EU hauls up Microsoft on 2004 anti-trust ruling
Brussels: In a six-year antitrust battle between the European Commission and the world's biggest software group, Microsoft, the Brussels regulator has formally accused the company of failing to comply with its landmark 2004 antitrust ruling.

For much of the past six months, it seemed that the two sides were gradually inching towards an agreement on compliance with the Commission's 2004 anti-trust ruling. In October, the two sides had even agreed on a candidate for the post of "monitoring trustee" - the man charged with scrutinising Microsoft's compliance with the 2004 ruling.

In one of the reports, that the appointed trustee, Professor Neil Barrett, a British computer scientist, submitted to the regulator in recent weeks, he states bluntly that Microsoft's disclosure of technical information to rival companies was inadequate: "Any programmer or programming team seeking to use the technical documentation for a real development exercise would be wholly and completely unable to proceed on the basis of the documentation." He added that the documentation was "totally unfit" for its purpose.

As per this assessment Microsoft had failed to implement one of the central elements of the Commission's 2004 decision - the order to license information about the workings of its Windows operating system to rival groups, to ensure that their server systems run smoothly with Windows-driven computers.

With Prof Barrett's assessment in place, the Commission has now issued an unprecedented fourth "statement of objections", the formal charge sheet alleging an antitrust abuse.

Microsoft said on Thursday that it remained committed to implementing the 2004 ruling, but insisted the Commission's interpretation of what that ruling meant was seriously flawed.
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Kuwait to increase oil investments in China
Beijing: Kuwait is planning to increase its investments in China's petroleum industry over and above a recently signed deal to build a US$5bn refinery and petrochemical plant in southern China, the Kuwaiti energy minister said Thursday.

Sheik Ahmad Fahad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who is also the president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said, "We think we can support two major projects in China."

According to analysts, through investments in Chinese oil infrastructure, major OPEC producers, including Kuwait, may be moving to safeguard market share at a time when Russia is also emerging as a strong competitor to supply Chinese demand. China is the world's second-biggest oil importer.

Sabah said OPEC and the Beijing authorities had agreed on Thursday to work together to secure energy supplies and assess Chinese demand. Soaring demand from China has become a major factor in the group's planning for production.

A net oil exporter in 1993, China is now the second biggest oil importer, behind the United States. Of the 6.7 million barrels of oil a day that China consumed in 2004, almost half came from imports, according to industry statistics from BP.

Russia currently accounts for only 2 per cent of China's imports, but that could rise if proposed pipelines and increased rail shipments from wells in Siberia go ahead.
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Barrick set to become world's top gold producer
New York: Barrick Gold Corp has increased its offer for rival Placer Dome Inc. to US$10.4 billion on Thursday, thereby increasing the chances of a merger that will create the world's largest gold producer. The raised offer of US$22.50 a share, from $20.50 a share, will be open until Jan.19.

It will catapult Barrick ahead of Newmont Mining Corp and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. in world gold producer rankings.

Placer said its board of directors recommends that its shareholders accept the offer. The company had earlier rejected the initial US$9.2bn hostile bid, unveiled in October, as inadequate and opportunistic.
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Wal-Mart asked to cough up US$172.3mn in fines
Oakland, USA: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, may now have to pay US$172.3mn to California workers it illegally prevented from taking meal breaks, according to a verdict in a California court.

The verdict has come after a three-month trial in a lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart of failing to give as many as 116,000 current and former employees lunch breaks or compensation for not taking them between 2001 and 2005. The jury awarded US$115mn in punitive damages and US$57.3mn in compensatory damages to the workers.

The verdict is the second in more than 40 similar suits pending against Wal-Mart across the country. Wal-Mart also faces a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of as many as 1.6 million female workers.

Wal-Mart denied breaking the law and plans to appeal the ruling. Under California law, employees who work more than 5 hours must get a 30-minute break. Workers who don't get the break get an extra hour's worth of pay.

Andrea Savaglio, who worked as an overnight stocker at a Pleasanton, California Wal-Mart store, and four other employees sued Wal-Mart in 2001 saying that, to cut labor costs, Wal-Mart didn't hire enough employees and forced them to work through their meal breaks to get work done and didn't give them their extra hour of pay. The case was expanded to cover thousands of employees in California.

In the first meal break case against Wal-Mart, an Oregon jury awarded about 90 Wal-Mart workers about $2,000 each last year. Another case in Colorado settled for US$50mn.

Wal-Mart also faces a class-action lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco filed on behalf of as many as 1.6 million female employees alleging sexual discrimination.
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