POLITICS & POLICY

Setting aside a longstanding territorial dispute, Japan and Russia have forged ahead to continue building a $7 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Vladivostok spurred by Asia's growing demand for the chilled fuel.

Japan's economy, affected by both international and domestic factors, grew slower than expected during the April-June period, hinting the world's third-largest economy, as with other stronger world economies, may be headed for a slowdown.

U.S. stock markets turned a weak jobs report into positive news Friday, ending higher on expectations that the data will lead to new Federal Reserve efforts to help the economy.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Weaker US data and positive signs out of China propelled the Australian Dollar significantly higher in the offshore session on Friday.

To level the playing field between bricks and mortar store operators in Australia and overseas-based online shops, New South Wales Treasurer Mike Baird is proposing a large reduction in the floor price for general sales tax (GST) exemption for items bought overseas from online retailers.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard cut short her participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) leader's summit in Vladisvostok, Russia due to the death of her father, John Gillard, on Saturday.

The dry weather spell currently hitting Western Australia could push down the production of Australian wheat, dropping far below an earlier government forecast.

The Afghan government has issued a new army manual that is hoped to narrow the cultural divide between the local security forces and members of NATO troops mentoring them.

Atlas Iron Ltd. wants to divest its share of a uranium prospect to focus on its iron ore expansion plans amid the commodity's plummeting prices in the world marker triggered by China's softening demand.

Still enmeshed in an international dispute lodged before the World Trade Organisation, Japan and China yet again face off in a race on who gets first dibs to explore and mine the precious rare earths elements off the Pacific Ocean.

As expected, opponents to the rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp in Malaysia vowed to continue their fight against the presence of the facility until the Australian miner packs up and leaves shores.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar rallied after Europe's central bank unveiled an unlimited but conditional bond-buying program to help alleviate the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

Gina Rinehart has several titles only she could claim such as Australia's richest person and the world's wealthiest woman. However, her recent comments about Australian minimum wage earners and YouTube remarks on the country's global competitiveness earned her a new title - Queen of Mean.

She may not be a fan of gay marriage but she won’t be a party too on any forms of gay slur, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has indicated on Thursday, following her decision to withdraw from a speaking duty with the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) set for October.

It's now all systems go for Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp as it had finally received the highly controversial temporary operating licence (TOL) needed to jumpstart its long overdue $US800-million ($810 million) rare earths processing plant in Malaysia.

Julia Assange is just 24 hours away from facing charges in the United States should U.S. authorities finally decide to throw the book on him, the Spanish defender of the WikiLeaks founder said on Wednesday.

The Australian dollar jumped on Thursday after latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the country's August unemployment rate fell to 5.1 per cent from 5.2 per cent in July.

Shares of Australian troubled surfwear retailer Billabong International jumped like crazy after the company announced it has attracted a second suitor from an unnamed party which gave a A$694 million ($707 million) offer, at par with rival bidder TPG Capital.

The ongoing re-vetting process of the Afghan security forces has so far led to the firing of hundreds of local soldiers, many of them detained, for alleged links with the Taliban insurgents, a top Afghan official said on Wednesday.

Australian politics is not as pleasing as it was to Malcolm Turnbull, decrying what he described as an arena that routinely ignores truthfulness but applauds behaviour that encourages dishonesty.

A day after he was accused by Treasurer Wayne Swan of being the loyal servant and paymaster of Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, Coalition leader Tony Abbott kept his distance from the controversial wage ideas of the mining tycoon.

Two days after the Indian High Court allowed 18 iron ore mines to resume mining activities in Karnataka after a more than a year of suspension on environment concerns, the country is now thinking to reduce the export taxes on its iron ore shipments.

Two days after the Indian High Court allowed 18 iron ore mines to resume mining activities in Karnataka, India, the government now considers reducing export taxes on its iron ore shipments.

Australia's gold output in the first six months of 2012, the world's second-largest producer of the precious metal, fell 5 per cent from a year ago on declining ore grades, construction and commissioning delays and slower than expected ramp-ups of output at a number of properties, international metals consultancy GFMS, a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp., said on Wednesday.

Gina Rinehart railing against the policies of the government was not news item at all, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Wednesday.

Supposed recession-bound Australia continued to fight off for economic growth, advancing 0.6 per cent in the three months to the end of June, but admittedly was a slow roll for the resource-rich country.

The Australian federal government will no longer be pursuing a contract that seeks to pay out the country's dirtiest coal-fired power generators fter negotiations with their respective owners bogged down.

Tyranny is upon us. But tyranny isn't put in place by some all-powerful evil force that suddenly assaults our freedoms; it's ratcheted up one day at a time by the People themselves -- the government workers who are willing to do anything as long as they're told "it's the rules."

Ben Bernanke just said he was ready to do something if something needed doing. His position hasn't changed.