Vittorio Hernandez

Instead of expanding its Olympic Dam project, BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP), the world's biggest miner, is on a contracting mode. On Wednesday, the miner announced job cuts at its copper-uranium-gold project.

A Bengal tiger mauled its American trainer on Saturday in front of circus audience made up of children and adults. Reports identified the victim as Alexander Crispin Suarez, 35, who suffered bites on the neck and subsequently died in a hospital.

The Australian share market rallied today, fighting back after two days of losses and in response to a stellar session on US and European markets. The Dow Jones Index climbed back above 14,000pts overnight while all 10 S&P sectors were higher.

Five more charges were filed on Wednesday against embattled independent MP Craig Emerson when he appeared together with his wife, Zoe Arnold, before the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The Australian sharemarket is back in the black following two straight sessions of weakness. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.8 per cent or 40.6 pts to 4943.2. This is the 12th time in 15 sessions that local shares are improving.

The Nokia Lumia 920 has been recognised as one of the most innovative smartphones in 2012 and included to that recognition is the camera capability installed on the device. While it may be a great when it comes to snapshots and video recording, Nokia Lumia 920 will not suffice aspiring photographers due to its low megapixel rate.

Early reports said supply channels in the United Kingdom have shown a good start for sales of BlackBerry Z10 and most of the shops selling the device end up with "limited stocks remaining."

In the future, BlackBerry 10 will eventually support application from the Android OS. This is one of the major features of BlackBerry 10 which gives access to more applications than what it should only have. Although it is good news that Blackberry can now support Android apps, the implementation is not that amazing since the Android-based version to be used in BlackBerry is almost 2 years old.

Financially challenged computer manufacturer Dell is selling the company to its former owner and other investors for $24.4 billion. Dell announced on Tuesday night that it has reached a complex agreement that would allow the company founder, Michael Dell, to buyback the company

Korean singer and YouTube sensation Psy continues to be on a roll with his Gangnam Style video hitting more than 1.2 billion hits to date in the popular video sharing site. He is also striking while the iron is hot by having a series of concerts lined up for 2013, including five in Australia in March.

Following the confirmation on Monday that the skeletons of King Richard III were those found in 2012 under a former car parking lot, speculations are rife that the next kingly remains to be dug up are that of Alfred the Great.

Researchers from the James Cook University in northern Queensland initially blamed furry coral crabs for the damage on the Great Barrier Reef, but they are now considering tapping the crabs to heal the corals from the white syndrome disease.

Embattled independent MP Craig Thomson disclosed on Tuesday that he was strip searched twice, not once. He provided more details of the experience which he described as humiliating and over the top.

The last 24 hours has provided some perspective for global stock indices which have rallied substantially since the end of last year. Corruption allegations levelled at the Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy roiled European markets. Additionally, Italy's former Prime Minister Berlusconi has gained ground in the polls ahead of elections this month. Mr Berlusconi has been campaigning a platform of rolling back current austerity policies.

As expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) adopted a wait-and-see attitude and kept on Tuesday the overnight cash rate at 3 per cent. The central bank made the decision after release of economic data from the U.S. and China which showed some improvement.

Local stocks are trading in the red at lunchtime in the East, following falls on European and US markets overnight due to political concern in Europe. The Dow Jones Index suffered a triple digit loss, after climbing above the 14,000pt level on Friday for the first time in five years.

The fitness industry in Australia and New Zealand is keeping up with the times by adapting to mobile technology in a bid to make 2013 one of the biggest years in the industry.

Two sneaky Android apps have been detected by Kaspersky, a well-known anti-virus and malware security developer. The apps cloaks as cache cleaners but instead snoop around once connected to PC. Superclean and DroidCleaner are the two applications uncovered by Kaspersky Labs. Both feature clean-up of Android phone or tablet cache files.

Too many mobile devices have saturated the market and all of these came from different brands. Anyone can purchase a new mobile device from a network carrier using a plan or from a retail store to get an open-line. But with the increasing need for internet usage, primarily 3G, network carriers make good deals with the latest smartphones in the package, such as the seven offers from two major telecom service providers.

The Taiwanese firm HTC is still under warning of continues sales drop. The intense friction between Apple and Samsung in terms of marketing has stumbled HTC while the new players, Huawei and ZTE, compete inside China, which kicked the Taiwanese firm out of the top five in the last quarter of 2012.

News of 1970s boxing icon Muhammad Ali's impending death rocked the cyber world on Monday. However, his family immediately debunked the reports that that the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion has lost his power of speech and could be dead within days.

Eight-division boxing title holder Manny Pacquiao is back - not on the ring for a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr or another rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez. He is back on Manila television after his game show titled Manny Many Prizes ended.

British Airways has informed Australian flag carrier, Qantas, that it would not reinstate its code-share agreement for connecting flights between Asia and London when their decades-long partnership officially ends on March 31, reports said.

Not only is the Australian currency rising, even prices of goods and services in major cities in the land down under are also going up at a faster pace. Thus, two Australian cities are in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 10 most expensive cities in the world.

A flurry of buying for local stocks at the beginning of the session failed to translate to anything more substantial on Monday. By the close of trade the market was close to the lows of the session. The main factor at play was the lack of a catalyst as the market traverses the region around the 5000 market. The ASX200 opened at 4927.2, traded at a high of 4951.3, made a low of 4907.5 which was where the index closed.

U.S. oil giant Chevron's expenses to build the Gorgon natural gas project in Australia has gone up by $15 billion. The company blamed the rise to $52 billion from $37 billion to the high Australian currency and extra logistics.

The Australian sharemarket has kicked off the week a touch higher, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up just 0.1 per cent or 3.1 pts to 4945. Global markets rose impressively on Friday, partly thanks to a healthy jobs report out of North America. There were 157,000 jobs created in January, while previous monthly reports were upgraded which was also seen as a positive.

Britain's Crown Prosecution Service let off the hook on Friday Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian over manslaughter charges in relation to the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha.

A two-minute commercial of Super Bowl by Samsung sets to air during the fourth quarter of Sunday's big game. It is a humorous production from Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd who were both seen in the teaser days ago.