BUSINESS

Witnesses to the culling of some of the 21,000 Australian sheep rejected by Bahrain and Pakistan described the process as inhumane and brutal. The Karachi edition of The International News cited a video which showed the animals being clubbed, stabbed and buried alive.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 72 points or 0.5% while the S&P gained 1.0% to 1447 as the Nasdaq jumped 1.

The Australian sharemarket ended a little higher for the first time in four days, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) edging higher by 0.5 pct or 20.3 pts to 4402.8. Despite today's improvement, markets have been treading water ahead of the Spanish Parliament's release of the 2013 budget (first draft). The borrowing costs for the Spanish government are currently sitting at 6 pct, which is around twice as high as funding costs for our government.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower for the third straight session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) giving back another 13 points to 4,382 points.

Rovio Entertainment, maker of the popular Angry Birds game series, aims to sustain its profitability by ‘killing’ the aggressive winged creature this time around.

Intel labelled on Wednesday as ‘unsubstantiated’ earlier reports that company CEO Paul Otellini was wary of the glitches that would attend the Oct 26 launch of Microsoft’s long-awaited Windows 8.

Samsung is looking to capture more segments of the global tech business and it plans to do so by packing its handsets with attractions that would keep consumers from putting down their devices, like the bestselling Galaxy S3.

By Richard (Rick) MillsAheadoftheHerd.comAs a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best informationIncreases in taxes and, to a lesser extent, reductions in spending, the infamous $600 billion "Fiscal Cliff" that's looming in the new year, will reduce the US fede...

In the generally male-dominated world of mining, two resources queens are engaged in a court battle over ownership of the Hope Downs iron ore mine in Pilbara.

More major resources projects in Australia continued to be shelved as commodity prices remain low. The latest to be added to the list of postponed or cancelled projects is the $650-million ammonium nitrate plant of chemical giant Incitec Pivot.

Australian mining tycoon Nathan Tinkler is no longer number one on the BRW Young Rich List, which he has dominated since 2009. The former coal pit electrician at Hunter Valley, with his $400 million personal wealth, has slipped to second place.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 44 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P lost 0.6% to 1433 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.

The Australian sharemarket lost a little ground for the third straight day, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) easing by 0.3 pct or 13 pts to 4382.5. It could have been worse however; as American markets dropped by around 1 pct overnight. Charles Plosser, a Federal Reserve member from Philadelphia said that the U.S central bank's decision to stimulate the economy a few weeks ago is unlikely to help boost growth. This is the type of commentary that markets tend to not digest very well. Shares...

China's pool of wealthy citizens got a little poorer as the double whip of low global demand and the weakened property market diminished additional millions in earnings, the latest Shanghai-based group's Hurun Report indicates.

Fresh from delivering delight to Yahoo shareholders last week in the form of the $US7.5 billion deal with Alibaba Group, company CEO Marissa Mayer announced on Wednesday the appointment of a new key executive.

Yesterday the Australian share market lost ground for the second day in a row, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) off by another 13 points to 4,395 points. It was a day of 2 half for both the European and US markets. After strong economic numbers out in early US trade, showing US consumer confidence lifted to a 7 month high and better than expected housing data, key European markets pushed aside early global growth concerns and tracked higher. The US markets opened stronger but then fell away s...

China’s Huawei Technologies, one of the world’s biggest telcos, is not giving up on Australia despite earlier decision by the federal government this year to bar the company from participating in the $37-billion national broadband network (NBN) roll out.

Lennar Corp., the third-largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, reported higher fiscal third-quarter earnings as demand for new homes jumped.

The funky map application on Apple’s iOS 6 will not be rescued by Google anytime soon, the internet giant’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt said on Tuesday in Tokyo.

No end to the global housing market downturn is in sight, except probably in the US, according to a survey of global house price trends by the Global Property Guide. Asia is weakening, and house price falls in the worst-hit European crisis countries are dramatically accelerating.

Toys R Us has informed that it plans to hire about 45,000 workers nationwide for holiday shopping season. It will be 5,000 more than the same period last year. The seasonal hiring is expected to help its expanded customer services such as shipping online purchases to stores.

A survey released on Tuesday by Choice, a consumer advocate group, identified Harvey Norman as having the lowest customer service rating among large Australian retailers.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has called for strong and decisive growth plans from policymakers in Europe and the United States, warning that global economic recovery is slower and weaker than anticipated.

As Australian companies grapple with talent shortage, Caltex launched on Wednesday a babycare package which offers a 12 per cent bonus package for employees who return to their jobs and stay with the firm until their child turns two.

Well, it's the country of the future. It's the 'New America'. It's where it is all happening. Growth. Innovation. And wealth accumulation.

Rather than violate the terms of memoranda of understanding in knocking the shipment back, Western Australian Farmers Federation President Dale Park advised Australian live sheep exporters on Tuesday to instead focus on four Middle Eastern markets which have been long-standing customers.

The number of billionaires in China has fallen for the first time in seven years amid the country's worsening property and stock market slump, according to the Hurun Research Institute.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 101 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P lost 1.0% to 1441 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the second straight day, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipping by 0.3 pct or 13.7 pts to 4395.5. This was expected, due to a lack of market moving events locally and offshore between Monday and Wednesday this week in addition to weakness in global markets overnight. The volume and value of shares that exchanged hands today was extremely light once again.