POLITICS & POLICY

Shares of debt ridden Australian retailer Billabong International, already floating in oblivion, sank deeper on Friday after its lone bidder TPG International LLC decided with finality to call off its takeover bid of the surfwear maker.

Australia faced up to terrorist challenge 10 years ago and the nation remains “strong and resilient,” in pursuing the ongoing global campaign to neutralise efforts by terror groups to sow fear and chaos.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is still range trading, currently around the 1.0200's and likely to remain supported today.

First Australia then the United States, now China’s Huawei Technologies must contend anew with fresh regulatory hurdle that likely would come from another key market – Canada.

Key Labor figures condemned on Thursday a joke that poked fun on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and his top aide, Peta Credlin, declaring in unison that the remarks were “sexist, offensive and inappropriate.”

Israeli military officials are looking into the unidentified flying object (UFO) that entered into the country’s civilian air traffic. What could it be?

U.S. stocks slumped, sending the Dow industrials toward a second straight triple-digit drop as outlooks from industrial, commodity and energy heavyweights added to concerns about a global economic slowdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 131 points, or 1%, to 13343 in late afternoon trading, a day after posting its biggest daily decline in nearly six weeks.

The Sunday Times of London reports that the 54-year-old governor of Australia's Reserve Bank is an outside shot to replace Sir Mervyn King as the next governor of the Bank of England. Stevens would become the most powerful colonist in the British civil service.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has edged slightly higher despite a second consecutive poor night on global stock markets.

For the nth time, Lynas Corp.'s plans to operate what could rival China's rare earths industry has been hindered as a Malaysian High Court on Wednesday failed to come up with a final decision on the Australian miner's controversial temporary operating license (TOL), effectively delaying again the miner's start of operations of its rare earths processing plant.

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom is a victim of Hollywood-induced persecution, with significant aids coming from the United States and New Zealand governments, the U.S defence lawyer of the Internet tycoon said earlier this week.

Toro Energy Limited and its highly-contested Wiluna uranium mine project in the Mid-West region has received an environmental clearance from the Western Australia state government.

The highly controversial $6.4-billion coal mine project between India's GVK Power & Infrastructure, and Hancock Coal owned by Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman, in Queensland state has been given environmental approval by the federal government of Australia.

Stocks fell after a weaker-than-forecast economic-growth forecast from the International Monetary Fund stirred worries about corporate earnings ahead of Alcoa's quarterly report, due after Tuesday's closing bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 82 points, or 0.6%, to 13501, a drop that coincided with the five-year anniversary of the market's all-time high.

The official International Monetary Fund (IMF) global economic forecast is out and the broad outlook is that economies are still on edge and sluggishly weak.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar remains under selling pressure this morning, following downgrades to global growth forecasts, as well as concerns ahead of forthcoming quarterly earnings season in the US.

New South Wales (NSW) Premier Barry O'Farrell announced on Tuesday that the state government will sell buildings worth over $300 million. The state will use the proceeds of the sale to begin housing infrastructure in growth areas in Sydney.

Anna Burke was elected on Tuesday as House Speaker of the Australian Parliament, putting an end to career of Peter Slipper who resigned over a sexual harassment scandal.

Despite last month's government pronouncement that it would embark on a massive infrastructure plan to spur up economic stability and growth, Chinese consumers of iron ore still have to actually bite into the good news as stockpiles of the key steelmaking ingredient jumped week on week in at least 25 major Chinese ports.

Developing Australia's coal seam gas (CSG) reserves and projects will now go to the highest bidder, Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said on Tuesday before the 2012 Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) Coal Seam Gas Conference in Brisbane.

And the inevitable has happened. Global mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. will leave no stone unturned to maintain business stability and viability, as it announced job cuts will be made even at the expense of its top revenue business driver, the iron ore division.

Bail guarantors for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have been ordered by a UK court to pay up around $150,000 for failure to ensure the surrender of the controversial whistleblower, who jumped bail June this year to seek refuge on Ecuador’s embassy in London.

Despite its growth forecast being lowered for year 2013, Australia, nonetheless, has zoomed to become the world's 12th largest economy, according to the latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) released on Tuesday by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Federal Speaker Peter Slipper should not be allowed to reclaim his post even if the legal woes currently hounding him eventually developed into his favour, Coalition lawmakers said.

Labor slid back to where it was three months ago, trailing the Coalition’s wide margin on primary votes and two-party preferred in the latest Newspoll-News Ltd survey conducted late last week.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar continues to remain under pressure trading to a new 3 month low of US 1.0150 late yesterday.

Single Australian women, who comprise 87 per cent of the country's poorest families, will lose $60 a week with plans by the federal government to move 100,000 single parents from Parenting Payments to Newstart in 2013.

Julian Assange was obviously resorting to publicity stunt when he unveiled his plans to bring up legal charges against Prime Minister Julia Gillard, whom the WikiLeaks founder has accused of defamation.

Australian copper producer Discovery Metals Ltd., which has mines in Botswana, is being eyed for acquisition by Chinese private equity firm Cathay Fortune Corp. for A$830 million ($848 million).