BUSINESS

The 74,000 employees of French IT firm Atos will no longer email each other to cut the time they spend in handling emails.

Australia Post Chief Executive Ahmed Fahour knows how to turn a problem into an opportunity. He showed his success on Tuesday when the agency he heads opened its 24/7 operations that relies heavily on delivery and pick up of parcels ordered online by Aussies.

The local share market is trading flat in early trade, following a generally upbeat session on US and European markets. After the bell on Wall Street, ratings agency Standard and Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of major US banks, sending our market down in the first hour of trade. At midday in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 4.7pts to 4172.

- UBS initiates with Buy rating on Regis Resources- Attracted to solid production growth and exploration potential- Buy ratings dominate for the stockBy Chris ShawEmerging gold producer Regis Resources ((RRL)) has assets containing resources of 6.

Giant Australian miner BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) plans to leave the diamond mining business and instead focus on long-life and expandable assets. The company said it is considering selling its diamond interests in Canada's Ekati mine and Chidliak exploration venture.

Qantas passengers again faced delays even if the unions and the air carrier's labor dispute is under arbitration with Fair Work Australia. The culprit this time was computer outage.

U.S. stocks trimmed early gains Tuesday as investors weighed worries about Europe's debt crisis with an unexpected increase in consumer confidence.

- Macquarie initiates on Alacer Gold with an Outperform rating- Strong production growth and improving valuation are likely catalysts- News flow should be positive in coming months- Buy ratings on Alacer continue to dominate stockbroker viewsBy Chris ShawAlacer Gold ((AQG)) has been among the prefer...

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 32 points or 0.3% while the S&P rose 0.2% to 1195 and the Nasdaq lost 0.

It's still a feature phone world out there. Despite rising demand for smartphones in the U.S. and Europe the rest of world is still clamoring for feature phones.

An Apple iPhone spontaneously burst into flame in a flight from Lismore to Sydney last Friday.

Toyota has rediscovered its love for the fancy cars as the Japanese automaker unveiled on Sunday its latest foray in the world of sports racing, the new sporty compact ‘86’.

Qantas Airways has launched a probe on the alleged scandalous ‘encounter’ between one of its pilots and a female passenger during a long-haul flight that originated from London and landed in Sydney Friday night.

We finished off yesterday poo-poohing the idea that China's monetary policy makers can do anything to halt China's bust that follows its boom.

It was good timing for Rio Tinto to hold its quarterly investor update yesterday; the bounce on markets on reports of moves to try and fix the eurozone crisis offset an escalation in warnings from the company about the impact of the volatility on customer demand and sales.

It's not quite clear why Qantas shares rose strongly yesterday. After all the airline confirmed what analysts have been warning for a month, that the industrial action and airline grounding in late October and early last month would cut earnings.

Many techies love to customize the ROMs of their Android devices, which allow various ways to modify smartphones, including the manipulation of startup devices, increase of speed and better battery usage.

A train crash sort of week ahead? The usual suspects are there: Europe, China and the Australian economy and budget position, not to mention the UK's financial and spending outlook.

There's been so much talk about European government bonds lately - as the IMF considers loaning money to Italy and all - but let's get back to Australia, where 10-year government bond yields are plunging.

Could this be the crucial week for the euro, the eurozone and financial stability in Europe and the rest of the global economy?

According to Bloomberg, last week was the worst Thanksgiving week for US markets since 1932, when the Depression deepening after a string of bank collapses sent economies around the world plunging into a deep freeze.

So is this the "Big Bazooka" than many have said that Europe needs to convince sceptical markets that the eurozone crisis can be controlled and conquered?

By Greg PeelCommonwealth Bank economists have trimmed their 2012 global GDP growth forecast by 0.4 percentage points to 3.

Going green has been a popular initiative for some time, but the commercial sector has been slow to pick up the trend. Only now are commercial buildings beginning to go green in a variety of ways, and are doing so for both financial and environmental benefits.

NAB Broker will pay 65 basis points up-front to all brokers from 1 January 2012, as part of a wholesale change to its broker channel segmentation strategy.

NAB's major bank competitors have all reacted to NAB Broker's commission restructure by saying they plan no immediate changes to their own broker remuneration structures.

The expansion and diversification of its operations had led to record revenue growth for Australian environmental services company, CO2 Group Limited (ASX: COZ). On Monday, CO2 reported revenues of $35 million for financial year 2011 and full year net profit after tax of $1.5 million.

Doubt is being cast over the fairness in choosing the new seven wonders of the world as the organiser's costly requirements to win the slots meant that only natural places in countries that can afford the expenses are more likely to win the highly commercialized global contest.

By Greg PeelDue to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the US, industry consultant TradeTech did not publish its usual weekly update on uranium spot market activity other than to note a US50c drop in the consultant's spot price indicator to US$52.