BUSINESS

Toyota Australia has recalled almost 300,000 vehicles to correct a defect with the cars' power windows in one of the largest recalls in automotive history.

A Frenchwoman got the shock of her life when her service provider billed her €11.721 quadrillion. Solenne San Jose of Bordeaux, upon receipt of the bill - which is almost 6,000 times France's yearly gross domestic product - immediately called Bouygues Telecom to verify the amount being collected.

Arrium sold its majority stake in Steel & Tube, a New Zealand company, for $74 million. The sale is expected to drastically reduce the more than $2 billion debt of the steel, mining and mining consumable company that used to be known as OneSteel.

Australia is clearly on the road to one million homes having solar photovoltaic panels installed, the chief adviser to the Sustainable Energy Association (SEA) said on Wednesday. To help reach that goal is the opening of the 10-megawatt Greenough River Solar Farm in Western Australia.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 128 points, or 1.0%, while the S&P dropped 0.6% to 1432 and the Nasdaq lost 0.

By Andrew Nelson in FloridaIt's an age old chestnut and God knows where it came from (not facts, that's for sure), but many in the US will stand by the claim that Republicans are good for the market.

By Rick Mills, Ahead of the HerdAs a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best informationOverheated US housing prices started dropping in 2006.

After hitting a 14-month high yesterday, the Australian market ended in the red for the second time this week. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) eased by 0.3 per cent or 14.7 pts to 4511.9. Keep in mind that both the volume and dollar value of shares exchanging hands remains light.

Japan's Toyota Motor Corp is set to undertake a massive global recall of vehicles due to faulty power window switch found in its units.

Microsoft's notorious Patch Tuesday has been replaced by Update Tuesday, at least for Wednesday, Oct 10, as the company makes sweeping alterations to Windows 8 and its core apps.

A new topnotch car model is slated to join Opel Australia’s present domestic product lines, the European carmaker said in a press release issued on Wednesday.

Facebook are currently added two more buttons, especially made for business people who wants to start or currently has an online store.

There's a trend at work in Lenovo's new convertible family of Windows 8 computing products: the names all suggest what they do, and the theme of flexibility.

Even Microsoft has conceded that Apple’s business model, carefully crafted by its late CEO Steve Jobs, is a rousing success and based on the latest notes from chief executive Steve Ballmer, the software giant is adopting the same approach, much of it at least.

Australia has become a web-centric nation, latest government data showed, with net surfers growing steadily as of June 2012.

Tourism Australia and Dubai-based Emirates will be spending an estimated A$14.3 million over the next three years that will further improve inbound visitation from Europe and New Zealand.

Mary Retallack, a wine grape scientist from Adelaide Hills, was declared on Tuesday the top winner of the 2012 Australian Rural Women's Award. She was recognised for her efforts to help improve the potential of women in the wine industry and rural sector.

Key Microsoft executives took pay cuts in the last financial year for missing corporate goals, according to the latest regulatory filing by the software giant.

Local stocks have retreated from 14 month highs today, following a lacklustre session on US and European markets overnight. Wall Street eased into the red due to a lack of direction with no economic data released, and as investors showed nerves ahead of the start of the reporting season. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 13.6pts or 0.3pct to 4513.

By Greg PeelThere would be few Australians unaware of Breville electric household products. The company was established in 1932 and on my reckoning probably cemented its Vegemite-style iconic status around about the seventies, by which time seemingly every home could boast a Breville toasted sandwic...

To develop a more profitable tourism industry, Ecotourism Australia Chief Executive Kym Cheatham pushed for more focus on high-value visitors instead of just increasing the number of tourists.

Qantas is on an apparent collision course, not against Virgin Australia or Tiger Airways or Middle Easter air carriers, but against the premier of New South Wales (NSW) over the plan to build a second airport in Sydney.

By Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment StrategistHere's a brainteaser for you. Does the chart below represent:A.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 110 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P lost 1.0% to 1441 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

The Australian sharemarket improved for the eighth time in nine sessions, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rising by 0.5 per cent or 24.6 pts to 4526.6. Last night, European markets slumped by as much as 2 per cent, with shares in Milan amongst the biggest losers. France's CAC40 and Germany's DAX Index both slid by close to 1.5 per cent. The CAC40 and DAX are France and Germany's equivalents to Australia's All Ordinaries Index (XAO).

China's appetite for mining-related investments in Australia may be dwindling, but its appetite for Australian scenic spots has helped the resource-rich nation post a record number of tourist arrivals in August.

We can call the dogfight between Motorola Droid RAZR HD and HTC One X+ as the race of marginal Android players for obvious reasons: the Android business sphere, despite its smartphone dominance, has so far spawned very few profitable actors.

Japan's top three carmakers, Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., decided to cut production in China by roughly half as a territorial dispute between Chinese and Japanese governments continues. Due to the territorial dispute Japan's carmakers have noted a decrease in sales in the world's largest auto market.

According to a survey held on the 8th of October, the China's services sector recovered in the month of September after being hit by nearly a one year low on the growth in the month of August. These results followed an official assessment that seemed a lot gloomy in the previous week.