India, Brazil responsible for collapse of Potsdam talks: US Trade representative
Potsdam: India and Brazil's fear of growing Chinese imports was behind their decision to help prompt the collapse on Thursday of the G4 trade talks in Potsdam, said Susan Schwab, the US trade representative, has said in an interview with the FT.

Ms Schwab said she was also surprised by India and Brazil's "rigid" negotiating positions, remarking that Kamal Nath and Ceslo Amorim, the Indian and Brazilian trade ministers, were less flexible in their offers on their manufacturing tariffs at Potsdam than at previous negotiations.

Schwab also said that the collapse of the Potsdam talks could have positive as well as negative effects on Capitol Hill, which has undertaken a more hawkish stance towards China over the last few months. She faces a tough time ahead persuading the US Congress to renew the Bush administration's fast-track trade negotiating authority, which expires next week.
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GE and Pearson back off from Dow Jones deal
New York: General Electric Co said Thursday it had abandoned talks with Financial Times publisher Pearson PLC about a possible bid for Dow Jones & Co, removing a potential rival to News Corp's rival $5 billion offer for the financial news publisher.

GE said it and London-based Pearson had held exploratory talks about combining GE's CNBC business news cable channel, Pearson's Financial Times newspaper and Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and Dow Jones Newswires.

If Murdoch wrests control of Dow Jones it could help him launch a financial cable news channel in competition with NBC Universal's CNBC.
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Oil prices ease in Asian trade as Nigerian strike fails to achieve immediate impact
Singapore: Oil prices edged lower in Asian trading hours as market players appeared to believe that a general strike in Nigeria would not have a significant impact on oil supplies.

At 11.05 am here (0305 GMT), the New York Mercantile Exchange's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, was down 0.08 USD at 68.57 USD per barrel from 68.65 USD in late trading in the US overnight.

Brent North Sea crude for August was down 0.01 USD at 70.21 USD.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress started the strike Wednesday after the government refused to reverse an increase in fuel prices at the pump.

With the country's crude production and exports unaffected so far, the unions called on their members to set up 'compliance squads' to ensure the strike achieves its aim of paralysing the economy.
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Morgan Stanley raises $8 billion property fund
Mumbai: Morgan Stanley has raised an $8 billion property fund, the biggest ever such fund, which would invest in established global markets, including Japan and Europe as well as emerging countries such as China, India and Russia.

The Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund VI, supplemented with borrowings, would have a buying power of more than $30 billion, the US investment bank said in a statement.

Morgan Stanley has contributed 20 per cent of the new fund's corpus.

Its portfolio would include real estate assets and companies from emerging markets including China, India, Russia, Turkey and Latin America, as well as developed markets including Japan, Western Europe and Australia, the statement added.

Morgan Stanley, which earlier moved into Asia's property markets by snapping up distressed assets in Japan and China, has now moved into India by picking up stakes in property developing outfits.
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