Vittorio Hernandez

Several factors came converged on Monday to ensure a quiet start to the trading week. The trading week on Wall St closed with small gains and weather related issues ensured that volumes remained low. The regional experience was marked by lunar new celebrations which will see most centres closed for the early part of the week whilst the Chinese market will be offline for the entire week.

The Australian sharemarket kicked off the session and the week largely flat, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down just a few points. At lunch however, the XAO is managing to edge higher by 0.10 per cent or 6.9 pts to 4996.3. It will be interesting to see if the ASX 200 Index (XJO) and the XAO can crack through the 5000.0 mark and remain above that level for the first time in years.

Apple is planning to welcome the Facial Recognition tool as part of iOS device unlocking system. Currently, iPhones use passcodes to protect unwanted individuals to access the device. But Apple is concerned that thieves have easy ways to get around these codes.

Although measuring the size of the penis is as easy as taking a ruler or tape measure, actually doing the measuring may not be feasible particularly if that male organ is not yours.

Music plays a major role among most couples. It is used to express a lover's sentiment. Romantic music serves as a good background for a couple dating on Valentine's Day.

With Valentine's Day just four days away, couples from different parts of the world are surely preparing ways how to spend love day in a romantic way.

The cash cow of the Philippine province of Agusan del Sur, the world's largest crocodile in captivity, is gone. The capture of Lolong in 2011 placed the once sleepy province in world map which provided income for the local government because of tourists.

With an average record time of 10.31 metres per second run, Jamaican runner Usain Bolt bagged the gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, Britain. However, a Japanese researcher discovered that a sea creature could beat Mr Bolt's record at 11.2 metres per second.

On January 1, 2011, Australian employees who had a child birth, were assured of 18 weeks of paid parental leave of at least $570 per week wage. The law covered both mother and father of the infant and was extended to full-time, part-time, seasonal, self employed and contractual workers.

With the economic recovery of China on the horizon, analysts are forecasting higher earnings for Australian miners if iron ore's current price of $150 per tonne would be sustained for the next few months.

With Australia's federal election fast approaching, the Opposition would have another campaign material to use against the Gillard government in its attempt to wrest power from Labor. It is the controversial carbon tax which was imposed by the administration in July 2012.

Local stocks ended the week on a sound footing as investors continued to push the index towards the 5000 mark. The re-emergence of European political risk has been one of the main themes for investors globally this week. The local experience suggested that investors were willing to support the market in the face of the modest amount of weakness that was on offer in recent days.Some of the main points of the day included, The stock market hitting a 22-month high, miner Newcrest reporting half yea...

While the big four in Australia in 2012 defied the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) policy decision on overnight cash rate by pocketing some of the rate cuts instead of passing it fully to borrows, the banks appear to have a different approach for 2013.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the third consecutive session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.2 per cent or 11.6 pts to 4967.4, despite a slow start to this morning. Over the past five trading sessions, the XAO has edged higher by almost 0.5 per cent. If the market can maintain its gains for the duration of the session and economic news out of China doesn't disappoint this afternoon, this will make it four consecutive weeks of improvement.

Samsung is already used to rumours spreading about every single device it makes, and it cannot be helped if fans, critics, and loyalist keep on looking on every move from the South Korean tech giant.

Motorola is really pushing hard for the updates of its devices that run on Android OS. Since the start of 2013, Motorola has been rolling out updates for Droid RAZR and RAZR Maxx, but still a lot more needs to be done to finish updates for all devices that belong to the RAZR family.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini has easily gained its Jellybean 4.1.2 update, unlike with other devices that were released before it. It is now added to those smartphones list which has received a new update with new features added. Samsung is keeping its word that updates are running on all their devices.

The Witchcraft Act of 1735 ceased being a law in the 16th Century in Great Britain, although as late as 1811, Barbara Zdunk of Prussia was executed for witchcraft, the last one on record.

About one-sixth of the world population would slowdown for the next 15 days to celebrate the Chinese lunar New Year which starts Feb 10.

The Australian Crime Commission, in a report released on Thursday, disclosed that some of the country's athletic coaches, sports scientists and support staff at sports clubs were behind or allowed the used of prohibited performance-enhancing drugs which were distributed by organised crime groups.

The local share market consolidated against a mixed picture for International and regional indices on Thursday. Local employment data generated conversation about the RBA's next move on rates whilst corporate news was on tap from a host of corporates including National Australia Bank and Telstra.

While aspiring space traveler and adult film actress Coco Brown promised not to make porn movies while in space, it apparently excludes naughty posts in cyber space, particularly her Twitter account.

While Gina Rinehart remains Australia's richest person despite the reduction of her wealth by almost $1 billion to $17 billion due mainly to lower commodity prices, the mining magnate appears to be set on recovering her lost fortune.

More details on the alleged use of Health Services Union (HSU) funds by embattled MP Craig Thomson came out on Wednesday when he showed up to face the 154 charges filed before a Melbourne court.

The Australian sharemarket kicked the session off in the red for the third time this week, however is managing to recover at lunch. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up by 0.1 per cent or 3.9 pts to 4944.4. A number of the largest companies on the local market have issued their profit numbers this morning.

Android Authority celebrates having 100,000 YouTube subscribers by giving away Google Nexus 4 to its loyal fans. The procedure to get a giveaway is relative easy. It only requires a name and email address in a widget located at the bottom of the promo page.

Dell is taking a tough road this year as it goes private with a $24.4 billion deal. The founder of the computer company, Michael Dell, in partnership with Silver Lake, made a striking deal to take back Dell in the biggest buyback in history since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The tech world is beginning to shift from desktop computer units to notebooks which can be used as a computer and a tablet featuring Windows 8 and touchscreen capabilities.

The approval on Wednesday by the British Parliament to legalise gay marriage caused a stir in social networking sites as ordinary Britons and other nationalities expressed their agreement or opposition to the law.