POLITICS & POLICY

Finnish authorities on Wednesday detained a British-flagged ship and its 30 all-Ukrainian crews at the Port of Kotka on suspicion of illegally transporting 69 Patriot missiles and 160 tons of explosives.

Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan has agreed to the Coalition's wish that asylum seekers apprehended on Australian waters be processed instead on Nauru but stopped short of offering protection visas that the Liberals have been demanding as a compromise.

A former whaling captain warned that Japan's annual whale hunt in Antarctica could hurt Australia's $300-million-a-year whale-watch industry.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Friday that the Australian economy is robust and growing as reflected by the latest Moody's assessment that maintains the country's AAA credit rating.

Australians who want to buy computer games could purchase these items at a lesser cost at retailer Harvey Norman. The lower cost is made possible by removing the general sales tax (GST).

What is Christmas without Christmas Tree? Putting up a Christmas Tree is something that people look forward to every Christmas.

MORNING REPORT (8.00am AEDT)US jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 364,000 in the last week - marking a fresh 3½ year low. The final estimate of US GDP showed the economy expanded at 1.8pct in the September quarter (previously reported at 2pct). The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose from 64.1 to 69.9 in November - its highest level in six-months. The survey´s one-year inflation expectation edged lower from 3.2pct to 3.1pct.

U.S. stocks rose Thursday, aiming for a third-consecutive advance, on a batch of better-than-expected readings on the state of the domestic economy

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Positive US data supported sentiment overnight with the Australian dollar opening this morning at USD1.0130 against the Greenback, up from USD1.0080 late yesterday.

Inner Mongolia, China's largest coal producing region, has produced 908 million tonnes of coal from January to November this year, up 26.6 per cent from a year ago.

It is funny to witness how investor confidence went haywire when prices of gold tumbled $1,560.97 in the middle of December.It is as if many have forgotten that while the yellow reached record highs of $1,915 per ounce in August 2011, this was well below the real high of $2,500 per ounce in 1980.Presently, gold is trading at $1,600 per ounce average. Still, this is 18 per cent below August 2011's $1,915 per ounce. Moreover, this remained 46 per cent below the real high of $2,500 per o...

South Korea, in a bid to secure a stable and reliable energy supply away from energy imports, will spend some $11.8 billion in various oil and natural gas development as well as rare earth minerals projects in 2012.

Cash gold fell 0.5 percent to $1,607.25 an ounce in Singapore, as it traded at $1,611.15 at 12:04 p.m. on concerns the maddening debt crisis swiping across the Eurozone is not contained.

China, earnest in its campaign to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions through 2015, has set a pollution reduction goal for 2012.On Wednesday, the world's second-largest economy, which happens to be also the world's biggest energy consumer, announced that for the coming year 2012, it aims to reduce by 2 per cent its sulfur dioxide (SO2) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) as well as ammonia nitrogen by 1.5 per cent, apart from maintaining zero-growth in the emission of nitrogen oxides, the...

An Australian journalist, three Belarusian journalists and three Ukrainian protesters have been released by KGB officers, who arrested them during a topless protest against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in front of the former Soviet spy agency's headquarters in Minsk.

With the operations of Japan's nuclear reactors still suspended as an aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, overall energy demand of the world's third-largest economy will upsurge sharply in 2012/13.

The Regional Rail Link Authority of Victoria announced on Thursday the award of $1.6-billion rail contracts to three bidders. The Leighton Group, Lend Lease and UGL won the bid to build a part of the $5.3-billion Regional Rail Link project.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and his senior cabinet members will attend the yearly Australia-New Zealand leaders meeting to be held in Australia on January 27-29.

Australia will purchase from the United States 10 military planes and other equipment worth $950 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed the U.S. Congress on Wednesday on the sales of C-27J aircraft, missile warning systems and radar.

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay will no longer permit ships carrying the Falklands flag to dock in their ports, a move supporting the claim of Buenos Aires to the self-governing British overseas territory.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) had on Wednesday released a roadmap schedule that will aid the dismantling of the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in the next 30 to 40 years.As per the timetable, within two years, Tepco takes out the spent fuel rods at Fukushima Dai-Ichi. Its engineers will then attempt to slowly haul out melted fuel from one of the reactors within a decade, the Japanese government said.

The local share market opened lower this morning after a negative sessions on overseas markets. European markets were held back by uncertainty over the European Central Banks (ECB's) new bond program and the U.S. markets hit by large downward revisions to existing home sales.

The Western Australian government rejected on Wednesday the application of LD Operations to run a coal mine at Osmington hear Margaret River.

Indonesian police are investigating three soldiers who are accused of being involved with the sinking of the asylum seekers' boat that sank off the Javanese coast on Saturday.

MORNING REPORT (8.00am AEDT)US existing home sales rose 4pct in November. At November´s sales pace, the 2.58 million unsold homes on the market represented 7 months supply - the lowest since February 2007 - a sign the backlog of inventory was clearing.

From Morrison Securities Pty Ltd.:U.S. stocks fell as questions about loans to euro-zone banks and some earnings disappointments cut into Tuesday's optimism. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 30 points, or 0.3%, to 12073, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index eased 2 points, or 0.1%, to 1239 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 39 points, or 1.5%, to 2564.

US Military's F-22 Raptor planes have generated serious safety concerns following seven major crashes resulting to two fatalities and other 14 oxygen system malfunction-related incidences were earlier reported.

Fiscal crisis stricken Germany, by far the eurozone's largest single investor in renewable energy, is all the more getting serious to wipe out its coal usage by 2020.

With most of its natural resources already nearing depletion, Malaysia has been urged to seriously consider opening itself to accommodate the production of rare earth metals.