Berkshire’s third-quarter operating earnings, reported Saturday, were up 14% to $7.9 billion relative to the year-earlier quarter. Earnings per share gained 15% to $4,812, topping the Bloomberg consensus estimate of $4,378. Helping boost earnings was higher investment income.

The company’s cash hoard grew further in the third quarter, hitting $128 billion, up from $122 billion in the second quarter, despite a $10 billion investment during the period in Occidental Petroleum 8% preferred stock. Berkshire agreed to make that investment to help Occidental (ticker: OXY) pursue its controversial acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum.

The class A shares (BRK.A), which finished Friday at $323,400, are up 5.7% this year, badly trailing the S&P 500 index, which has returned 24%. Berkshire is having one of its worst years relative to the overall market over Buffett’s 54 years at the helm. Berkshire’s more liquid class B shares (BRK.B) finished at $215.83 Friday.

Berkshire’s book value rose 4% in the third quarter versus the second quarter to about $243,500 per class A share, Barron’s calculates.

This means Berkshire now trades for 1.3 times its Sept. 30 book value, below an average of 1.4 to 1.5 times in recent years. Berkshire trades for about 21 times projected 2019 earnings—also low relative to its history. While Berkshire trades above the market multiple of 18, its price/earnings ratio is understated to the extent that it includes only the dividends on its $220 billion equity portfolio in its earnings.

Berkshire’s book value likely has risen since the end of the third quarter due to continued gains in the stock market, particularly in Apple (AAPL), Berkshire’s largest holding at $71 billion. The Apple stake is up more than $8 billion since Sept. 30. Buffett has de-emphasized book value as a Berkshire yardstick, but many analysts and investors continue to track it and view it as an understated proxy for the company’s intrinsic value.

Berkshire’s stock buybacks were a modest $700 million in the third quarter despite the ample earnings and accumulation of more cash.

When Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger got expanded authority to buy back Berkshire shares in the summer of 2018, many Berkshire fans hoped that the company, whose buybacks previously had been minimal, would step up the pace and repurchase at least $10 billion annually, or 2% of the shares outstanding. The company pays no dividend.

But Buffett, 89, who has never been keen about buybacks at Berkshire, has proceeded cautiously, with the company having repurchased $2.8 billion in the first three quarters of this year. Berkshire’s slow buyback pace is ironic given that Buffett has been an enthusiastic proponent of aggressive stock buybacks in companies in which Berkshire has big equity holdings, including Apple, Bank of America (BAC), and Wells Fargo (WFC).

Berkshire appears to have stepped up the pace of buybacks so far in the fourth quarter based on its share count on Oct. 24, disclosed in its 10-Q filing as about 1.629 billion class A shares (with the B shares converted to an equivalent amount of the A). This suggests buybacks of about $500 million since Sept. 30.

Berkshire continues to hum along as investors ponder whether Buffett will ever find an elephant-sized acquisition of $50 billion or more. With Berkshire badly trailing the stock market this year despite solid financial performance, its shares look appealing and are a good bet to top the market in the coming months.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

Local legend tells how the animal was buried beneath Fair Green in Diss, Norfolk, in the 1940s after it died while visiting with a circus.

An initial survey of the site using ground-penetrating radar has found possible evidence supporting the story.

Project leader Tim Edwards said local people would help decide the next move.

Mr Edwards started the project after hearing the tale of the elephant's burial on the green, which had been a venue for visiting fairs and circuses for centuries.

He found reports detailing how an earlier elephant, visiting with a touring menagerie, was cremated there in the 1840s.

Mr Edwards has made a short film featuring Colin Lond, who said he witnessed the burial in about 1946 while playing on the green as a boy.

"They were hoisting this elephant into this hole, minus its trunk, and the next thing I knew they were covering this elephant with white powder, which I now realise was lime, and it was filled in," said Mr Lond.

University of East Anglia geophysics student Elena Damian surveyed the site in July, under the supervision of Prof Jessica Johnson, and discovered subterranean patterns supporting claims of the burial.

She also found evidence of a militia camp, dating from Elizabethan times, and a cock-fighting pit.

Mr Edwards, of Eastern Region Media Community Interest Company, urged people to get in touch with their stories about the green, and said he hoped related events - possibly even a full archaeological dig - could take place.

"It would be great to develop some local interest so that perhaps the community could investigate it themselves," he said.

"Maybe they could even learn some geophysical techniques and have an elephant-themed celebration."

Egypt’s plans to promote tourism in Alexandria, the second biggest city in the country, is to allow a number of beaches to only be open to holidaymakers.

The government’s plans were unveiled by Ali al-Manesterly, the chairman of the Alexandria Chamber of Travel Agencies, according to Al-Moniter.

He explained how the new beaches would “suit the needs of foreign nationalities”.

It would also offer the “privacy that suits their needs”.

However, the move has been met with anger by locals due to the lack of well-maintained beaches for citizens.

Alexandria-based sociologist Amro Ali called the plans “disturbing” by segregating locals from tourists.

He also added that many of the public beaches not only cost to enter but are “not well-kept” and are “beyond the means of the average Egyptian”.

Forty-nine-year-old resident Samira Abdel Meguid told the paper that it could cause “anti-foreign sentiment”.

The region is hoping to also increase the airport capacity to four million by 2022, three times the current capacity of 1.2 million.

Hotel room numbers could also increase as a push on tourism to Alexandria.

Egypt has suffered from a loss of visitors in recent years thanks to the terrorist attack in 2015.

A Russian jet was destroyed by a bomb above northern Sinai after departing from Sharm El Sheikh Airport, killing all 224 passengers and crew onboard.

The latest attempt to inspire tourism to the region was a new bill that would issue large fines to traders and touts who harassed travellers.

Street vendors at popular landmarks could be charged as much as £400 for breaking the law.

Holiday packages in Egypt are on the rise again, according to Thomas Cook, as many travellers flock to the country for cheap prices and good weather.

Is Egypt safe to travel to as a British tourist?

Air travel to Sharm el Sheikh is still advised against following the plane crash, with many UK tour operators not offering flights to the region.

Yet many choose to head to Cairo or Hurghada as a holiday, which are permitted for travel.

The Foreign Office warns that terrorist attacks are still “very likely” with all travel advised against along the border of Israel.

Most visits by British tourists are trouble-free however, and visitors are advised to stay vigilant especially in populated areas and during religious periods.

Counting Croaks and Ribbets / Volunteers moniter frog population

2000-04-21 04:00:00 PDT ALBANY -- One night a week, Margaret Hurlbert hikes out to a pond near the Union Pacific railroad tracks in Albany. She sits down, and for three minutes, she listens.

She hears freeway noise, trains roaring by, the occasional car horn, and then, suddenly, "ribbet."

It is a Pacific tree frog. Not bad, but she was hoping for the muffled, whiny croak of the endangered red-legged variety.

"I'm still hunting. I still think it may be here," she said. "If you stick around long enough, you're bound to hear it eventually."

She goes back home and records the time, date, location and weather conditions and sends the information to Frogwatch, a nationwide volunteer organization that is attempting to monitor the country's declining frog population.

"It's wonderful to sit under the stars and just listen for frogs," said Hurlbert, who works in the pest control department at the University of California at Berkeley. "It's very relaxing. Better than TV. I highly recommend it."

The croaks and ribbets of mating frogs, once a staple of springtime, are now almost silenced. Frog populations around the world plunged 15 percent a year every year from 1960 to 1966 and have dropped about 2 percent a year since then, according to a study published in a recent issue of the journal Nature.

Scientists are not sure why, but theories include habitat loss from development, pesticides in the air and water, disease, global warming and an invasion of bullfrogs, which eat other frogs.

Frogwatch, a pilot program of the U.S. Geological Survey, is an attempt to help scientists solve the mystery of vanishing amphibians. By studying the data, researchers can track different species and their breeding patterns and get a better picture of overall trends in the frog population.

Frogwatch is not a foolproof system, but it is a leap in the right direction, said Gideon Lachman, Frogwatch coordinator.

"It's good to go out and get as much information as we can and see what's going on," he said. "If we wait for scientific studies, it could be too late."

Frogwatch is run on a shoestring budget with a three-year, $8,000-a- year grant that expires in 2001. With no money to advertise, Lachman relies on the Internet and word of mouth to recruit volunteers. So far, Frogwatch volunteers are monitoring 650 different vernal pools, streams and ponds in 48 states.

While the data is useful for scientists, Frogwatch also has a promotional mission: It gets the public attuned to the wet and swampy world of frogs -- what different species sound like, where they live, when they mate and how to protect them.

"What we've learned is that we have frogs that live around here and their habitat is worth saving, worth protecting and even enhancing," said frog-watcher Susan Schwartz of Berkeley. "We're making signs to put up around town that say, 'This isn't just a puddle, it's a frog habitat.' "

Even in urban areas, frogs can breed and thrive under the right conditions. In the East Bay, frogs are alive and croaking at the BART right of way in El Cerrito, the reflecting pools at Blake House in Kensington, soccer fields and other marshy spots.

Frogwatch has few participants in other parts of the Bay Area, but West Marin, the Peninsula Open Space District and Golden Gate Park are likely habitats for local amphibians.

"Anyplace with ponds, you're going to have frogs," said Schwartz.

Frogs used to be abundant in the Bay Area. Red-legged and Pacific chorus frogs once filled ponds, puddles and streams. Now, the Pacific chorus frog is rare, and the red- legged frog is on the state and federal endangered species lists.

In the Sierra Nevada, frogs are nearly extinct.

"I remember when I was doing field research in the '60s, you could go to a pond and see hundreds of yellow-legged frogs. Now, there are none," said Gary Fellers, a research biologist studying frogs for the geological survey at Point Reyes National Seashore.

"We've already lost more than half of certain species in the Sierra over the last 12 to 14 years, and some species are completely gone from whole watersheds," he said.

Fellers suspects that pesticides and herbicides drifting up from the Central Valley are responsible for the decline. Thousands of tons of chemicals are applied to crops there every year, and agricultural practices changed about the same time the frog population started dropping, he said.

"Frogs have permeable moist skin. They live in land and water, and they eat insects," he said. "These guys are sampling quite a large range of the habitat, so they're especially vulnerable."

Frogs do not have the political cachet of spotted owls or bald eagles, but their decline is still reason for alarm, Fellers said.

Aside from frogs' role in the food chain and the sentimental appeal of their ribbets and croaks, frogs are a good indicator of the overall health of the environment.

Frogwatch coordinator Lachman called them "canaries in the coal mine."

"If there are contaminants at high enough levels to kill off vertebrae like frogs, they're probably at significant levels to affect people," Fellers said. "Obviously, people who vacation or live in Yosemite aren't dying overnight, but it could be slow, over a period of time. It could be sublethal. That's something we need to study."

Fellers and other scientists hope eventually to pinpoint the exact cause of the amphibian decline and take steps to protect the creatures. In the Bay Area, Frogwatch volunteers have already taken matters into their own hands.

Jim McKissock of El Cerrito recruited three classes of sixth-graders from Sierra Prospect School to help him remove wood chips from a pond where frogs breed.

"We ended up with thousands of pollywogs there. It was like a miracle. We've never had this many pollywogs there," he said. "It was really satisfying for all of us. But it's a constant battle to save these habitats."

McKissock, who grew up in nearby Richmond Annex, remembers when vernal pools appeared every spring in vacant lots, and "at night the whole place was like a chorus of frogs. There were millions of them."

"I told the kids, you may be the last kids to see frogs unless we do something," he said. "They were excited to help."

In Marin, Ro LoBianco became so enamored of the frogs, egrets, geese, mice and mallards in the Strawberry Point marsh he was monitoring that he has become a vociferous opponent of development there.

The Mill Valley School District wants to drain part of the marsh for a ball field and a parking lot as it reopens Strawberry Point School.

"We're losing so many wetlands on the Tiburon peninsula," he said. "When people think of saving wildlife, they think of bigger animals like deer. They don't think of amphibians. But we have to protect them, too."

www.mp2-pwrc.usgs.gov/FrogWatch/index.htm.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) trimmed the key repo rate by 25 basis points on Thursday in a bid to bring down the cost of money and boost the faltering economy. But the rise in bond yields —the benchmark jumped 9 basis points to 7.5% — suggests long-term money is going remain expensive primarily due to the large borrowings by the government in the first half of 2019-20.

This is despite the fact that the RBI allowed banks an additional 2% carve-out within the mandatory SLR requirements to help meet the liquidity coverage ratio, a move that should reduce the demand for bonds.

In fact, although the RBI is tipped to cut the repo by another 25 basis points in June or August, as inflation will likely stay benign, these would only help bring down short-term rates with the long bond yields remaining at higher levels given the high fiscal deficit. “Data shows that fiscal risks are for real. The central government has signed up for a higher fiscal deficit for FY20 than promised earlier. State fiscal and borrowing data suggests that India’s states are running a higher deficit than budgeted. And PSE borrowings are also elevated,” Pranjul Bhandari, economist at HSBC India, noted.

In what could be a double whammy, the economy could remain sluggish. As the RBI observed the “output gap remains negative and the domestic economy is facing headwinds, especially on the global front.” Should the monsoon turn out to be less than normal, growth in 2019-20 could be even slower than the central bank’s lowered estimate of 7.2%. “We believe the RBI’s growth projections remain somewhat optimistic, as we expect FY20 GDP growth at 6.8%,” Sonal Verma, economist at Nomura, wrote.

Concerns on slowing growth and the possibility of money staying expensive saw investors rushing to book profits in the stock market the Sensex lost 0.5% to close at 38,684.72.

Indeed, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said the transmission of policy rate cuts was a work in progress and that “more needs to be done”.

“The 25 basis cut in the repo in February has seen lenders drop their marginal cost of funds based lending rate by up to 10 basis points.We hope to come out with some guidelines, which will ensure effective transmission,” Das said.

State Bank of India managing director-retail and digital banking PK Gupta said the state-run lender has linked some products to the policy rate where transmission should happen. “In case of advances linked to MCLR, a reduction of anywhere between 7-10 basis points can happen,” Gupta said.

Economists caution that unless the pace of increase in bank deposits picks up, lenders will remain constrained in their ability to grow their loan books. SBI’s Gupta said some flexibility is required on liability side to aid transmission and that the lender had built that.

The RBI trimmed its headline CPI inflation forecast for H1FY20 (April-September) to 2.9-3.0% y-o-y from 3.2-3.4% and sees the trend towards a reading of 3.5-3.8% in H2FY20 (down from 3.9% in Q3FY20, with risks broadly balanced. For FY21 (year ending March 2021), it sees inflation in a range between 3.8% and 4.1%. The revision assumes normal monsoon. The monetary policy stance was left unchanged at ‘neutral’.

The committee noted, “there are some signs of domestic investment activity weakening as reflected in a slowdown in production and imports of capital goods. The moderation of growth in the global economy might impact India’s exports”.

It added that on the positive side, higher financial flows to the commercial sector augured well for economic activity while private consumption, which has remained resilient, is also expected to get a fillip from public spending in rural areas and an increase in disposable incomes of households due to tax benefits.

The committee projected retail inflation at 2.4% for the previous quarter from earlier projection of 2.8%, while also substantially lowering the forecast to 2.9-3.0% range for H1FY20 from 3.2-3.4% previously, and expecting a rate of 3.5-3.8% for H2FY20. The committee will also carefully moniter the fiscal situation at the general government levels for the same.

You Should Know About is a look at the products and brands that we at Scouted think should be on your radar and in your life ASAP.

Here’s a quick tip when it comes to laptops: More than just about any other feature, the one that matters the most over time is the keyboard. You’ll be typing all day, using it to surf the web and write documents, and posting to social media. Many laptops are fast, most use a vibrant and clear screen -- yet the keyboard is super-critical.

That’s why I liked the new Google Pixelbook Go so much. There’s something “just right” about typing on one, similar to one of my favorite laptops of all time (the previous Google Pixelbook). The keys are not raised too high or too low. They don’t make an obnoxious clickety-clack sound, yet they don’t feel too springy. I typed up several documents at a coffee-shop and felt perfectly in sync with my projects (and with my fingers). 

The 13.3-inch screen is wonderfully bright and clear. There’s a built-in, high-def webcam. Two speakers on the side of the laptop sounded nice, supple, and loud. Like every other Google laptop, the Pixelbook Go runs Chrome OS so it is primarily intended for web browsing and productivity work, although there are plenty of web-based games around. Google sent me the peachy version (which they call “not pink”) but there’s also a black version. The 4K high-res version of this laptop I tested weighs only 2.4 pounds. 

The battery life comes in at a solid 12 hours. You can choose from a version that uses the Intel Core m3 (fast), i5 (faster), or i7 (fastest) processor or 8GB or 16GB of RAM. The thing to remember is that this is Chrome, so the laptop boots quickly and runs fast. I loved how portable this peach-colored, non-springy keyboard laptop is. I highly recommend one if your goal is to simply get work done and do a mind-meld with Google Docs.

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Mechanical keyboards are the choice of both professional typists and hardcore gamers, largely due to their reliability and high quality feel. If you're looking to grab yourself a mechanical keyboard, check out Keychron's K2. It features customizable lighting, can switch between Mac and Windows layouts, and comes in several different switch types.

The first thing that I noticed about the Keychron K2 mechanical keyboard was the build quality. It's a substantial keyboard and plenty heavy. It feels like it could last a long time—something I appreciate as I tend to go through keyboards fairly quickly.

The developers note that the keys on the K2 are designed to last for 50 million keystrokes, which is longer than the average dome-switch keyboard. If you tend to wear through keycaps like I do, you can replace them easily as well. In fact, the K2 even comes with a keycap remover, as well as a few extra key caps if you'd like to switch out your Option and Command keys with Alt and Ctrl for a Windows layout.

The K2 is an 84-key keyboard, meaning that you'll have to do without your number pad if you go this route. For me, that's not a deal breaker, but for those who are professional number crunchers, it might be.

A neat feature of the K2 is that it is portable —insofar as it has an internal battery. While there's somewhat limited cases for needing this feature, we like it. You could pair it with an iPad or even your iPhone while you're on the go. It will work while directly connected to your computer, though, through a USB-A to USB-C connector, which also charges the keyboard.

I was impressed with the K2. The keys are responsive, the texture of the keys is smooth, but doesn't feel slippery, and overall it fits my hands pretty well. I like the six-degree angle you can achieve by flipping the feet on the back of the keyboard out, which does make typing quite a bit more comfortable than if they're left down.

My only complaint, which is true of almost every mechanical keyboard I've used, is that they tend to be a little tall for my hands. If you've got smaller hands, you might find that you occasionally hit the option or command buttons without meaning to. I find that this isn't the case if I'm working at a lower desk, or if I raise my chair quite a bit higher, but I'm not always given these options. I may end up needing to invest in a wrist-wrest later down the line if I plan on continuing to use this as my main keyboard.

Depending on what your personal preference is, you can opt for a variety of different switches in your keyboard. I like a linear switch that works well for both gaming and typing, so I opted for the Cherry Red switch. I find that I type pretty fast on Cherry Red switches, and they're somewhat less annoying for those around me who might not want to hear the click-click-click of a tactile switch.

That isn't to say that the Cherry Red switches are silent. They're not. This is a louder keyboard than what an average might sound like, though the benefit of faster typing might be worth the extra noise.

Of course, if you like something more tactile, the K2 comes in Cherry Blue and Brown as well.

Another neat feature of the K2 is that it can connect with multiple devices and quickly switch from one to another via keyboard shortcuts. Holding down Fn and pressing 1, 2, or 3, will allow the device to change which device the K2 is paired with.

One of the coolest things about the K2 is that it comes with about 15 different lighting modes. Some modes are animated, while others are static. Some respond to key presses, others don't.

On top of that, each lighting mode can be customized to a specific color by holding down the fn button and hitting either the left or right arrow key.

Of course, if you're not into the lighting effects, you can turn them down or off by pressing the F5 button.

If you're a fan of mechanical keyboards there's no reason to think you wouldn't like the K2. It's a joy to type on, you can customize the lighting effects to your hearts desire, and it can control multiple devices all at once. What's not to like?

The Keychron K2 Mechanical Keyboard starts at $69.99 for white backlit keyboards and $79.99 for RGB backlit keyboards. Prime members can get Blue or Red cherry switch RBG keyboards with free shipping from Amazon. Alternative options, including Cherry Brown switches and non-RGB lit keyboards, are available on the Keychron website.