Vittorio Hernandez

Rather than lose her cool over how many Filipinos made fun of her dark skin, Senator-elect Nancy Binay thanked people who engaged in black humour as she cemented her hold on the no 5 position.

The Australian share market was sold off for a second consecutive session today, despite new record highs on Wall Street and European shares closing at five year highs.

Despite record highs on Wall Street overnight and a positive start to the day's trade, local stocks are back in the red at lunchtime in the East, weighed down by mining players and weakness in the healthcare stocks.

Dairy Australia said on Thursday that there would likely be a 10 to 15 per cent increase in milk prices in 2013. The announcement spells good news for Australian farmers, but represents bad news for consumers.

Pope Francis ordered ousted Scottish Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien to leave the country and spend the time in prayer and penance. The cardinal was asked to step down by then Pope Benedict XVI in one of his last moves before he retired on Feb 28 after Cardinal O'Brien admitted sexual relations with other priests in his younger days.

The mood of Chinese bloggers appears to be tied up with the state of the big yellow rubber dock in Hong Kong. After the giant inflatable duck was deflated, the hashtag #DEVASTATED became trending on Twitter.

Two Filipino women are at the centre of controversy in the Philippines, mainly because of their looks. One has a dark skin tone, the other could be mistaken for a boy.

A day after the Philippine electorate was shocked by the strong showing of 40-year-old Opposition senatorial candidate Nancy Binay, the vice president's eldest daughter braced herself for more criticisms over her lack of qualification for public office.

Sellers got the upper hand in the post Federal Budget session on Wednesday. The weaker tone was primarily derived from big picture matters driving global markets at present, rather than a response to the budget. Some have associated the drop in the Aussie dollar in the last day to the larger than expected deficit in the budget.

Treasurer Wayne Swan released on Tuesday Australia's federal budget for 2013, marked by A$398.3 billion spending. The spending aims to return the country's coffers to a surplus by 2015.

Despite a stronger start to the session, the Australian market is slipping for the first time in six sessions. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.8 per cent or 44.1 pts to 5,158.4. Investors initially reacted to healthy gains from global sharemarkets overnight rather than Tuesday's federal budget, however the rise was short lived with most sectors turning negative about one hour into the session.

The world definitely did not end on Dec 21, 2012 as wrongly predicted by the Mayan long count calendar, but the days of a 2,300-year-old Mayan pyramid in Belize did last week because of ignorant contractors.

Is someone preventing former Glee star Charice Pempengco from publicly admitting her real gender preference?

All eyes are on the controversial Nancy Binay, the 40-year-old daughter of the Philippine vice president who got the fifth highest number of votes in the May 13 mid-term election despite her lack of political experience.

Nancy Binay, the 40-year-old eldest daughter of the country's vice president, is at the eye of a public storm as her election is being cited in a satire of Time magazine as a reflection of the nation's stupidity.

The deluge of racist jokes referring to her brown skin tone on Monday is just the beginning of darker days ahead, upcoming Philippine Senator Nancy Binay said hours after partial results indicate she is headed for the Upper Chamber.

For a second day local stocks ended higher with a small yet unconvincing gain. Whilst the Federal Budget dominates the national media discussion at present, the reality is that the impact on prices will likely be modest if at all.

Australian shares are slightly firmer at lunchtime in the East, following a mixed offshore lead and ahead of the release of the Federal Budget in Canberra tonight.

Partial results of canvassing of the Philippine senatorial and local elections showed an early victory for the administration party as it looms to control the 24-seat Senate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is receiving flak for making taxpayers shoulder the $127,000 bill for a custom-built bedroom he had requested for the flight that took him and his entourage to London to attend the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

More nations and U.S. states are considering the legalisation of medical marijuana to provide relief to cancer and MS patients, but a comedian attributes the cure of his prostate cancer to the weed, and he is not cracking a joke.

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, just added more money to her wealth. On Friday, she and another female billionaire were awarded $200 million after they won a lawsuit against Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO).

The surveys were right. Weeks before May 13, polls indicated that 40-year-old Nancy Binay, a candidate for senator in the Philippine election and daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay, would be elected one of the 12 senators.

The Australian share market closed only slightly higher on Monday, despite strong gains offshore on Friday night which saw European markets reach five year highs and US markets close at record highs.

The Australian sharemarket is flat after a slightly weaker start this morning. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down by just 0.3pts to 5,190.8. A fall in the business conditions survey reading has been keeping stocks subdued. Last week however, the local market rose by around 1.68 per cent, making it three straight weeks of improvements.

With just two days to go before Google's I/O developers' conference opens on Wednesday, May 15, all indicators point to a longer wait for Key Lim Pie OS would-be fans.

More Australians are installing photovoltaic cells on their roofs to capture the power of the sun and cut at the same time their power bills. In Perth, state-owned electricity retailer Synergy estimated 10 per cent of its 112,000 customers are now using solar systems.

Zoom lens in cameras used to be the domain of digicams, not mobile phones. A Russian Web site said over the weekend that South Korean tech firm Samsung is set to release a smartphone with a 10x optical zoom lens.

Following the tragedy that severely damaged the hands of her 15-year-old autistic son to be severed just two days before Mother's Day, Rebecca Boggan, the mum of the victim, called for the closure of all Web sites that contain instructions on how to make bombs like this one.