BUSINESS

Russia may be discreetly propping up Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria by helping to print bank notes that pays for Assad's soldiers and civil servants.

Asian financial markets and regulatory bodies need to understand and learn from the mistakes of the West or risk having their own interests trampled upon, said the chief executive of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission.

Qantas suspended on Wednesday a $50 million marketing agreement with Tourism Australia over the alleged meddling of a consortium led by the head of the tourism body and former Qantas official.

While Australian retailers felt some form of relief with the apparent success of Click Frenzy on Nov 20, a major retailer forecasts a wave of retail collapses in 2013.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 89 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P lost 0.5% to 1398 (breaking solid technical support at 1400) and the Nasdaq dropped 0.

A more constructive tone was in place for local stocks on Tuesday, reflecting the general atmospherics for regional indices. Most stock indices throughout the region ended higher. The Shanghai index was conspicuous for its weaker finish, ending below the 2000 mark.Market participants remain wary of the technical picture around the Chinese index and the difficulty it's having consolidating at an important support level.

In response to a weekend news article that claimed mortgage brokers fail to adequately disclose to customers the commissions they receive from lenders, Mortgage Choice CEO Michael Russell, one of Australia's largest independently-operated firms, seeks to set the record straight.

Will Nintendo’s Wii U fuel the recovery of the limping game console business? While the Japanese game maker would not want to claim that distinction, it reported on Monday that the new product is off to a respectable start – selling 400,000 units in a week’s time.

Asha is the reason Nokia remains profitable and recent additions to the series somewhat weaved a clear picture why the handsets, mostly powered by Nokia’s antiquated S40 Symbian platform, were snapped up by close to seven million global consumers as of September 2012.

According to the latest reports, there are inspiring signs that depict a Republican inflexibility on the easing of taxes. This is the second time in a matter of days that a Republican, Lindsey Graham the Senator, has aimed towards violating on the pledge of never raising the taxes.

Development in Dubai froze or stalled in many cases following the 2008 crash. But gradually, Dubai's property market has started to recover and stalled or partially shelved projects are return.

The early holiday sales had been kind so far to Nokia that it left the company’s stocks of Lumia 920s depleted, reports said.

Thanksgiving traditions have been evolving, adding to the list of usual activities one more thing namely Thanksgiving shopping. Retailers know how to take use of the needs and trends therefore they decided to open the holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving.

Despite a flat start, local stocks are rallying at lunchtime in the East on reports Eurozone Finance Ministers have agreed to a voluntary buyback of Greek debt. Sources familiar with the situation say it would involve private equity investors taking a haircut, to receive 35c for every Euro of Greek bonds they hold.

Aston Martin, the luxury car brand, is entangled in the middle of a global Indian-Italian Aston Martin bidding war regarding the takeover of Aston Martin Company, after Mahindra, the motors group from India, trumped a major bid from Italy for almost half of the luxury car manufacturer based in Britain.

Two new feature phones from Nokia will hit selected global markets this holiday season and the Finnish firm is confident that shoppers will love the handsets’ main attraction – the Asha 205 and Asha 206 are wallet-friendly.

The economies of the world’s nations are ranked by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in terms of how competitive they are, releasing the results in a yearly Global Competitiveness Report.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 has become immensely popular, especially in China, that its maker caved in to demands voiced out by Chinese consumers – a dual-SIM version of the world’s first commercially successful smartphone-tablet hybrid.

No follow-through after the big surge on Monday. So, nothing has changed. We still have a punky stock market that appears to want to go down.

Scientists reckon that catastrophic climate change was responsible for a huge number of extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, around twelve thousand years ago. Mega-fauna - very large animals - didn't adapt well to the rapidly changing climate.

Be thankful for the bottomless gluttony of man today. It's probably going to help Australian stocks! The US markets came out of their Turkey Coma to rally higher on Friday. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow finished more than one per cent higher. That should be good enough for a positive start to the week in Australia.

Virgin Mobile opened on Monday nominations for individuals who want to be part of the Virgin Mobile Testing Team. Successful team participants who are nominated through a Facebook-dedicated page will be sent a latest handset to test drive and asked for reviews that must include pros and cons in a two-minute video.

As 2012 winds up, ZTE and Samsung are now planning to have the next generation of smartphones in 2013 with octo-core or eight core processors inside their mobile devices.

Thanks to the Windows OS, Swedish telecom firm Nokia is experiencing a second wind. Reports said that Nokia has received more than 2.5 million orders for the Lumia 920 unit worldwide. This volume of orders is more than the entire line up of Lumia family sold in the third quarter of 2012.

By Andrew NelsonIt was a quiet week in the uranium market last week. In fact, it was so quiet that industry consultant and spot price tracker TradeTech didn't even put out a weekly report, instead heading out to Grandma's house to catch up with the rest of the US investment market.

A day after Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, warned of the country losing its competitiveness in the global market due to wrong policies, Chevron's top man in Australia waved a similar red flag.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 42 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P fell 0.2% to 1406, but the Nasdaq rallied 0.

The new trading week has begun the way the previous one finished. Investors are maintaining their vigil in relation to economic readings out of Europe and the US, wary of any negative impact that political inertia is having on real economy outcomes on either side of the Atlantic.

Amazon is practically giving out a gadget steal for consumers willing to be tied up for a 2-year contract with U.S. telco AT&T and all they need to do is make a one-off payment of $US0.01, a package that is reserved for new subscribers of the company.