Exchange traded funds provider, Barclays Bank has agreed to sell its iShares asset management business to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for £3 billion as it looks to raise cash and avoid turning to the government for aid.   However, Barclays will still maintain links with iShares, and is providing £2.1 billion of financing for the deal - in effect a loan to CVC to help it buy iShares.   "This transaction realises significant value for Barclays," said the bank's chief executive John Varley.

Washington has drawn a lot of attention since the financial industry continues to shrink. About 400 unemployed finance professionals have signed up to attend a New York job fair this month that features nine federal agencies, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The job-seekers are among 23,300 people who lost industry work in New York in the year through February as banks worldwide announced almost $870 billion in losses and write-downs.

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.