PetroChina the biggest company

Petrochina yesterday became the biggest company in the world by market capitalization, speeding past ExxonMobil and the first trillion-US-dollar business.

Its crowning as No1 was due to an initial public offering of 4 billion shares on the Shanghai stock market, with the stock soaring to 2.6 times its initial price. The offer was 50 times oversubscribed. Now the list of the top 10 companies in the world includes five corporations owned by the Chinese government and just three US firms. The other non-Chinese survivors are Russia's Gazprom and Dutch-British company Royal Dutch Shell. And PetroChina and ICBC are the only Chinese firms among the top 50 companies in the world by sales.

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Sampson set to join fleet

Sailors man the rails aboard guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102) during a rehearsal for the ship's commissioning ceremony.

Sampson is the 52nd of 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and is named for Rear Adm. William T. Sampson (1840-1902), a naval hero during the Spanish-American War. Three previous destroyers have been named for Sampson, and have all been commissioned in Boston. U.S.

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