BUSINESS

The plant unrest at a Foxconn Technology Group plant at Wuhan, China has been resolved and a majority of the workers have returned to work late Wednesday, according to Microsoft Corp.

While the mining boom has generally benefited Australia's economy in general, certain groups reaped more than others did. One of the groups that thrived on the boom more than others is that of immigrant workers.

Wall Street Journal reported that camera manufacturer Eastman Kodak Company was preparing to file for bankruptcy in the next few weeks.

Property confidence is down in Australia’s biggest states as investors look to resource-rich areas in 2012.

Although forecasts say global aluminium prices may go up for the first quarter of 2012, prospects are bleak for the aluminium sector in Australia.

Intel Corp. is entering the smartphone battle with new smartphones developed with partners Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Lenovo Group.

Neutron generator and laser Doppler vibrometry, sound familiar? These are the technology used to detect car bombs. The threat of car bombs is real, and whether a person is paranoid or just plain staying safe, how can people check if their automobiles have been rigged to blow up?

While slowdown and recession are the buzzwords in many parts of the world because of the threat of another global financial crisis over European debt, in Australia the key words are expansion and boom.

The US mortgage market index rose by 4.5pct last week with the purchase index spiking 8.1pct higher.

Several cases of underpayment among workers in the retail and services industries have been noticed and acted upon by Fair Work Australia (FWA).

It is not easy to penetrate a very discerning and astute Korean market. Korean consumer standards are quite high in all aspects especially for agriculture products.

Climate change is changing the financial landscape of Australian insurance companies. The Insurance Australia Group (IAG), whose profit margin is expected to be hit anew by natural catastrophes, warned that the changing and less-predictable climate has the potential to reduce insurers' capacity to calculate, price and spread the weather-related risk.

Stiffer competition is expected in Australia's stock market with the offer by the revitalised National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX) to reduce broker application fees to zero. The new policy took effect on Jan 1, 2012, the same week that the NSX added 30 firms to its listing.

Facebook continues to change the world, this time by making its presence felt in vehicle dashboards. Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz announced on Tuesday the launch of a service called mbrace2 which includes online services such as Facebook, Yelp and Google.

U.S. stocks remain higher but are off session highs Tuesday afternoon after strong gains overseas and an upbeat start to the U.S. earnings reporting season pushed blue-chip stocks to levels not seen since late July.

US chain store sales rose by 3.3pct in the week to January 7 compared with a year ago according to the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales index.

Dell, a known PC maker announced that the company would be putting a stop in their Inspiron line of netbooks.

Sony Corp. denied reports that the company is going to announce the next generation PlayStation console at E3 this summer.

Sony Corp. has introduced a new technology for television that uses 55 million LEDs to create a sharp and clear image that, according to Sony is far superior to traditional LCD displays.

Intel Corp. took center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to step up the Ultrabook barrage as the chipmaker promised more than 75 ultrabook designs will show up this year.

When Motorola launched its Android phone, the Droid RAZR, in late 2011 techies were asking if it could help propel the phone manufacturing firm to the top position it once enjoyed?

The year 2011 will go down in Qantas's history as one of its worst. It was the year that saw the air carrier hit by several strikes from pilots, ground crew and aircraft engineers. As a result, Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce unilaterally grounded the air carrier's fleet for two days, causing major disruption in travel plan of Qantas passengers.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) killed last week about 300 Asian honey bees found on a cargo ship in Townsville, which came from Port Moresby. The operation was made after DAFF biosecurity officers inspected shipping containers and the vessel which subsequently led to the extermination of the bees.

Ginia Rinehart is probably the 2010 decade's new icon of wealth, comparable to what Christina Onassis was in the 1970s and 1980s. At age 25, Ms Rinehart is set to become the sole heir of the richest person in Australia with $10 billion to her name. However, it would not come easily because of court cases from her siblings who are locked in a legal battle with their mother, Gina Rinehart.

Two female pilots of a British Airways jet felt dizzy in midflight and were forced to quickly return to London's Heathrow airport for an emergency landing on Dec. 20, according to air accident investigators' report.

More Australian retailers are set to join in 2012 the online bandwagon. The shift to e-commerce over traditional bricks-and-mortar stores confirms the truth behind the cliché - If you can't beat them, join them.

US consumer credit rose by US$20.37 billion in November - the biggest increase since 2001. The US employment trends index rose from 103.7 to 104.3 in December.

India has initiated talks with the governments of Australia, Netherlands, France, and the European Union on several human resource mobility partnership agreements that will ensure job employments for its working professionals.

Google's Chrome 15 is now the most popular web browser version according to a research done by StatCounter Global Stats.