French drinks company Pernod Ricard, the worldÔÇÖs second-largest liquor maker, announced on Wednesday a Ôé¼1 billion ($1.3 billion) rights offering of its Wild Turkey bourbon to ItalyÔÇÖs Gruppo Campari in an effort to speed up debt reduction. Pernod took on added debt when it bought Sweden's Vin & Spirits, the maker of Absolut vodka, for $9.24 billion.

US carmaker Ford has seen its shares rise 16 percent in New York, after saying it had cut $9.9 billion from its $25.8 billion debt.  The 38 percent debt reduction will reduce Ford's interest payments by more than $500 million a year.

Dubai's first low cost airline, flydubai,┬áannounced yesterday it would open its service in June, with the first daily flights departing to Lebanese capital Beirut and Amman, Jordan. flydubai will operate a $4 billion fleet of 54 Boeing 737 aircraft, each offering 189 economy class seats, from its base at Terminal 2 at Dubai International Airport.

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Brazilian mining company Vale has launched a ┬ú908.5 million coal mining project in Mozambique. ┬á Vale is the worldÔÇÖs second-largest mining company and the largest producer of iron ore.┬á Mozambique has attracted increasing numbers of foreign investors recently because of soaring mineral prices, and it is speculated that the country will now become the continentÔÇÖs second-largest coal producer behind South Africa, which holds most of AfricaÔÇÖs reserves.

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Global leaders took their biggest steps yet toward a new world order thatÔÇÖs less U.S.-centric with a more heavily regulated financial industry and a greater role for international institutions and emerging markets.  At the end of a summit in London, policy makers from the Group of 20 yesterday delivered a regulatory blueprint that French president Nicholas Sarkozy said turned the page on the Anglo-Saxon model of free markets by placing stricter limits on hedge funds and other financiers.

Global leaders took their biggest steps yet toward a new world order thatÔÇÖs less U.S.-centric with a more heavily regulated financial industry and a greater role for international institutions and emerging markets.  At the end of a summit in London, policy makers from the Group of 20 yesterday delivered a regulatory blueprint that French president Nicholas Sarkozy said turned the page on the Anglo-Saxon model of free markets by placing stricter limits on hedge funds and other financiers.

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