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News In Brief

PODCAST: Debt talks continue, man’s best friend enters the wine business

Katharine Crnko Jul 11, 2011

Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.

President Obama and Congressional leaders will meet again today at the White House, as they try to hammer out a deal that would raise the nation’s debt limit by Aug. 2, or else face default and maybe another financial crisis.

The British government has asked the media regulator to reassess media baron Rupert Murdoch’s takeover bid for broadcaster BSkyB in the light of a phone hacking scandal, a move that could provide a basis to block the multi-billion-dollar buyout.

Today, we’ll hear from Alcoa, which is expected to announce strong profits thanks to an increase in demand for aluminum from car and airplane makers.

In Australia today, Qantas Airlines said a proposed carbon tax there to reduce emissions would result in higher fares.

Nestle today offered to buy a majority stake in a big Chinese candy company called Su Fu Chi. It’s a deal worth $1.7 billion.

In one of the largest cities in Syria today, there are reports of some of the heaviest violence since the government launched a crackdown on dissent two months ago.

There are concerns that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is about to fire his finance minister, who has been pushing for deep spending cuts. Italy is the third largest economy in the Eurozone.

To Australia where a key part of wine-making has been outsourced to man’s best friend. A bloodhound dog named Louisa Belle has been trained to sniff out a bad barrel and detect bottles that have gone bad. Her owners say her nose is 2,000 times more sensitive than a human nose. But she’s not a fan of drinking the wine. She prefers a bowl of water and some dog food.

Today, we welcome the world’s newest stock exchange into the global financial fold. The Cambodian Exchange. Long-delayed since it was announced in 2007. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you how stocks did on their first day because as of right now, there are no companies listed on the Cambodian Exchange.

You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.

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