Scandals continue to plague Australian legislators. The Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper controversies have yet to subside, but on Thursday the spotlight was again on Senator Mary-Jo Fisher who quit her post effective Aug 10, 2012.
While Australian MPs are still debating whether to recognize same-sex unions in the country, the Australian Bureau of Statistics have given gay couples de facto recognition by including same-sex couples in results of the 2011 census which it will release Friday morning.
Unless Peru gets to develop new mines at the soonest possible time, it is likely its mining output will all the more decline in the coming years, with overall mining production expected to fall 4 per cent on 2012 on depleted reserves, slowing global demand and domestic political upheavals.
Iron ore cargo traffic in India has been largely affected by its mining ban, with data handled by major ports having dropped 5.1 per cent to 94 million tonnes in May 2012 compared to a year ago, a report by The Economic Times said.
You'd think millionaires, specially the Australian moguls, hardly felt the crunch of the ongoing global fiscal crisis? Well, think again. Because apparently, the millionaires from this tiny island country were the ones that experienced the toughest of luck in 2011 as far as their financial worth is concerned, a study published Wednesday revealed.
Despite a stronger start to trade this morning, the gains fizzled with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slumping by 1 pct or 43.1 pts to 4133.7. Around ¾ of all companies ended either flat or in the red by close of business.
A diplomatic row between China and France appears to be brewing following the arrest last week in Cambodia of a French national, who Beijing said must be extradited to China so he can shed light of an ongoing criminal probe.
Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced on Wednesday it is now ready to deploy recycled rare earths metals in a wide range of auto parts before the current year ends. This pronouncement came two months after it said it has developed a technological approach that would recycle at least 80 per cent of used rare earths metals in hybrid car batteries.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard indeed left a mark as the G20 summit on Los Cabos, Mexico ended Wednesday, at first earning the ire of European leaders for her unsolicited economic advises and then attracting a second-look from the fashionable Christine Lagarde as the gathering neared its conclusion.
The Australian share market is back in the red today, after US investors gave a muted response to the Federal Reserve's latest plan to stimulate the economy. Instead of announcing fresher, bigger measures such as the much hoped for QE3 stimulus program, the Fed opted to extend its asset purchasing program (Operation Twist) for another six months. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 20.5pts or 0.5pct to 41536.3.
Australian miner Lynas Corp. may already receive the highly disputed temporary operating license (TOL) for its Malaysian rare earths processing plant before the year ends, depending on how fast it can expedite its compliance to the conditions needed to release the TOL.
Although the Tuesday temblor that shook Victoria was the biggest earthquake to rock the state in three decades, the buildings suffered only superficial damage. A construction expert explained the strength of Victoria buildings to changes in building regulations in the aftermath of the magnitude 5.6 earthquake in Newcastle in 1989 that killed 13 people.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar tested the USD1.0220-50 resistance window overnight while Greece finally swore in a coalition government and the US Federal Reserve continued "the twist".
Although there were objections to the multi-million dollar expansion of a Sydney brothel, the Land and Environment Court ignored the opposition on moral grounds.
U.S. stocks finished a volatile day roughly where they started, as investors balanced positive developments in Europe against some disappointment that the Federal Reserve held off on more aggressive action to juice the economy.
China will be imposing stricter standards and regulations in its rare earths mining to salvage what remains of its rare earths reserves amid continued rampant illegal mining activities, even at the expense of a massive shakeup in the global supply and demand for the precious raw commodity.
The performance of the Australian sharemarket continues to be heavily influence by offshore developments. Last night, most global markets improved strongly (up by as much as 2 pct). A Greek coalition seems close to being announced and there has been speculation the Europeans will use a chunk of their bailout funds to buy Italian and Spanish debt (no confirmation). The bad news for the Greeks is that they will need to face the Germans this Friday in the European football championships (a coincide...
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is poised to spend $4.2 billion to support increased iron ore output from its mining operations in Australia and Guinea amid global concerns of a manufacturing slowdown in China, the world's biggest consumer of the steelmaking key ingredient.
A U.S. report on human trafficking heaped praises on the Australian government to stamp out people smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region, citing the nation as a definitive leading figure in eliminating what it called as modern-day slavery.
Indian developer of airports, power projects, roads and mines GVK Power and Infrastructure will be selling a minority stake in its Singapore unit to raise funds to support its Australian projects as well as reduce outstanding debt dues.
Thousands of public employees in Queensland are in danger of losing their jobs following a state Commission of Audit finding that the previous government employed 20,000 more workers than it could afford.
Cracks are showing on the Coalition climate change stand as the party's support for the 20 per cent Renewable Energy Target (RET) was questioned by backbenchers.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought refuge late Tuesday on Ecuador's embassy in London, barely a week after the UK High Court had allowed the procedures for his extradition to Sweden to begin.
Flame was the brainchild of the United States and Israel, a report published by American publication The Washington Post said on Tuesday, claiming that intelligence and military officials from the two nations collaborated to create and dispatch the malware, with aims to undermine Iran's controversial nuclear program.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar remains well supported this morning following a night of strength in equity markets and upbeat statements from the G20 regarding Europe.
Speculation that U.S. central bankers are set to unveil additional stimulus measures lifted the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index for the fourth session in a row, as tensions eased across Europe's financial markets.
The firewall purse being worked on by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) got a significant boost late Monday as the world's emerging markets pledged a total of $US95.5 billion to the emergency fund that the global lender said will be used to fend off threats of recession around the world.
After a stellar start to the trading week, the Australian market lost a little ground today. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) fell 0.4 pct or 16.5 pts to 4167.4. It was another quiet day on the market with only around $3 billion worth of shares exchanging hands today. When discussing markets, the negative seems to receive significantly more attention than the good. Yesterday, the XAO rose by around 1.9 pct thanks to the victory by a pro-Euro and pro-bailout party in the Greek elections.
The 25 basis points cut handed down by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) this month was meant to push for stimulus "that would be expected to flow through to the domestic economy over the coming months."
The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) created to look into the safety of the highly disputed $200-million rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp. in Malaysia has concluded that the facility is safe and has strongly urged for the immediate release of the temporary operating license (TOL) to finally start the plant's delayed operations.
