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India investigating Kraft for tax evasion

From The New York Times’ DealBook | India’s Ministry of Finance is investigating whether Kraft Foods evaded taxes in its $19 billion takeover of Cadbury last year.

Virus attacks Android phones in China

A powerful virus targeting smart phones in China running Google Inc’s Android operating system may represent the most sophisticated bug to target mobile devices to date, security researchers said on Thursday. Get the full story »

Companies hope sourcing will stem illegal honey

A beekeeper stirs honey at an apiary near Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)

Honey companies and importers are launching a program in January to try to stop the flow of illegally sourced honey from coming into the country.

The True Source Honey Initiative is an effort by a handful of producers and importers looking to certify the origin and purity of the honey sold to U.S. consumers in jars and products such as cereals, snacks and glazes. Get the full story »

Study: Canada is most Web-addicted nation

Maybe it’s all those Justin Bieber fans: Canadians log more time on the Web and social media, including Facebook and YouTube, than any other nation.

The measurement company comScore reported Canada has the highest penetration of Internet access, with around 68 percent of Canadians routinely surfing online, against 62 percent in France and Britain. Close behind is 60 percent of Germans going online and, south of the border, 59 percent of Americans.

The laggards are Italians, where only 36 percent of the population goes online, according to comScore. Get the full story »

China’s rare earths export cut raises trade concerns

China has raised fresh international trade concerns after slashing export quotas on rare earths minerals, used in the manufacture of high-tech devices, risking action from the United States at the World Trade Organization.

China, which produces about 97 percent of the global supply of rare earth minerals, cut its export quotas by 35 percent for the first half of 2011 versus a year ago, saying it wanted to preserve ample reserves, but warned against basing its total 2011 export quota on the first half figures. Get the full story »

Caterpillar, other companies boost hiring overseas

Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn’t anyone hiring?

Many American companies are — overseas, where sales are surging and the pipeline of orders is fat. Get the full story »

Treasurys dip on China rate hike

Treasury prices picked up where they left off before Christmas: heading lower.

Investors sent bond prices down just a bit Monday, after a surprise interest rate hike in China and before a $99 billion auction of long-term government notes scheduled for this week. Get the full story »

Playboy pin hopes for turnaround on growth in Asia

February marks the start of the year of the rabbit in the Chinese lunar calendar.

It may be an auspicious sign for Playboy Enterprises Inc., which opened a nightclub in Macau last month as it seeks to expand its business by licensing the trademark bunny head logo on lifestyle products in Asia, its fastest growing region.

The company, founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953, also plans to open a Playboy Mansion in 2012 in Macau, a former Portuguese colony on the southern coast of China, and has been busy cutting deals to sell Playboy-branded merchandise across Asia.

Russian oil tycoon Khodorkovsky found guilty again

A Russian judge pronounced Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev guilty of embezzlement on Monday at the end of the jailed former oil tycoon’s politically charged second trial. Get the full story »

British Consulate shopping for new Chicago digs

The British Consulate-General, which has leased two floors of the Wrigley Building for more than a decade, is shopping around for new offices. The consulate’s lease expires next month, and the Consul General Robert Chatterton Dickson said Thursday that they are “looking at options.”

“We definitely have more space than we need; so, the timing of our lease negotiation is good,” he said. Get the full story »

Fitch downgrades teetering Portugal

The Fitch Ratings agency has downgraded Portugal’s credit rating as the country finds it more difficult to raise money in the markets to finance its borrowings. Get the full story »

Arab OPEC ministers to meet as oil price tops $90

Core OPEC ministers began arriving in Cairo on Thursday, ahead of talks that were expected to broach how high an oil price the world economy can stand as the market hovers near two-year peaks above $90 a barrel.

A full conference of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries earlier this month elected to make no change to an output policy it has stuck to since December 2008.

Since then oil has maintained a more than 30 percent rally from this year’s low struck in May and this week scaled a high of $90.80, the steepest in two years. Get the full story »

Senate panel to look into tanker data mixup

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings next month into an Air Force document bungle roiling a transAtlantic rematch for a potential $50 billion aerial-refueling plane contract.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin said Wednesday he was prepared to launch an investigation into “the release of proprietary data” from rival tanker bidders Boeing and Europe’s EADS.

At issue is what the Air Force calls “a clerical error” that sent Boeing and EADS computerized records in November with sensitive data on each other’s bid for the contract. Get the full story »

Dover buys Sound Solutions for $855M

Downers Grove-based Dover Corp. has reached an $855 million deal to acquire NXP Semiconductors NV’s Sound Solutions business, which makes speaker and receiver components for the mobile handset market. Get the full story »

French prosecutors appeal Concorde crash ruling

A French prosecutor’s office said Tuesday it is appealing the court ruling that blamed Continental Airlines for the deadly crash of a supersonic Concorde jet outside Paris a decade ago.

Prosecutors at the court in Pontoise, outside Paris, had argued that the former head of the Concorde program at planemaker Aerospatiale should share some legal responsibility with Continental for the crash. Get the full story »