BUSINESS

Xstrata won its legal battle against environmentalists and farmers to operate the open cut mine in Surat Basin in southern Queensland. The legal victory for Xstrata came after a court ruled that environment change is not sufficient reason to stop the development of one of the biggest coal mines in Australia.

Shares in agricultural chemicals supplier Nufarm were sold off sharply in yesterday's solid market, despite the company reporting a solid interim profit.

Out of the blue, earnings downgrades for the 2011-12 financial year have started appearing, less than a month after the interim reporting season ended.

Rio Tinto has joined rival BHP Billiton in reviewing its increasingly minor involvement in the diamond industry.

Covert operations reportedly sanctioned by ranking officials of global media firm News Corporation were responsible in undermining the operations of the company's competitors in Australia, according to the investigative works of The Australian Financial Review (AFR).

Thailand is wooing struggling automotive companies in Australia to move their operations to the former. Visiting Thai Deputy Secretary General Duangjai Asawacintachit, who heads the Board of Investment, said Thailand's solid economic growth and free trade links to other Asian nations offered wide opportunities for Aussie firms.

Cooper Brewery Chairman Glenn Cooper called for new laws to stop the duopoly in the supermarket industry and protect local owners of farmlands. He specifically blamed Woolworths and Coles, which have engaged in a price war to the detriment of Australian farmers

FNArena has added another video to its Investors Education section on the website. In this latest video, ATW's Jerry Simmons explains why he is keeping a close watch on crude oil futures.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 43 points or 0.3% while the S&P lost 0.3% to 1412 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.

A recent news report by Bloomberg reveals that Microsoft has plans to finish the work on Windows 8 this summer and it will be available in the market by October this year.

Many people were delighted when Apple released its newest tablet offering in the market called the "new iPad". One of its defining features is its 4G capability but Australians are not really delighted with the new iPad from Apple.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is one of the highly-anticipated smartphones in the market and even before any official announcement has been made, there are already speculations about its specifications and availability in the market.

An Australian commission has accused Apple Inc. of misleading promotions in advertisements for its new iPad.

Following BHP Billiton's earlier move to divest all from its diamond business, Rio Tinto is also undertaking a review of its diamond operations leading to a possible divestment of its assets in Australia, Canada and India, which seemed no longer fit to its business strategy.

Federal authorities have decided to prevent Huawei Technologies of China from playing any active role in the $38 billion roll out of the national broadband network, citing internet security issues.

Encouraging comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has seen the Australian share market post solid gains in early trade. Chairman Bernanke hinted in a speech to US economists overnight that the Fed remains committed to keeping interest rates in the US low. He also hinted at a third round of economic stimulus, which saw the broader S**9**amp;P 500 Index in the US hit four year highs during New York trade. Early in the local session, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 34.1pts or ...

An investigation by Australian federal law enforcement agencies suspect Western Union money remitters of helping move millions of drug money out of the country the past five years.

By Greg PeelAfter a flurry of activity the week before last, which might have signalled renewed interest in spot uranium at the lower price, last week activity levels fell back to minimal again.

Two early strikes from Brett Lee proved the key as Australia beat the West Indies by 30 runs in St Lucia on Sunday and in doing so squared the five-match series two-all.

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director, FOREX.comToday Ben Bernanke "surprised" the market by giving an incredibly dovish speech to an association of business economists in Virginia.

According to research firm IDC, the Australia and New Zealand PC market ended the 2011 calendar year with a solid 6% year on year (YoY) growth with 6.8 million units shipped. The result was achieved despite supply side challenges and weakening consumer demand.

U.S. stocks surged Monday, largely erasing last week's losses, after a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled the central bank is committed to a monetary policy that's helped buoy stocks for three years.

Australian customers are getting back at the big four lenders by giving it lower satisfaction ratings after the banks unilaterally increased their mortgage rates despite two decisions by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to keep the overnight cash rate unchanged at 4.25 per cent.

When will it become morally wrong for an agent to promote print to a vendor?

A surprise launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III may happen on March 30.

Struggling Tasmanian forestry products company Gunns is continuing to try and raise fresh capital after the earlier plans were wrecked by the withdrawal of a cornerstone investor.

It's not the start of a trend, but the loss from the Bank of Queensland should worry investors.

Aquila Resources and Vale of Brazil have patched up their quarrel over the big Isaac Plains export coking coal project in Queensland.

Your editor's fingers are a little rusty after a full week away from the keyboard. But our hands were not idle! We rediscovered the pleasure of discovering information the old fashioned way last week, analogue style! More on the benefits to your brain of reading books in a moment.