How many social networks does the world need? Bill Gross, the man credited with pioneering the search advertising business, believes there’s room for one more. On Monday, Gross’ Ubermedia unveiled Chime.in, a social media “platform organized around interests.” The idea is to make it easier for people to cull the sea of social media content and home in on specific topics of interest, whether it’s photography, Indian cuisine or neighborhood-specific news. Anyone can create a group around any topic, and Chime says its algorithms can recommend groups to join and people to follow based on personal interests.  Users can also endorse other people’s Chime posts by clicking on them, helping the more popular items gain prominence on the service. In addition to what it contends is improved relevance of information on the site, Chime also says it has novel ways for users to profit from their social activities. Starting next year, any person who creates a topic group on Chime will be able to offer online advertising to go along with it, the company says. Chime will offer an inventory of ads, sold by its salesforce, which the creator of a topic group in Chime can incorporate onto their Web page, with Chime taking a cut of the revenue. Or the creator of a group can strike their own deals with advertisers for the space on their Chime Web page, and keep all the revenue. Of course, managing social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and, recently Google+, is practically becoming a second-job for some.  Chime is asking users to invest yet more time and effort, so as to refine their profile of interests and to manage advertising. That’s no small ask. And it’s worth noting that UberMedia’s initial forays into the social media landscape have been rocky. The company’s efforts to develop an advertising system based around Tweets on third-party apps resulted in some clashes with Twitter – which is now developing its own in-house advertising service. But Gross has a proven knack for figuring out online business models. Now he just needs to convince the world to chime in.

Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp (SIPC), a wholly-owned unit of state-owned Sinopec Group, signed a C$2.2 billion ($2.1 billion) deal to buy Canadian oil and gas explorer Daylight Energy Ltd earlier this week.The group, parent of Hong Kong- and Shanghai-listed China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) , had also bought an 18 percent stake in Chevron Corp’s Indonesian deep-water project for $680 million, an official told Reuters on Tuesday.China’s oil majors have moved aggressively to buy overseas assets in a state-driven push to secure resources to satisfy growing demand in the world’s largest energy consumer. Analysts expect more deals in coming months because of the buying ammunition of China’s energy giants coupled with shriveling stock prices of foreign oil and gas companies.

Growth forecasts for Germany were slashed on Thursday amid fears that Europe’s largest economy will grind to a near standstill as a deepening banking crisis threatens to plunge the continent into recession.UK DATA EXPOSES SHIFT IN THE PAY GAPWages for public sector staff in the UK have risen by 13 percent more than their private sector peers in the past ten years, but only for those on lower pay grades, according to data released on Friday.BP PLANS UK OIL DEVELOPMENTBP has announced plans for a 4.5 billion pound development of the Clair field, a seven billion barrel superfield off the Shetland Islands.The TelegraphJOE LEWIS BID FOR PUB GROUP SAILS AWAYBillionaire Joe Lewis has withdrawn his 941 million pound takeover attempt for pubs group Mitchells & Butlers , leaving shares down 6.9 percent at 235.3 percentUK REVENUE PURSUES 6,000 SWISS HSBC ACCOUNTSThe British government’s taxation arm, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), is withdrawing its amnesty on 6,000 wealthy HSBC customers and demanded they declare taxes due on Swiss accounts or face criminal charges.WSJ MAY UNDO NEWS CORPRupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is facing severe new legal pressure as The Wall Street Journal becomes a lightning rod for widespread anger in the U.S. at the way the company has behaved.The GuardianCARREFOUR SOUNDS ALARM OVER ECONOMYDeepening economic gloom has forced Europe’s biggest retailer, Carrefour , to issue its fifth profit warning this year.The IndependentUK BANKS DOWNGRADED AS STRESS TEST FEARS GROWSigns that the Government has become less likely to support lenders led to another credit rating downgrade for Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland on Thursday against the backdrop of concerns that new European stress tests could leave the sector in need of billions of pounds of extra capital.

* Financing secured through new loan facilitiesOct 12 (Reuters) - Teekay LNG Partners and Japanese group Marubeni said they will jointly acquire ownership interest in eight LNG carriers from Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk in a deal valued at about $1.40 billion.Teekay LNG said the transaction was expected to add to its distributable cash flow per unit.Teekay LNG said the joint venture has secured loan facilities, which on a combined basis total about $1.12 billion, to finance the deal. The remaining $280 million was expected to be financed with equity contributions from Teekay and Marubeni.Teekay’s equity contribution was expected to be about $146 million. It will take over technical management of the acquired vessels after a transition period.

Pictures of the births of the 62-year-old Leibovitz’s three daughters were hung in Moscow’s state Pushkin Museum next to her portraits of such famous personalities as Mick Jagger, Demi Moore and others for covers of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.”Russia is definitely at a crossroads now. Coming to Moscow, it feels very young and very moving,” Leibovitz told reporters as she guided them around her pieces.Dressed all in black with her blonde hair tousled, Leibovitz said Russian literature and ballet had inspired her work.”Russia is a great country for art and film and dance. It is where great art is born. I’m thinking of the Ballet Russes and everything that’s ever meant something to me,” she said.Called “Annie Leibovitz. A photographer’s life. 1990-2005,” the collection captures the emotional period when Leibovitz found herself caught between the burgeoning lives of her young daughters and the deaths of her lover Susan Sontag and father.But Leibovitz said she felt her exploration of deeply personal joy and tragedy spoke to the universal experience.”I really felt the personal work is everyone’s story, it’s not just my story,” she said.Leibovitz’s naked self-portrait taken when pregnant at age 51 drew surprise and praise from viewers in a country where most women give birth before age 30.”This photographer should be an example to all Russian women. She has a terrific career but also gave birth at an age when most women here wouldn’t do it,” Anna Payesova, a scientist at Moscow State University, told Reuters.Last month Leibovitz presented the exhibit at St Petersburg’s 18th century State Hermitage Museum.The exhibit will be open to the public from October 12 to January 15 2012.