Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with word world. 65 news.

Quebecor World has parted company with its chief executive, Wes Lucas, amid setbacks at the Montreal-based company, one of the world's biggest commercial printers

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- In a deal worth a cool $10 billion, Ingersoll-Rand Co. will acquire Trane Inc. and create one of the world's largest makers of commercial and residential home air conditioners, refrigerators for trucks and stores, and other climate control products....

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.

Quebecor World, which has been beset by a host of problems recently, on Monday announced an immediate change in the chief executive's office.

Calling Guinness: If this isn't a world record for the world's longest commercial, I'd like to know what is.Emirates launched a nonstop flight from Dubai to Sand#227;o Paulo in October. The first-ever direct flight between the Middle East and South America lasts 14 hours and 40 minutes, the same amount of time the airline's nonstop advertisement lasts.

ACE Ltd has agreed to buy Combined Insurance Co of America from Aon Corp, the world's second-largest insurance broker, for US$2.4 billion in cash. The purchase of the Illinois-based accident, health, and life insurance unit, which has four million policy holders and almost 7,000 sales agents, will probably close by the end of the second quarter, Ace said yesterday. Aon is also selling Washington-based health-care insurer Sterling Life Insurance Co to Munich Re, the world's second-biggest reinsurer, for US$352 million. "The acquisition of Combined is a significant milestone for Ace and represents both an opportunity for considerable growth and expense-related efficiencies," Ace Chief Executive Officer Evan G. Greenberg said. Ace, the Bermuda-based business insurer, said in October it may make an acquisition to expand its life insurance business, according to Bloomberg News. Greenberg said the company was also planning to expand small-business coverage in Asia and

WHEAT rose above US$10 a bushel for the first time yesterday, leading other grains and oilseeds higher in a food price spiral that threatens global economic growth. Chicago wheat futures jumped as much as 30 US cents, or 3.1 percent, to US$10.09 as dry weather threatened crops in Argentina, renewing concern that the world's farmers may not be able to grow enough to meet rising demand for bread, pasta and livestock feed. Rice also advanced to a record, while soybeans reached the highest price in 34 years and corn reached a nine-month peak, said Bloomberg News. Rising prices of food and fuel are stoking inflation and making it more difficult for central bankers to lower interest rates. Kellogg Co, the largest United States cereal maker, General Mills Inc, Nissin Food Products Co and Kikkoman Corp are among companies that have raised prices. "We are seeing a broad-based increase in cost pressures," Brian Redican, senior economist at Macquarie Group Ltd, said from

BAIDU.COM has teamed up with Huawei Technologies and Intel to strengthen its servers and search technologies to expand its lead in the domestic market over rivals including Google, Nasdaq-listed Baidu said yesterday. Baidu announced it will build a joint lab with Huawei to explore "next-generation" online search and test 3G-related mobile phone services, just one month after Google launched mobile search services in China. "Baidu has to break the bottleneck of the server capacity as the demand for search surges in China," William Chang, Baidu's chief scientist, said. "Baidu has to triple its existing capacity to reach the global level of services." In the third quarter, China overtook the United States to become the world's largest search traffic, with 10 billion hits per month, Baidu said. Baidu has launched a series of new services, such as an Olympics channel, game channel, Baidu TV and online music streaming (partnered with Rock Music Group).

THE United States' refusal to comply with a World Trade Organization decision on online gambling is threatening to undermine the entire set of rules binding the international trade system. The WTO is to decide soon on a demand from the tropical nation of Antigua and Barbuda for US$3.4 billion in annual compensation from the US, whose law banning Americans from betting on Internet gaming sites was first ruled illegal by the WTO in 2004. The implications of the case go far beyond Antigua, a nation of 69,000. That's because, instead of rewriting its gambling laws, the US rewrote its trade rules to remove the issue from the WTO's jurisdiction. The prospect that other nations may take a similar tack if cases don't go their way has spooked the international trade community. "This is by far the most significant WTO case ever," says Naotaka Matsukata, a policy adviser in Washington with Alston + Bird LLP and a former US trade official. Meanwhile, Antigua, which has

THE size of China's economy is overestimated by some 40 per cent, but it remains the world's second largest using a ranking based on purchasing power, the World Bank said overnight.

The luxury brand Jaguar is poised to join an Indian auto company that makes everything from tractor-trailers to full-size SUVs to the world's cheapest car.

FT.com - Rexam (NASDAQ:REXMY), the world's biggest maker of drinks cans, continued its miserable run on Monday, as the wider market suffered another sharp fall.

Because of rising demand for ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than at any time since World War II. And sea life in the Gulf of Mexico is paying the price.

By Craig Rosenberg We have established that, in the CRM world, there are a small handful (and one hand, if that) of CRM goliaths and a large number of up-and-coming players. The question is how do you effectively enter the CRM War and actually make a difference. The majority of CRM vendors today are attacking the market [...]

War in Iraq, Russia resurgent, China on the rise, turmoil in Pakistan and the credit crunch – the theme that links the most significant world events of the past year is the growing strain on the world's sole superpower, writes Gideon Rachman

MGM Mirage, the US-based gaming and resorts group, is in discussions with Dubai World to extend their relationship into China

China's economy, the world's second largest, is not as big as was thought, a report by the World Bank claims.

Newer chips with multiple processors require dauntingly complex software, but that challenge hasn't stopped Microsoft, where executives are betting that many-core chips will transform the world of personal computing.

Tesco - Britain's biggest supermarket group and the world's third-largest retailer is planning to bring its brand of stores to the U.S. Tesco will attempt to walk the line between Wal-Mart and the higher-end Whole Foods.