BUSINESS

The largest natural gas production company of Canada, Encana, declared that it would cut around 20 per cent of the workforce of the company

An 8-year-old girl from China's Jiangsu Province has developed lung cancer, a fine testament to the seriousness of the country's smog pollution problem. The alarming PM2.5 and smog have been blamed as the underlying causes of her condition. Apart from the growing health hazard, the smog has likewise been identified as a threat to national security.

Australian shares are lower for the fourth time in five trading sessions, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down by 0.3 per cent. Despite low volumes yesterday (generally around 30% quieter than usual on Melbourne Cup day), local stocks rose by 0.75 per cent, which is still keeping the market positive this week.

The sudden change in BlackBerry's plan to sell the financially challenged company should have aroused suspicion that there's more to the about face than the ability of interim BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen to turnaround a floundering company like he did before for Sybase.

The Philippines has placed nine regions, including recently quake-devastated Bohol province, under blue alert as it braces for the wrath of Typhoon Haiyan, which is expected to develop into a Category 4 hurricane even before it makes landfall on the country on Friday morning.

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportOne of the greatest mistakes you can make in this finance and investing caper is to fall for the old defence of an improbable explanation or argument that "this time it is different.

Taiwanese tech firm HTC does not want to follow the footsteps of embattled Canadian phonemaker BlackBerry is making expensive, but unsellable phones. That means its flagship HTC One would probably the last premium handset from the company for some time.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 20 points or 0.1% while the S&P lost 0.3% to 1762 and the Nasdaq rose 0.

We continue to see a cautious tone in global equities, with the bulls sceptical about adding to longs as the tapering debate ramps up. A better-than-expected ISM non-manufacturing PMI (55.4 versus 54.2 expected) set the tone for the tapering argument.

In US economic news, the ISM services index rose from 54.4 to 55.4 in October, ahead of forecasts centred on a reading near 54.0. The employment component rose from 52.7 to 56.2. And weekly chain store sales, as monitored by Redbook, were up 3.8pct on a year ago, ahead of the 3.6pct gain in the previous week.

Apple Inc has released the iPad Air in its stores in Nov. 1 and is expected to show strong opening weekend sales. Investors who are concerned with the sales performance of Apple's latest tablet may be happy to know that the iPad Air has a higher adoption rate than the previous iPad. Mobile analytics company Fiksu reported that the iPad Air had five times the adoption rate of the iPad 4 during the first three days of sale.

The Australian sharemarket rose for the first time in four trading days, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) gaining by 0.8 per cent or 41pts to 5425.7. Most of the key data globally is out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; namely Chinese and American economic data.

South Korea may have produced two tech giants in Samsung and LG, but North Korea appears to be playing catch up in this department.

Mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) will no longer be a part of the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal project after it announced on Monday its withdrawal of a $3-billion port proposal.

The Australian share market is reporting solid gains at lunchtime in the East, ahead of this afternoon's interest rate decision where the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to leave the official cash rate on hold at 2.5 per cent.

Consumption of the precious safe haven yellow metal gold in the world's second-largest economy has been forecast to hit above 1,000 tonnes in 2013. However, the same could not be said for the year 2014.

Despite a sharp rise in food inflation, U.K. families are spending 8.5 percent less on food today than what they did before the financial crisis; but the savings had been mostly due to a switch in consumption to cheaper, less healthy choices, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on Monday.

Swiss banks could be forced to raise their minimum leverage ratios to as much as 10 percent, reported the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, in a move aimed at improving industry stability - yet could see banks have to cut down on their service offerings.

Johnson & Johnson agrees to pay $2.2 billion to settle illegal drug marketing case against the company

With some of the most useful rare earths feared to be depleted within the next 50 years, scientists are racing against time to develop technologies to maximise their full potential as well as what could remain of them. Scientists are now specifically trying to establish a method to recycle rare earths from wastewater.

Is BlackBerry interim Chief Executive John Chen the Waterloo, Ontario-based company's knight in shining armour? Will he save the embattled phone maker from the fate that has fallen previous number one phone manufacturers Nokia and Motorola the way he did for software maker Sybase in the 1990s?

Current and former staff at Google reveal the worst things about working for Google

In US economic news, factory orders rose by 1.7pct in September, in line with forecasts. Durable goods orders were revised to show a 3.8pct increase in September or a decline of 1.3pct if defence orders and aircraft are excluded.

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber may no longer need to hide under a bedsheet the next time Paparazzis Spot Him Leaving a Brothel if he takes the offer of a U.S. whorehouse owner to be a business partner and perhaps even be a pimp trainee.

By Greg PeelFor a short while it appeared as if the month of October would see some renewed strength in the price of spot uranium.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 23 points or 0.2% while the S&P gained 0.4% to 1767 and the Nasdaq rose 0.

Troubled Canadian phonemaker BlackBerry would no longer sell the company. Instead it will raise $1 billion in fresh financing and at the same time replaced Chief Executive Thorsten Heins, BlackBerry announced on Monday.

A music video made by two nurses in the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital’s Cancer Unit featuring the patients singing and dancing to the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles has reportedly gone viral with 949,243 clicks and 7,3222 likes on YouTube.

A new GTA Online update (Title Update 1.05) on character progress loss and the release of the stimulus package will reportedly happen on the 2nd week of November 2013.