A Chinese court in the southern city of Shenzhen has sentenced 11 people that distributed more than $3 billion of counterfeit Microsoft software to jail terms of up to six-and-a-half years.

The first trading week of 2009 has started on a positive note, with Australian stocks climbing 1.3% in early trade, thanks largely to higher oil and metals prices.

Bakery chain Bakers Delight has shrugged off concerns about the slowing economy by unveiling plans to recruit 150 franchisees in 2009, more than double the number of franchisees that joined the company in 2008.

According reports in The Australian, retailers under a specific physical size benchmark – probably 1000 square metres – will not be required to comply with the new regime, which requires retailers to display the price of goods in per-unit terms as well as its total cost.

Could 2009 possibly be worse than 2008? The year just ended was the worst in not one but several generations, probably the worst in three quarters of a century.

Thousands of employers across the retail, mining, finance and manufacturing sectors are bracing for industrial problems this year as more than 5000 enterprise bargain agreements come up for renegotiation.

According to new research from actuarial firm Rice Warner, plummeting financial markets will force about 40,000 older workers to postpone their retirement and move into part-time work, while thousands of workers who retired in 2007 and 2009 will be forced to return to work.

Want to know what NOT to do in sales? Here are some pointers. SUE BARRETT

Animal spirits or rational economics – can exporters ride out the storm? TIM HARCOURT

Unfortunately quite a few businesses that are in fact salvageable end up in liquidation unnecessarily. There are alternatives that can be explored. LOUIS COUTTS

Are you tracking your cashflow, checking average debtor days? These are disciplines you will need to re-master. GAIL GERONIMOS

The trend, when making multiple millions before you hit 40, seems to be to find your niche and stick to it. JAMES THOMSON reports on how this year’s Gen-Next have changed the way they found their fortunes.

A collection of Japanese journalists, professors and lawyers have called on search engine giant Google to scrap its Street View service in Japan, claiming the service is an invasion of privacy.

It is looking like a reasonable Christmas for the nation’s retailers as the Government’s $10 billion package takes effect.

The Rudd Government’s proposed internet filter is doomed to fail, a new industry report says, despite the fact trials of the system are to start in the next few days.

Australia’s beleaguered car industry has received an early Christmas present, with GM Holden announcing it will build a four cylinder small car at its Adelaide plant from 2010.