Wal-Mart to make $34 million settlement on overtime wages
Due to errors in the way it calculated overtime wages, the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart Stores will pay roughly $34 million in back wages and interest to employees who were underpaid for overtime as part of a settlement with the US Department of Labor.

The retailer said about 87,000 current and former hourly associates nationwide were each underpaid by at least $20 during the last five years. Wal-Mart also said it overpaid about 215,000 hourly workers, but it will not seek to recover any overpayments.

Wal-Mart said it discovered the errors after an internal audit and brought it to the department's attention in February 2005.

Mandel said the Labor Department worked with Wal-Mart over a two-year period to ensure back wages were computed accurately and formulas were put in place to correctly calculate overtime pay.

The settlement comes as Wal-Mart has been under fire from labor unions, politicians and community activists who accuse it of paying inadequate wages.

Wal-Mart said it had failed to include periodic bonuses and other earned income when it.
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Nokia registers record high Q4 sales
Helsinki: Nokia Oyj, the world's top handset maker, has registered record high sales of handsets due to robust demand in emerging markets. Nokia's earnings per share rose to e0.32 from e0.25 a year ago. The reported EPS figure included e0.02 of one-off gains, which were not expected by analysts. Nokia stock rose 5.9 pc after the report to e16.40, valuing the firm at e66 billion.

Sales rose 13 pc to e11.7 billion ($15.22 billion), beating the analysts' average projection of e11.57 billion.

Profits at Nokia's key mobile phones unit rose to e1.26 billion, at the top end of expectations in the poll.

Nokia cited strong growth of lower-end products as the main reason for the lower prices, but in October the company also cut prices of several more expensive models, like those with high-quality cameras and music players. Nokia sold 106 million handsets in the quarter, up 19 pc from a year ago, more than 100 million for the first time, giving it a market share of 36 pc in line with forecasts.
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Auction to be launched for Corus
London: The UK Takeover Panel plans to launch an auction procedure for Anglo-Dutch steel Corus on January 30.

Tata Steel and Brazilian steel giant Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) will have to submit their revised bids by that date.

If both companies remain in the race to buy Corus by 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Takeover Panel said it would allow them to go through as many as nine rounds of rapid-fire bidding behind closed doors.

The companies will be entitled to modify their offers in each round, the Takeover Panel said, adding they would not need to announce their bids until the auction is finished and a winner is announced by the regulator.
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