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Australian supermarket giant Woolsworths (ASX: WOW) bought 31 pubs worth $500 million across New South Wales.

U.S. stocks fell Monday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi made cautious comments on the state of Europe's economy and as bank stocks sagged in expectation of tighter capital standards.

Qantas has ended its industrial dispute with aircraft engineers after both parties agreed to a 3 per cent annual wage increase for the next three years. However, the other demands of the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) such as the construction of a new engineering hangar, was rejected.

An Australian eBay user discovered an online merchant’s database – with her name, phone number, and address – after doing a Google search for her name.

Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said on Thursday that the government should not have intervened in the Qantas labor row. Instead of referring the problem to Fair Work Australia, he said the Gillard government should have let Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce take full responsibility for the consequences of his unilateral decision to ground all Qantas fleet.

From Morrison Securities Pty. Ltd.U.S. stocks gained after investors took heart from stronger U.S. economic data, but fell off session highs after the head of the International Monetary Fund stoked fears that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis is worsening.

A Swiss national filed a lawsuit against an Austrian casino operator, claiming that he was defrauded of some $57 million when the latter refused to pay the jackpot that the player won last year.

Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen announced Tuesday that he and aerospace engineer Burt Rutan are building the largest aircraft that can launch a satellite or spacecraft into orbit.

More trips would link Singapore to Australian cities. SilkAir will offer direct trips from Darwin to Singapore four days weekly beginning March 26.

Strikes hit again the ports of Western Australia (WA) and New South Wales (NSW) which has crippled wharf activities in NSW. In WA, the striking workers have been locked out indefinitely by management.

Despite announcement by Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce that its domestic operations is back to pre-strike level, the air carrier would have to wait for at least six more months before its industrial row with unions would be solved.

From Morrison Securities Pty Ltd. A negative reaction to last week's European sovereign-debt summit by credit-ratings firms sent U.S. stocks sharply lower Monday, erasing all of the stock-market gains that followed the summit Friday.

Despite the recovery of its domestic operations, Qantas is still pushing through with talks for the opening of a new Asia-based premium carrier.

Telecommunications firm Telstra shut down its online billing and BigPond e-mail service for more than 24 hours starting Friday night after its bundle plan customer database became accessible to the public exposing user names and passwords of some 60,000 customers.

Australian share markets are seen opening positively this week following the strong signals from the European stock markets. Analysts from CMC Markets, Commonwealth Securities, IG Markets, and OptionsXpress share their views as to what direction the local equity markets will go on this first trading day.

U.S. stocks wrapped up a second straight week of gains as the euro zone's latest plan to fix its debt crisis overshadowed some disappointing forecasts from big U.S. companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 187 points, or 1.6%, to 12184.26, undoing most of the previous day's sharp losses.

From Morrison Securities: U.S. stocks fell in afternoon trading as investor focus shifted from disappointment over the European Central Bank to the closely watched summit on Europe's sovereign-debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 171 points, or 1.4%, to 12026 in recent action. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 23 points, or 1.8%, to 1238 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 42 points, or 1.6%, to 2607.

The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Construction Index was 4.9 points stronger in November at 39.6, although it was still well below the 50 point level separating expansion from contraction. November marked the 18th straight month the national construction industry index has been in the red.

An Australian businessman was sentenced Tuesday by a Chinese court to 13 years imprisonment for bribery and embezzlement.

While Black Friday may be a great American tradition, Cyber Monday is proving to be one of the best ideas that Wal-Mart has ever had.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The AUD is slightly stronger this morning after news filtered out of Europe that plans for a new treaty and fiscal rules in the region has been agreed upon.

U.S. stocks were ahead but off session highs Monday afternoon after a Financial Times report claiming that Standard & Poor's warned six triple A-rated euro-zone members that they may suffer ratings downgrades as a result of the deepening sovereign-debt crisis.

Australians will have another alternative budget carrier from Asia by mid-2012 as Scoot operates a 402-seat daily flight between Sydney and Singapore. Scoot will offer 40 per cent lower fare than traditional airlines and targets young and adventurous travelers who want to go around the region at lower cost.

Qantas unions have secured the support of the Labor Party to strengthen the Qantas Sales Act. The party backed the motion filed by Transport Workers Union (TWU) Federal Secretary Tony Sheldon to keep majority ownership, operation and governance of Qantas in Australia.

The Map Group announced on Monday plans to merge the international and domestic terminals in Sydney Airport by 2019.

From Craig James, Commsec Chief EconomistUS non-farm payrolls (employment) rose by 120,000 in November, in line with market expectations. Private payrolls rose by 140,000, the jobless rate fell from 9.0pct to a 2-1/2 year low of 8.6pct and average earnings fell by 0.1pct.

From Morrison Securities: U.S. stocks finished barely changed in Friday's session to cap a strong week after the U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped and European leaders and central bankers redoubled efforts to tackle the sovereign-debt crisis.

A Chinese airliner took off from Osaka's international airport without clearance from air traffic controllers sparking an investigation by civil aviation authorities from the two countries.

Qantas unions blamed mismanagement of the national air carrier for its $200 million loss for the second half of the financial year. The unions said Qantas should not blame the strikes for the loss, which Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce pinpointed as one of the reasons behind the red ink.