POLITICS & POLICY

Sales of newly constructed Australian homes have fallen to a record-hitting 15-year low in August, an industry survey report by the Canberra-based Housing Industry Association (HIA) revealed on Wednesday.

A number of Australian computer rental businesses have admitted installing a "spyware" software on the laptops they rent out to customers, but argued these were intended only for security purposes, and that it never activated the supposed spy functions of the software.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been silent on the Alan Jones controversy and she intends to keep it that way.

More electricity-powered Holden cars could be made in the near future should a deal between GM Holden and EV Engineering pushes through, reports said.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar remains under USD 1.0300 this morning following the Reserve Bank of Australia's surprise announcement to cut the official cash rate by 0.25% yesterday to 3.25%, a level not seen since March 2009 and only 0.25% above "emergency" levels set late 2008 during the GFC.

Newmont Mining, the second-largest gold producing mining firm in the world, will be installing a global SAP system in its Australian operations in the next two months.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) surprised the banking community on Tuesday by announcing an overnight cash rate cut of 25 basis points. With the decision, the country's key lending rate is down to 3.25 per cent, the lowest in three years.

"Smart is the new sexy," says the hit CBS sitcom about geek scientists, "The Big Bang Theory," one of the best comedy series today. Brainy people can be very funny, indeed. Perhaps the reason why there are several nerd and geek memes making the rounds on the internet is because the funniest memes are created by the nerds and the geeks themselves.

The republics of Congo and Cameroon have created a joint team to supervise the management of the iron ore deposits that are located along their common border as the owner of the Mbalam iron-ore project has been in an inconclusive takeover bid.

A year after it was announced that China's Sichuan Hanlong Group's has acquired Australia's Sundance Resources Ltd, the deal has yet to be sealed with the needed financing and skeptics are beginning to doubt if it will ever push through.

Australia Post, wanting to capture majority of the pie that caters to the growing online shopping activities of Australians, will acquire 50 per cent of Qantas Airways Ltd's freight business StarTrack for A$408 million ($422 million).

Home prices in Australia has risen for the fourth consecutive month in September, in what could be a confirmation that the rate cut is finally taking effect.

More corporate sponsors have pulled out or were planning to cease their partnership with popular 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones, who created a firestorm over the weekend for his offensive comments involving the late father of Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Stocks Monday started the fourth quarter mostly higher after a report showed an unexpected expansion in September U.S. factory activity. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 77.98 points, or 0.6%, to 13515.11, following its biggest weekly loss since the week ended June 1. The blue-chip benchmark trimmed gains heading into Monday's close, after climbing as much as 161 points earlier in the day.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has held steady following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who noted, amongst other things, the Federal Reserve is watching developments in Europe closely. Today the focus in Asia is on the outcome of the RBA meeting.

The Australian government has secured an out-of-court settlement on the case filed by James Ashby, a former staff of House Speaker Peter Slipper who sued his erstwhile boss earlier this year for sexual harassment.

China’s attempts to breach the online security protocol of the U.S. government hasn’t ceased at all, and of specific and perennial target is the Defence establishment, a U.S. intelligence official said on Thursday.

China's major listed steelmaker Baoshan Iron and Steel Co Ltd. had shutdown one of its steelmills in Shanghai, in an apparent surrender to the dangerously low and continued falling prices of iron ore and as well as waning global demand.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The AUD is likely to range trade today following on from overnight events. Positive steps in Greece and Spain saw market take a positive tone.

While the federal government of the United States announced on Thursday plans to include the great white sharks in its endangered species list, on the same day, Australia announced plans that it has set aside $6.85 million to kill sharks.

Despite the carbon tax being collected by the Gillard government for almost three months and the sky not falling as predicted by the Opposition, Coalition leader Tony Abbott continues to use colourful language to describe the tax which he vowed to repeal if he wins the 2013 federal election.

The design of new Australian bank notes which the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has commissioned failed to win the nod of many Aussies.

The same-sex marriage bill in Tasmania suffered on Thursday the same fate its federal counterpart experienced when it was rejected by state lawmakers. The fate of the controversial measure was sealed when the 8th member of the 15-member Legislative Council voted against the bill.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Thursday that freedom of speech for the U.S. government is mere lip service and is being employed by U.S. President Barack Obama to gain political traction.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, painting in her initial speech before the world body a nation she leads that is more than willing to contribute on global humanitarian efforts.

After a long and arduous eight-month stretch trying to prick the interests of potential buyers, Australia's top supermarket chain Woolworths Ltd was finally able to sell its Dick Smith Electronics chain for $20 million to private equity group Anchorage Capital Partners.

Australian gold mining firm Noble Mineral Resources Ltd is poised to receive A$85 million ($88 million) from Chinese firm Zhongrun Resources Investment Corp as it approved the latter's increased stake ownership bid into the company to 42 per cent.

Cash-stricken North Korea has earned US$100 million over the past year by selling more than 2 tonnes of its gold to China.

Shortly after a month that it announced it is cancelling the $30-billion expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine mega project, global mining giant BHP Billiton has asked the state government of South Australia to extend the deadline coverage of the indenture agreement the two parties signed in October 2011.