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Zara Owner Eyes Asia Expansion After Profit Jump

Spain's Inditex, the world's largest fashion retailer and owner of the Zara brand, announced Wednesday bumper 2010 profits and revealed plans to broaden its rapid Asian expansion across China and India.

Asia was the fastest growing revenue source in the year ending January 31, 2011, a period in which overall net profit leapt 33 percent to 1.73 billion euros ($2.46 billion), Inditex said in a statement.

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Oil Hovers Above $102 as Traders Eye Libya Strife

Oil prices hovered above $102 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders mulled how long Libyan oil exports will remain shut down amid a third night of allied attacks on forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was down 14 cents to $102.19 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The April contract, which expires Tuesday, rose $1.26 to settle at $102.33 on Monday.

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AT&T to Buy T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

AT&T Inc. said Sunday it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $39 billion that would make it the largest cellphone company in the U.S.

The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny. It also removes a potential partner for Sprint Nextel Corp., the struggling No. 3 carrier, which had been in talks to combine with T-Mobile USA, according to Wall Street Journal reports.

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Hyundai Recalls 190,000 Cars in US

South Korea's largest automaker, Hyundai Motor Co., has recalled 190,000 cars with faulty airbags in the United States, a news agency report said Saturday.

Hyundai recalled 190,000 Elantra passenger cars sold between 2006 and 2008 in the U.S. as they have defective airbag sensors, Yonhap news agency said.

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Nissan to Monitor Vehicles for Radioactivity

Nissan Motor said Friday it would monitor all its vehicles made in Japan for radioactivity, amid international concern over efforts to avert a nuclear catastrophe at a stricken atomic plant.

"We will continue to implement all appropriate measures to reassure the public that all products from our company remain within globally accepted safety standards," the company said in a statement.

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Oil Heads to $103 as UN Authorizes Libya Strikes

Oil prices rose to near $103 a barrel Friday in Asia as traders worried the United Nations' authorization of military strikes against forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi could prolong the conflict and threaten oil exports.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up $1.53 at $102.95 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $3.44 to settle at $101.42 on Thursday.

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Why Inflation Hurts More Than it Did 30 Years Ago

Inflation spooked the nation in the early 1980s. It surged and kept rising until it topped 13 percent.

These days, inflation is much lower. Yet to many Americans, it feels worse now. And for a good reason: Their income has been even flatter than inflation.

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Lufthansa Sees Higher Profit, Sales in 2011-12

The leading German airline, Lufthansa, forecast Thursday improved operating profit and sales for this year and next even though 2011 "will not be a walk in the park."

For 2010, the Lufthansa group reported an operating profit of 876 million euros ($1.2 billion) on sales that reached 27.3 billion.

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Toyota to Partially Resume Production in 7 Plants

Toyota said it would resume partial production of car parts at seven plants in Japan on Thursday, after suspending all factories following the nation's biggest ever earthquake.

The plants will first begin making replacement parts for the domestic market, and on Monday restart production of parts to supply to its overseas factories.

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Japan Market Bounces Back, Lifts World Shares

Japanese stocks rebounded Wednesday, recovering some of the massive losses sustained over the last two days following a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Markets around the world also bounced back even as the human and economic toll from the disasters, including an escalating nuclear crisis, remained unclear.

Oil prices rose above $98 a barrel as fears that clashes in Bahrain and Libya could further disrupt crude supplies outweighed concern Japan's crises will crimp demand. In currencies, the dollar was little against the yen and up against the euro.

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