Business in brief: Boeing increases plane deliveries

Boeing Co. said Thursday it delivered 9 percent more commercial airplanes in the third quarter than a year ago, with the single-aisle 737 model accounting for three-quarters of the total.

The Chicago-based aerospace company delivered 109 planes in the period, up from 100 a year earlier. That pushed its total for the year to 329 and keeps it roughly on pace to reach its full-year estimate of 440 to 445.

Boeing delivered 81 of its 737s in the quarter for a total of 250 so far this year. It also delivered 20 777s, five 747s and three 767s.

Chief Executive Jim McNerney said earlier this year that the company expects to overtake European rival Airbus in deliveries by early 2008, helped by the momentum generated by the 787.

Airbus, which is expected to report third-quarter deliveries shortly, projects that its 2007 deliveries will total 450 to 460.

NEW YORK

Other languages to get Web test

Sample addresses in nearly a dozen languages will be added to the Internet’s central directories as early as next week, paving the way for Web surfers around the world to get online without knowing any English.

At this point, the 11 domain names are meant primarily for software developers and Web site designers to test the new system, but they are the first such names entered in the 13 key domain name directories after years of discussions and limited-access tests.

If the global tests go well, non-English domain names could be in use by the end of 2008.

The 11 suffixes now under review will read “test” in Arabic, Persian, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil.

They were chosen based on the online communities that have expressed the most interest in and need for non-English domains, said Tina Dam, director of the Internationalized Domain Names program for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, which oversees Internet addressing policies.

GENEVA

Record diamond to be auctioned

Sotheby’s said Thursday that the largest top-quality, brilliant-cut diamond ever put up for auction will be sold in Geneva next month.

Sotheby’s said the value of the white diamond weighing 84.37 carats was estimated at $12 million to $16 million.

David Bennett, the auction house’s chairman of jewelry for Europe and the Middle East, said it was a “magnificent and unique stone.”

The diamond has received the highest possible grading, Sotheby’s said. It is D-color, or finest white, has flawless clarity and its cut, polish and symmetry have all been graded excellent, it said.

The auction will take place Nov. 14. Before the sale, the diamond will be showcased in Hong Kong, Paris, New York, Rome, Los Angeles, London, Dubai and Bahrain.

Sotheby’s Geneva still holds the record for the most expensive diamond sold at auction, a 100.10-carat stone that fetched $16.5 million in May 1995.