Pacific Insurance, 19.9 percent owned by companies controlled by funds managed by the Carlyle Group, sold one billion new shares at 30 yuan each, the top end of a range, according to a sale document. Investors are piling into China's IPOs, seeking an escape from a secondary stock market disturbed by concerns about rising domestic interest rates and other government measures to cool growth in the world's fastest-growing major economy. "Chinese investors still have a lot of appetite for insurance stocks, since there will be only three companies traded domestically," said Ke Shifeng, who helps oversee about US$5 billion of Greater China assets for Martin Currie Investment Management in Shanghai. "The IPO market remains red-hot unlike the

NEW World Department Store China Ltd, a unit of billionaire Cheng Yu-tung's New World Development Co, agreed to buy a department store and real estate from its parent for HK$885.4 million (US$113 million). New World Department Store China will buy Wuhan Department Store and a shopping mall in a complex its parent owns in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, it said in a statement yesterday.

Following up on its vow to raise money by selling its drugs to other companies, PDL BioPharma of Redwood City announced today that a Japanese company has agreed to buy a PDL drug used in bone marrow transplants for $200 million in cash.

SHANGHAI'S new apartments, excluding budget homes and houses designated for relocated residents, have been sold at an average price of 1.28 million yuan (US$172,970) per unit so far this year, a major real estate research firm disclosed yesterday. The price represents an increase of 11.4 percent compared to 2006. "By December 15, approximately 20.39 million square meters of new homes have been sold in the city with an average price of 10,292 yuan per square meter," said Xue Jianxiong, head of research at Shanghai Youwin Real Estate Information Service Co Ltd, the report compiler. "Last year, 16.77 million square meters of new houses were sold, at an average price of 9,432 yuan per square meter." In terms of unit and space, 163,645 apartments have been sold till mid December, with an average unit space of 124.65 square meters (gross floor area), compared with 137,335 units sold in 2006 with an average GFA of 122.15 square meters, according to Youwin

OVERALL demand for office space in Asia's major commercial centers remained robust over the past quarter, led by expanding local businesses and non-finance-related occupiers increasingly notable in many regional markets, a leading global real estate service provider has said. Supply of Grade A office space continued to be tight in the central business district areas of Hong Kong, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, with vacancy rates hovering at five percent or lower. The Philippines and Singapore led the entire Asian market, with rents jumping over 15 percent over the past quarter, according to a recently released analysis by CB Richard Ellis. Rents in major Chinese cities also remained buoyant in the three-month period. In Shanghai, average rent rose 2.7 percent from a quarter earlier to 20.9 yuan (US$2.84) per square foot per month. In particular, rents grew 2.6 percent to 20.4 yuan per square foot per month in Puxi and rents increased 3.3 percent to 22.3 yuan per

A mortgage-relief plan being pushed by the government is supposed to help debt-laden homeowners across America. But it's creating dashed hopes and fresh tensions in this city that mushroomed during the subprime-lending boom.

National City expects to set aside about $700 million to cover loan losses in the fourth quarter, and said it incurred mortgage-related charges of about $200 million in October and November.

Champagne corks will be popping in the City of London headquarters of Amec tomorrow to celebrate the construction and engineering services group's elevation to the Footsie

Sports Direct offered little comfort to investors today with a set of results as miserable as the City had predicted and little sign of the long-sought changes at the top

BP is facing a new public relations problem in the US, where a city in Kansas claims the oil giant broke promises to clean up pollution at a refinery

Analysis:One of the last great British survivors of the dotcom boom, QXL Ricardo, yesterday struck South African gold as it was snapped up by Naspers for £946m

At the ripe age of 67, Bryan Sanderson ought to be signing up to Northern Rock's Silver Savings account, not taking on the chairmanship

The Daily Mail's City desk explains the importance of directors' dealing in shares

A second jury lost a chance to render a verdict in a trial stemming from the deadly 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery when a civil trial ended early Tuesday with a settlement.

A second jury lost a chance to render a verdict in a trial stemming from the deadly 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery when a civil trial ended early Tuesday with a settlement.

Texas may have lost out to Illinois in its bid to host the FutureGen power plant project, but Lone Star state officials may take some comfort in that they won't be stuck in an ongoing feud between government and industry participants.

A BP refinery polluted Neodesha, Kan., and the company broke promises to clean it up, a lawyer for the city and its residents told jurors Tuesday at the close of a trial.

A former Riverside city official started Monday as president of Wyandotte Development Inc., the marketing organization for Wyandotte County.