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World business news - FORTUNE Magazine: International Edition
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From CNN and Money magazine, CNNMoney.com combines business news and in-depth market analysis with practical advice and answers to personal finance questions.
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The world's worst inflation
If purchased on the newsstand in Zimbabwe, the issue of Fortune you're holding would have cost you 270,543,825,555 Zimbabwean dollars. But don't worry about pulling your Weimar-era wheelbarrows out of storage. As of July you could pay for your magazine with three newly issued $100 billion bills.
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Not so lazy, after all
Europeans rarely feel more superior to us Americans than at this time of year, and you can't blame them. They're taking their umpteen-week vacations, perhaps enjoying state-funded massages in Baden-Baden, while we're trying desperately to squeeze every drop of fun out of our measly two or three weeks off before returning to the salt mines.
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5 hottest global job markets
These five countries are hungry for more workers.
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The British (retail) invasion
Sir Philip Green spreads his arms wide inside the 40,000-square-foot space that will soon become the first U.S. location of his retailer Topshop. "This is awesome," he says, his voice echoing around the guts of the Lower Manhattan landmark building. Sunlight streams through the windows onto his broad face as his architects show him where the deejay booth will hang from the ceiling. "This is everything you would want in retail," he crows inside the cavernous space.
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Europeans get serious about insider trading
On June 18, when French authorities put a second EADS executive under formal investigation for insider trading, it was the latest reminder that European regulators were getting serious about cleaning up their stock markets. Insider trading has long been on the statute books in France. To date, however, only one Frenchman has ever landed in jail for the offense, even though the law allows for sentences of up to two years.
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Ranbaxy makes Indian corporate history with Daiichi deal
The $3.4 to $4.6 billion planned sale of India's largest pharmaceuticals company marks a huge milestone in the internationalization of Indian companies.
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This train solves railways' pain
It is an unusual sight to behold: Freight trains zipping through Europe, across country borders - and over myriad rail voltages and national train systems. The technology patching together these previously incompatible train lines: A new "one-size-fits-all" locomotive that is winning over freight operators across Europe.
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Weatherford makes amends in Sudan
All too seldom is a Fortune story about corporate misbehavior transformed into feel-good news. But for the Texas oil-services company Weatherford International, our revelation last July that the company was operating in embargoed Sudan looked to be just such an opportunity. Weeks after we uncovered Weatherford working out of a two-story suburban villa in Khartoum, despite decade-old U.S. sanctions against Sudan, the company filed an SEC report announcing that it was pulling out - not only from Sudan, but also from Iran, Syria and Cuba. Those are all countries where Americans are forbidden to do business. By the end of March the company had closed its offices in all four countries.
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An international affair
Behind the scenes with a new gadget that's a real globetrotter -- the Nokia N810.
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Embattled Soc Gen CEO steps down
Daniel Bouton will step down as chief executive of Société Générale in May, although he'll stay on as chairman, the French bank announced Thursday. Bouton, 58, is taking the fall for the bank's failings in the rogue trading affair involving Jérôme Kerviel, a junior stock arbitrager who ultimately cost the bank $7.5 billion in net losses.
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You have 7 years to learn Mandarin
Back in 2001 when the International Olympic Committee chose Beijing as the site of this summer's games, the event was meant to mark China's debut as a player on the global economic stage. But a recent study by the economist Angus Maddison projects that China will become the world's dominant economic superpower much sooner than expected - not in 2050, but in 2015.
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Nuclear power's white-hot metal
The clock is chasing down 1 A.M. It's late for dinner - or for interviews - in Almaty, Kazakhstan's former capital. But self-made Kazakh uranium czar Moukhtar Dzhakishev is just hitting his stride. Between spoonfuls of Beluga caviar and bites of ruby-colored tuna flown in from Dubai, he is explaining that his small state-owned company, Kazatomprom, will soon rule the global nuclear energy industry. "I don't think there will be any competitors," he says softly. "I will eat them."
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Tata buys $2.3 billion of trouble
India's leading automaker buys Ford's Land Rover and Jaguar brands. Can Tata Motors succeed where so many others have failed?
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Scottish power
The Orkney Islands, where the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean violently meet, last gained fame in 1725 when the pirate ship Revenge was captured there.
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Waste not, want not
Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation.
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Searching for the next Dubai
It's always tough driving in the wilds of East Africa. But in the tiny country of Djibouti, our driver explains, it's tougher than usual. "Djiboutian goats don't scare," he says, holding down the horn and swerving. We're driving 100 mph the wrong way down a winding road through terrain so apocalyptic that British soldiers, back when they ruled the world, nicknamed this parched earth the Furthest Shag of the Never-Never Land.
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Pakistani elections encourage investors
Akbar Shah Afridi had no doubt about what will happen after Pakistan's votes are counted.
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Investment in Africa starts to pay off
Read the news about civil war in Kenya, unrest in Chad, or genocide in Darfur, and you could conclude that Africa is no place to invest money.
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Wal-Mart gets its bank - in Mexico
For years, Wal-Mart tried to enter the U.S. banking business, but it gave up in 2007, pulling its application after endless outcries from domestic retail banks. Now it's found a more receptive audience south of the border. In November, Wal-Mart de México opened its first consumer bank, Banco Wal-Mart, in Toluca; the company plans to launch 80 more by the end of the year.
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South Africa's mobile money
Jaccqueline Mathe, unemployed and 22, has just signed up for a bank account in Nellmapius, a black township near Pretoria. All she needed was a government ID and a mobile phone. Mathe hopes to save a quarter of the monthly $28.54 government grant she receives for her toddler, Khothasto, who is riding in a sling on her back.
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