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NEW YORK/ LONDON, March 7- Raw sugar futures on ICE surged more than 3 percent on Thursday as active short-covering pushed the market to its biggest one-day gain in 3-1/ 2 months, while Liffe robusta coffee jumped to a five-month high due to dry conditions in top grower Vietnam. "Brazil is going to be very enthusiastic about making ethanol at current price levels.

TOKYO, March 13- The venture building the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, Japan's first commercial aircraft in half a century, predicts the market for 70-90- seat jets could be as many as 5,000 over the next two decades- almost double the forecasts of the two big specialist regional jetmakers, Brazil's Embraer and Canada's Bombardier.

*Audi develops a rival to new Mercedes-Benz CLA. In the United States, the new A3 sedan will debut as a 2015 model and will compete for entry-level premium buyers with the new Mercedes-Benz CLA, according to a source familiar with Audi's plans. But Audi CEO Rupert Stadler referred to the car on Tuesday at a press briefing in Germany.

LONDON/ Conakry, March 12- Guinea dismissed concerns over the future of Rio Tinto's giant, untapped Simandou iron ore mine in the country's south, saying on Tuesday it had the "means and expertise" and would take the project forward.

*Lennar Corp, Toll Brothers enter rental market as demand shifts. March 12- Battered by the financial crisis, homebuilders in the United States are adopting a targeted approach to growth as the cyclical housing market swings upward again.

March 7- J.C. Penney Co Inc said it has recently laid off about 2,200 employees at 100 of its stores and district offices, the latest move by the struggling department store operator to contain costs as it contends with deep sales declines.

SAO PAULO, March 11- Brazilian miner Vale SA said on Monday it has suspended a $6 billion potash project in neighboring Argentina that has been plagued by cost overruns, a decision that could renew trade tensions between South America's two largest economies.

NEW YORK, March 12- The new owner of Hostess Brands Inc's snack cakes hopes to have Twinkies back on U.S. store shelves by this summer, according to a member of the purchasing group.

DETROIT, March 12- Ford Motor Co will recall 7,150 vehicles built in November, including the 2013 Escape crossover, because some models are equipped with a defective child lock on the left rear door. The company will inspect 5,638 Escapes that were built in Louisville Assembly Plant between Nov. 14 and Nov. 24, Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in an email.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12- Shipments of Apple Inc's iPads will fall behind the growing variety of tablets running Google Inc's Android platform for the first time this year as smaller-sized devices catch on with more consumers, research firm International Data Corp said on Tuesday.

In its warning, the FDA said the drug can cause abnormal changes in the electrical activity of the heart that may lead to a potentially fatal heart rhythm known as prolonged QT interval, in which the timing of the heart's contractions becomes irregular.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12- Shipments of Apple Inc's iPads will fall behind the growing variety of tablets running Google Inc's Android platform for the first time this year as smaller-sized devices catch on with more consumers, research firm International Data Corp said on Tuesday.

*Inventories remain at 17- year low in monthly USDA report. The split reaction came as the USDA, in a monthly crop report, kept its forecast for supplies of both crops unchanged from February. Chicago Board of Trade May corn climbed 1.8 percent to $7.03- 1/ 2 a bushel, while December corn gained 1 percent to $5.47.

March 12- Pharmaceutical company Merck& Co Inc said on Tuesday an independent monitoring board had allowed it to continue with a large trial assessing the safety and effectiveness of its Vytorin cholesterol treatment.

March 12- Pharmaceutical company Merck& Co Inc said on Tuesday that an independent monitoring board had allowed it to continue with a huge trial assessing the safety and effectiveness of its blockbuster Vytorin cholesterol treatment. The study, called IMPROVE-IT, will now continue to its conclusion in September 2014, the drugmaker said.

U.S. oil slipped 4 cents to $92.02 a barrel by 0022 GMT, after settling 11 cents higher. Brent crude slipped 9 cents to $110.13, after ending 63 cents lower. *South Sudan's president has ordered his soldiers to pull out of a buffer zone area on the border with Sudan as agreed at African Union- brokered talks, the army spokesman said.

*Slowdown in China oil demand growth weighs on prices. SINGAPORE, March 12- Brent futures slipped below $110 a barrel on Tuesday on worries of a slowdown in demand growth from China and the United States, two of the world's biggest oil consumers, with a rise in the dollar weighing further on the market.

*India, South Korea to cut Iran imports by 60 pct. TOKYO/ SINGAPORE, March 12- Iran's crude oil exports in March may plunge by a quarter from a month earlier to the lowest since tight Western sanctions came into effect in 2012, industry sources said, squeezing income for Tehran as sanctions cast doubt over its future revenues.

Since 2001, Japan, which imports nearly all of its energy needs, has invested several hundred million dollars in developing technology to tap methane hydrate reserves off its coast that are estimated to be equal to about 11 years of gas consumption.