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South African gold miners on strike
Johannesburg: Goldmine workers in South Africa, the world's largest bullion producer, struck work last night for the first time in 18 years demanding higher wages.

According to analysts, the strike could lead to the loss of about 28,000 ounces of gold production a day. South Africa accounts for about 15 per cent of global gold output.

The duration of the strike was unclear. Analysts said that the strike would have a serious impact on an industry that's already on its knees. With a weak rand and the gold prices picking up by some 7 per cent, the mines are just breaking even.

The Chamber of Mines, which represents South African gold miners, was offering a 5 per cent increase for miners and 4.5 per cent for higher workers. Individual companies made better offers to try to avert a strike but the unions, who were demanding rises of 8 per cent to 12 per cent, rejected the offers.

Mining firms, which gave workers a 10 per cent wage rise two years ago, say they cannot afford rises much above inflation, which is running below 4 per cent.
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Chinese Huawei Tech in takeover talks for Marconi
London: Marconi, the telecoms equipment maker, is in talks with Huawei Technologies, towards a takeover that could see another historic name from the British industry, like car manufacturer Rover, pass away into Chinese hands.

Huawei Technologies, a company set up less than 20 years ago in Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong, had earlier snatched away a big contract from BT, away from Marconi, earlier this year.

The announcement in April of Marconi's failure to gain part of BT's £10bn project to upgrade its network prompted the equipment maker to launch a strategy review that in effect put out a "for sale" sign over the business.

Analysts say that Huawei would be the front-runner in any auction of the business, since the pair already have an extensive trading partnership, selling each other's routers and switches, used in telecoms networks.

Marconi chairman John Devaney said: "Since the financial restructuring in 2003 we have known that we are one of the smallest players in the industry and that we will have to overcome that size issue. The BT decision only made it more stark."

Marconi was in effect outbid on the BT contracts by Huawei and others with lower cost bases. It will not only lose out on new business that had been expected to be worth about £500m over the next five years, but also will also eventually lose a large part of its existing £1.5bn of sales as BT gradually replaces its equipment with new items.

Last week, Marconi announced a quarterly loss that was more than three times the level of a year ago. It is also shedding 800 jobs, though the company said it continued to win new business, with contracts for Cable & Wireless and Vodafone Italy, among others.

Huawei works for more than 300 telecom carriers in more than 90 countries, and it had sales of $5.6bn (£3.1bn) last year. It is aiming for more than $7bn in 2005, with more than half that coming from outside China. It employs 22,000 people.

A takeover of Marconi by the Chinese, within months of the acquisition of the MG Rover car maker by Nanjing Auto underscores the growing power of Chinese players in the global economy.

Marconi is one of the oldest names on the stock market, tracing its history back to 1897 when Guglielmo Marconi, the sender of the first wireless message, set up the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company.
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Worldwide regulatory probe against Berkshire Hathaway over AIG
Omaha, USA: Berkshire Hathaway's General Re, reinsurance subsidiary, is facing probes by regulators in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Australia, as well as the US, according to notes in a regulatory filing.

Billionaire Warren Buffett, 74, leads the famed investment company, and is worth an estimated $44bn (£25bn). Buffett has been hailed as the most successful stock-market investor, and is known as the Sage of Omaha. He has also been a leading critic of overpaid executives and accounting practices that inflate profits.

The inquiries by regulators, which include the UK's Financial Services Authority, focus on the company's General Re reinsurance subsidiary. It was already known to be under investigation by US regulators, who are examining its role in improper reinsurance accounting at AIG, a giant US insurance company.

Two General Re executives have pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Berkshire Hathaway's 10Q statement, detailing second-quarter financial results, reveals that General Re is also being probed by regulators across the globe over issues that include its relationship with AIG.
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Baidu.com stock soars 350 per cent on debut
Beijing: Chinese search engine Baidu's stock soared some 350 percent on its debut on NASDAQ. With China's population of Internet users soaring, fund managers and other investors are looking for companies poised to cash in on the growth of the Chinese web market.

Baidu.com operates China's most popular search engine and styles itself as a wanna-be rival to global powerhouse Google. Investors are betting the inflated price is justified since Baidu is in the best position to take advantage of a demand boom among Chinese net surfers.

China has over 100 million people online, making it the second-largest Internet market worldwide, behind only the United States. In the first half of 2005, the market expanded 18 percent and the number of net users is still tiny compared to the number of Chinese consumers who use mobile phones, over 360 million.

Many of those people use their cellular handsets to access the net, providing Chinese dot-coms with an even bigger audience than just those who stick to PCs.
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