Vittorio Hernandez

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey is open to the possibility to remove the 49 per cent cap on ownership of Qantas Airways for the flag carrier to compete better with Virgin Australia and other state-owned airlines that undercut ticket prices.

Angry and disappointed - these were the two keywords that came out in media reports of what Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono felt when he received and read the letter from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

After the success of its rollout of the BBM app for iPhones and Android devices with 20 million downloads on the first week, embattled Canadian phonemaker BlackBerry launched on Tuesday its social network - the BBM Channels.

The inner child - err, spoiled brat - in 19-year-old Canadian singer Justin Bieber surfaced on Wednesday morning when he drew graffiti on the walls of the tennis court of the QT Hotel in Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast in Australia.

Local stocks were on a greasy slope from late morning until the close of trade on Wednesday, with the ASX 200 ending at the lows of the session on reasonable volume. Almost $4.3 bln shares trade on the session.

The city of Toronto in Canada topped the list of 25 global cities indexed by YouthfulCities, an organisation that assists youth in building better cities.

While Australian and Indonesian heads of state are talking about signing codes of ethics to resolve the diplomatic row over spying, supermarkets in Australia are mulling a code of conduct in relation to their suppliers.

Over the first 2.5 hours of trade, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) has improved, lost ground and traded flat. At lunch, the index is 0.2 per cent weaker, losing ground for the first time in four trading days.

Housing data is causing green on screens today as US markets warmed to the jump in the Case-Shiller house price index.

In US economic news, the S&P Case-Shiller house price index rose by another 1.03pct in September taking annual house price growth to 13.3pct. Building permits jumped by 6.2pct to 1.034 million in October. The Richmond Fed index bounced from +1 to +13 in November. The Conference Board consumer confidence index fell from 72.4 to 70.4 in November - a 7-month low, but confidence remains in a gradual uptrend.

Canadian singer Justin Bieber seems not to have his lessons yet despite plummeting ticket sales to his eight-show Believe Tour in Australia. The lower sales and higher rate of ticket returns are attributed to negative news about the 19-year-old pop star such as being thrown out of a Brazilian brothel and a romp with a porn star.

A tiger at the Australia Zoo bit its trainer on the neck and shoulder on Tuesday, injuring the 30-year-old zoo employee. David Styles was rushed to a Melbourne hospital with two puncture wounds, but he is now in stable condition at the Royal Brisbane Hospital where he was subsequently flown.

After keeping mum on the contents of the letter that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot sent to Jakarta, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono broke his silence on Tuesday and publicly disclosed what Mr Abbott wrote.

Australian water skiing champion Sarah Teelow died on Sunday after a water skiing accident at the Bridge to Bridge race on the Hawkesbury River.

There was some tooing and froing from the market early in the day. Sellers got traction in the first hour of trade although by lunch time the index had recovered from its lows of the session and left sellers in its wake.

A San Antonio police officer is being accused of raping a 19-year-old female driver whom he flagged for a routine traffic stop.

The Australian share market is flat at lunchtime in the East, despite another record high from blue chip stocks on Wall Street overnight. The US Dow Jones Index was slightly firmer while the broader share market was slightly lower and the NASDAQ reached above the 4000 point level during trade for the first time since the year 2000.

Canadians can have the newly released Motorola Moto G smartphone for free if they sign a new two-year contract with Telus or Koodo Mobile. Off contract, the phone costs $200.

If New Zealand has the notorious group Roast Busters, their counterpart in Australia is the Knights of the Jedi Council, made up of 17 soldiers who allegedly spread through the Internet images of unsuspecting naked women and then challenge members of the council to have sex with these females.

The holding pattern of the last seven days looks like continuing for the rest of week.

In US economic news, pending home sales dipped by 0.6pct in October. The Dallas Fed manufacturing index slipped from 3.6 to 1.9 in November.

Canadian singer Justin Bieber immediately went to an Australian party on Sunday upon his arrival from New Zealand by joining end-of-school celebrations in Gold Coast.

Upbeat European and U.S. economic data caused a considerable increase in the prices of copper and aluminium at the London Metal Exchange (LME). When the open-outcry trading closed on Friday, three-month copper was up 1.1 per cent from the day's $7,094 per metric tonne.

The already high-tech Australian passport - which features facial recognition technology since 2005 - would be brought to another higher level in the future with the inclusion of voice recognition and eye scanning technologies.

An Indonesian international law expert warned on Monday that if the letter of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott would not satisfy Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the next step in the worsening diplomatic crisis between the two nations could be Jakarta expelling Aussie diplomats.

The Australian share market gained for a second session today, on the back of Wall Street notching up another record high on Friday night. By close of trade, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) was firmer by 15.8pts or 0.3 per cent to 5346.1 points.

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) Chairman Jan du Plessis complained at the Australian British Chamber of Commerce business lunch in Sydney on Friday of the fast rise of cost of doing business in Australia.

The Australian sharemarket is improving following a tough week for local shares. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.5 per cent, with gains in every sector. Thanksgiving in the US this week will result in the closure of the US market on Thursday and its partial closure on Friday. This could keep volumes a little light over the next five sessions. The S&P500 index closed above 1,800 points for the first time on Friday while the DOW index ended over 16,000 points for the second consecutive day ...

Mark Textor, the political adviser of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has worsened the already bad ties between Australia and Indonesia due to his tweets, had quit Twitter.