Vittorio Hernandez

n a twist to reports of casting couch used by some film producers to pick the stars of their next movie project by having sex with applicants, Nymphomaniac lead actor Shia Labeouf admitted on Wednesday he dropped his pants to get the role.

The local market failed at its attempt to recover this afternoon despite improving from the lows hit just before midday. The All Ords (XAO) finished largely flat after three days of losses, with the index slipping by a few points.

Wednesday's trading session is panning out in similar fashion to Tuesday, with the Australian market fading after a strong start. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down by close to 0.2 per cent, with the miners once again the worst performers.

Europe and the US finally shook off the holiday hangover overnight as a risk rally took shape on strong German employment gains and stellar US trade balance.

In US economic news, the US trade deficit narrowed by 12.9% to $34.3 billion - the smallest deficit in four years. Exports lifted by 0.9% to a record high $194.9 billion, largely driven by a record lift in petroleum exports. Imports fell by 1.4%.

The Queen of England wants the men in her life to be clean shaven; thus, she required her hirsute grandson - a looker whether bearded or not - to shave his facial hair, British dailies reported on Tuesday.

Will Shell exit the petrol retail business? That is the speculation circulating in business circles amid talks that the oil and gas giant plans to sell its 900 petrol stations in Australia as well as the Geelong refinery.

Apple device fans in the U.S. who do not have deep pockets took advantage of big discounts offered by retailers over the 2013 yearend holiday to own a unit of the iPhone 5S or its cheaper variant, the 5C.

For decades, New Zealand had stood under the long shadow of Australia, the economic power of Oceania. However, economists said it is Wellington's turn to shine in 2014 and upstage not only Canberra but other developed markets in terms of economic expansion.

The scheduled Wednesday deportation of Ali Choudhry, a gay Pakistan-born man in a relationship with neuroscientist Dr Matthew Hynd is on hold and a bridging visa was issued to him. An appeal he filed with the Migration Review Tribunal led to the temporary respite from being kicked out of Australia.

The Australian sharemarket failed to hold onto gains of as much as 0.35 per cent today, only to fade in the final hour of trade. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) lost 0.2 per cent, slipping for the third day, with the mining sector bearing the brunt of the selling.

Normally, whenever popular tech Web site ZDNET draws its top 10 list of devices - whether it's smartphones or tablets - the same brands dominate the list such as Apple, Samsung, HTC, Google and Sony. However, for its review of the top 10 Android tablets for January 2014, there is a new kid on the block - the EVGA Tegra Note 7 - Nvidia forays into the tablet market.

The Australian share market is flat at lunchtime in the East, despite a positive start.

24 hours of global weakness have many talking about what to expect in 2014 after fairly universal disappointments from the world's service PMI reads.

In US economic news, the ISM non-manufacturing index slipped from 53.9 to 53.0 in December - the slowest expansion in six months. The business activity index was relatively robust at 55.2. The biggest decline occurred in the forward orders index which fell 7 points to 49.4 - the first signs of a contraction since July 2009. US factory orders lifted by 1.8% in November, in line with estimates. Excluding transportation factory orders rose by 0.6%.

The selfie continues to evolve from just being a trend and the buzz word of 2013 to becoming an official game in 2014: the Selfie Olympics.

Last year, 2013, was a good year for Toyota in Australia because for the 11th straight year, it was the top selling vehicle brand in the Land Down Under. It sold about 215,000 vehicles, almost double the sales of the runner-up, Holden.

Cite the words naked man, olive oil and lubricant and chances are people who read those words would think of kinky sex practices. However, Australian police amusedly found it was a young lover's surprise for his girlfriend gone wrong.

Nineteen-year-old student Tyler Lawrence is surely regretting his decision to join the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity in Wilmington College in Ohio. It's because of the brotherhood's harsh initiation rites in late November 2013, he lost one of his nuts.

Skiing took its toll again on a celebrity via an accident; this time the victim is German Chancellor Angela Merkel who fractured her pelvis. Her ski accident follows a similar accident of Formula One legend Michael Schumacher who is still in a medically induced coma since Dec 29.

The Consumer Electronic Show 2014 this week could be another battleground between telco giants AT&T and T-Mobile as they fight for a larger slice of the smartphone mobile market.

The Australian sharemarket steadily worsened this afternoon, with the All Ordinaries (XAO) falling 0.5 per cent by close. Today was extremely quiet on the volume front however, with investors in holiday mode. There were around half as many shares traded as usual. The banks were minimising the losses at lunch; however the gains fell away with the rest of the market later in the session.

Sydney is the 11th most expensive city in the world, according to the Web site expatistan.com, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. However, compared to London, the costliest city, Sydney is 25 per cent cheaper.

Despite a better start to the trading session this morning, the Australian sharemarket has slipped into the red with no major events to act as market drivers. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.2 per cent, with some modest gains from the financials helping to limit the losses.

Today marks the start of the first full trading week of 2014; however, it is unlikely we will see the current low volume trading environment improve. This is likely to return in mid to late January when all managers and investors finally settle back into work.

A number of US Fed members spoke on Friday and Saturday, with timing of stimulus withdrawal being the overarching theme. Philadelphia Fed President Plosser said the Fed could cut QE by larger than $10 billion increments if data improves, floating a hypothetical amount of $25 billion. He also commented that the FOMC is still debating possible rules for taper. Fed Chairman Bernanke said that the Fed was no less committed to accommodative policy despite recent announcements to slow its stimulus pro...

A personal phone call from Pope Francis would have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for devout Roman Catholics - especially the religious - but during the recent New Year's Eve, nuns in Spain missed the pontiff's call because they were busy talking to the pope's boss.

TLC's My Strange Addiction 5th season premiered this week, featuring a 43-year-old Alabama woman who drinks paint. Heather Beal, mother of two, admitted that since she began the strange habit, she has imbibed almost three gallons of paint.

The huge blaze in October that killed seven workers and razed a Bangladeshi textile factory that made materials for known retail outlets found in Australia such a Kmart, Target, Big W and Just Jeans brought to fore not only the sweatshop conditions in these facilities.