BizChina

Sina Corp, the operator of China's third-most visited website, said second-quarter profit rose 89 percent after the company sold more online advertising in the world's biggest Internet market.

Net income increased to $25.2 million, or 38 cents a share, from $13.3 million, or 23 cents, a year earlier, Sina said in a statement Thursday. That beat the $18.5 million average of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Sina raised prices for advertisers by more than 10 percent, capitalizing on demand from companies marketing their products and services in the world's third-biggest economy. The Shanghai- based Internet operator's website trails only Baidu Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd in popularity among Chinese Internet users.

The LV Shanghai flagship store opens on April 28, 2010.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, often dubbed the Oracle of Omaha, has seen the future of fashion in the most unlikely of places, bearing a "Made in China" label better known for its cheap than chic.

"I threw away the rest of my suits," beams Buffett in the 2007 video, adding that he and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are fans of Chinese suit maker Trands and would be great salesmen for the company based in the northeast Chinese city of Dalian.

Trands is one of a handful of emerging Chinese brands that someday hope to take on the likes of Gucci, Armani and Prada in the lucrative luxury goods market.

A top South Korean diplomat to China has said that China and South Korea are likely to launch negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) next year, a move Chinese analysts said will help reshape trade in East Asia.

Yu Woo-ik, South Korea's ambassador to China, told China Daily in an exclusive interview that the two Asian nations "are expected to initiate official FTA talks in 2011", after a four-year feasibility study among governments, industrial associations and academies from the two countries was wrapped up recently.

Japan, China and South Korea have the largest, second-largest and fourth-largest economies in Asia, accounting for about 70 percent of the Asian economy and 18.6 percent of the global economy.

The free trade zone, if established, will hold a consumer population of 1.5 billion. It will be the third-largest economic area in the world, only after the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union.

A group led by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd has offered to buy Electricite de France SA's UK power networks unit for 5.8 billion pounds ($9.1 billion).

The group includes Cheung Kong unit Hongkong Electric Holdings Ltd and the Li Ka-shing Foundation, according to a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday. The offer is subject to approval by the seller and European Union regulators.

The deal follows a series of investments by Asia's second- richest man in gas, water and road assets in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom to counter price curbs in Hong Kong's power market. Shares in Cheung Kong Infrastructure rose the most in eight and a half months in Hong Kong after a trading halt was lifted.