COMPANIES

Despite the problems with Indonesian beef importation, the meat industry of Australia is expected to enjoy a good year. For 2012, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) forecasts that beef and veal production would reach 2.197 million tonnes (carcass weight).

Auckland International Airport has marked record international travel for the week ended January 8, with over 170,000 international arrivals or departures, beating the travel records during the final stages of the Rugby World Cup 2011.

Toyota Australia has been compelled to let go of its 350 workers at its Altuna manufacturing plant in Melbourne over rising dollar, according to the company president.

Research in Motion, maker of the struggling BlackBerry smartphones, announced on Sunday the resignation of the company's two CEOs following series of disappointments that saw the once leading firm lagging behind from competitors.

Fair Work Australia (FWA) endorsed on Tuesday the proposed workplace determination between Qantas and the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA). The two parties presented the proposal to FWA in late December,

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of West Australia has granted mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) conditional approval of its $40-billion Port Hedland expansion project.

Toyota Australia has axed 350 employees at its Altona plant in Melbourne, blaming the decision on current market conditions that include a high Australian dollar.

From Morrison Securities Pty. Ltd.: U.S. stocks edged lower, jeopardizing the Dow's four-session climb, as investors mulled the sustainability of this year's rally and watched Europe for developments connected to the region's ongoing debt issues.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.21 points, or 0.1%, to 12702 in afternoon trading.

PayPal and Office Depot are reportedly testing the former's new payment method, called by experts as 'wallet in the cloud', that allows consumers with PayPal account to actually make in-store purchases, reports said.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued advisories to a number of airlines around the world to immediately implement check ups on their Airbus A380 fleets after the reported detection of cracks on the wings of some of the passenger plane.

American household name Kraft Foods said it would cut off 1600 jobs in the U.S. and Canada this year before it moves forward to splitting its giant business into two separate entities, the company announced in a statement.

Samsung has denied rumors about a potential buyout of Blackberry maker, Research in Motion after a technology blog reported the South Korean firm was interested in buying RIM.

Australian shares ended Friday on a strong note for their third successive week higher. Easing concerns about Europe's debt and more upbeat earnings from Wall Street boosted local optimism. At the close on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 24.8 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 4,239.6, while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 24.4 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 4,303.

New Zealand's State-owned Meridian Energy has shelved its plan to build a $2 billion wind farm in central Otago following a bad review.With up to 176 wind turbines, the $2- billion project on the Lammermoor Range would have been the biggest power project in the South Island since the 1980s, and it would have generated enough electricity for Christchurch and Dunedin combined and eventually the whole of the island, said reports.

Rolls Royce said on Thursday that it has implemented measures to correct the manufacturing errors seen on its engine components that nearly caused a Qantas Airways flight to explode while in mid-air in November 2010.

British actor Jude Law is among the individuals who received just compensation from the media empire of Rupert Murdoch's News Group as part of the settlement in the case involving email and phone hacking instigated by the editors and reporters of the now-defunct News of the World, lawyers and reports have confirmed.

Apple exporters are optimistic, but at the same time realistic on shipping to an Australia market open after 90 years, as reported by the New Zealand Herald.

Retailers' sentiments were confirmed by the latest sales indicator released on Friday by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which showed that the sector struggled to achieve sales targets last year. Nevertheless, although the numbers are disappointing, they revealed that with some creativity and technological savvy, more sales can be achieved.

In Fonterra’s latest online auction, where the average price increased and the winning price also hiked at US$3701 a tonne, the results bolstered the optimism of NZ economists.

Apple is credited for introducing the tablet computers to the world, but Samsung gave the world a choice. By comparing the iPad with the Galaxy Tab 7.0, it is easy to narrow down the similarities and differences between the two remarkable devices.

If 2011 was a bad year for Australian retailers, their losing streak would likely continue through 2012.

Research in Motion Ltd. will release the updated Playbook operating system in February that would include a new native calendar and contact applications, as well as better integration for E-mail, LinkedIn and Twitter. RIM is hoping the new update will lure developers and consumers to support its Playbook OS 2.0 but this update could be too late to reverse the Playbook's fortune.

Ford Motor Company, the second largest automaker company in the U.S. recently announced a recall of at least 539,000 vehicles worldwide in order to repair certain errors in the affected car models.

While its competitors either hold off or cut back new investments, Samsung Group boldly announced on Tuesday plans for more investments this year, estimated to reach more than $41 billion, reports said.

Jerry Yang built-up his name by transforming a start-up tech firm into a multi-billion dollar global company, becoming the toast of the tech world in so short a time, which lasted until Yahoo's gradual and eventual decline.

Australia's mining industry will continue to enjoy a boom in 2012 based on production reports that resource companies released this week. Output was particularly higher for iron ore and gold resources.

Australian travelers are expected to benefit from the drop in plane fares as more competition heats in the aviation industry with the offer of AirAsiaX daily trips from Sydney beginning April 2.

The South Australian Supreme Court overturned on Tuesday a ministerial approval given to Argonaut Resources (ASX: ARE) to drill for copper, gold and iron-oxide in parts of Lake Torrens and Andamooka Island.

Cavalier Corp.'s chief executive and managing director, Wayne Chung, is set to retire from his executive role at the company, while operations manager Colin McKenzie has been tapped to take on the lead role.