POLITICS & POLICY

Rebekah Brooks, the Former News International Chief was charged by British prosecutors for obstruction in the ongoing investigation about phone hacking in the British newspapers owned by media mogul by Rupert Murdoch.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar losses its sparkle as European debt crisis fears worsen overnight.

Stocks extended their streak of declines Thursday as concerns about Spain's banks and a weak reading on mid-Atlantic business conditions outweighed upbeat earnings from Wal-Mart and Sears.

As the health of the global economy, in lightning speed, turns from nasty to gloomier, even big spenders stop and pause to think if it ought to continue and pursue valiantly plans of improvement and expansion.Such was the case for BHP Billiton Ltd., as its very own chairman, Jacques Nasser, has already suggested the $80 billion it planned to invest on new mining projects by 2015 would rather be kept inside the safe momentarily.

As rising incomes help boost the demand of the safe-haven precious yellow metal gold in China, it is quite probable that the world's second-largest economy, also the world's largest gold producer, will topple long recognised India as the world's largest gold bullion market in 2012.

The Australian sharemarket ended a little lower today, despite a positive start to the session. The ASX200 Index (XJO) fell 0.2 pct or 8.1 pts to 4157.4. Early in the session, investors seemed encouraged by news that the Japanese economy grew at a faster than expected pace last quarter. Japan is Australia's second largest trading partner and accounts for around 12.3 pct of all goods and services exported overseas.

Japan's 10 utility companies, with no more nuclear power to turn to, burned natural gas to a record high in April this year compared to a year ago.

Nations keep watch on the eurozone crisis, wary that the region's further deterioration could impact on their economies but for an Australian economics professor, the continent's financial stress could prompt for a lower borrowing cost in Australia.

It looks the safety and development plan that is currently being modified by Chinese regulators and planners for its nuclear industry will have its stamp of approval by June.

Yesterday was another down day for the Australian share market, with widespread selling in all sectors apart from the utilities, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) ended off 101 points to 4,214 points.

Production of the precious safe haven yellow metal gold by Tanzania, Africa's fourth largest gold producer, jumped 13 per cent to 40.4 tonnes in 2011 from 35.6 tonnes in 2010, as companies increased production output prompted by the metal's rising price during the period in reviews.

Hot issues such as the carbon tax and income tax rates were thrown to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday when she served for one hour as live blogger on The Telegraph.

Conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has compiled the latest report how countries balance economic growth with ecological conservation and Australia is in the top 10, closely behind the United States and the Arab nations Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The AUD is trading just above USD0.9900 this morning after falling to a low close to USD0.9870 overnight.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a fourth straight day as confusion over Greece's political future extended the recent stock slide. The blue-chip Dow lost 33.45 points, or 0.26%, to 12598.55, to finish at the day's lows.

The Japanese government together with a consortium of Japanese companies are poised to buy a 10 per cent stake in Chevron Corp.'s Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Australia for $4.35 billion.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the second consecutive day, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) falling by 2.4 pct or 101.6 pts to 4214.7. Shares have fallen by around 5 pct so far this month and have significantly reduced the gains for the calendar year to just 2.5 pct.

Australia's Afghan Mission will definitely end by 2014, according to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but the country will continue to honour it commitment of supporting stability in Afghanistan.

Gold and copper mining company Anglo Asian Mining PLC's production and development plans for the Gosha gold deposit has been approved by the Azerbaijan government.

The Australian share market lost ground yesterday as the ongoing European concerns held markets and commodities back, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) ending off 36 points to 4,316 points.

Areva, a nuclear power plant builder based in France, has teamed up with Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan on a joint exploration program for a possible uranium development project in Australia.

And so it goes. The issuance of the controversial temporary operating licence (TOL) for the Malaysian rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp. continues to hang.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has opened slightly lower again this morning after talks between Greece's political parties failed, which led to safe haven interest in the US Dollar and adding to the recent weakness in our own currency.

MORNING REPORT. The Empire manufacturing survey rebounded jumping from 6.56 to 17.09 in May. Across the sub-indices both new orders and shipments recorded healthy (7am AEST)US advance retail sales edged rose by 0.1pct in April after the brisk 0.8pct rise in Marchgains.

The Australian sharemarket received a negative lead from global markets last night, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) ending 0.8 pct or 35.6 pts lower to 4316.3. This was no major surprise as European shares hit a four-month low and dropped by around 2 pct last night. The situation in Greece continued to weigh heavily on investor confidence while Moody's (one of the major ratings agencies) downgraded 26 Italian banks last night by between one and four notches. This included Unicredit and In...

Not only numbers in the arrival of tourist exchanges are affected in the ongoing tensions between China and the Philippines, but also the potential income of the airline industry shuttling the tourists between the two Asian countries.

Japan, which has since expanded its energy mix in a bid to rely less on nuclear power, has scheduled a public forum of producers and consumers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Tokyo on September.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the Labor Party may have benefitted somehow from the cash handouts announced last week in the federal budget in terms of more primary votes. However, the Craig Thomson scandal continues to drag the party.

Natural gas and oil development projects near the Atlantic Ocean, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, could be facing potential damages in the coming months with the onset of the rainy season.