POLITICS & POLICY

The Australian share market is back in the red today, after US investors gave a muted response to the Federal Reserve's latest plan to stimulate the economy. Instead of announcing fresher, bigger measures such as the much hoped for QE3 stimulus program, the Fed opted to extend its asset purchasing program (Operation Twist) for another six months. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 20.5pts or 0.5pct to 41536.3.

Australian miner Lynas Corp. may already receive the highly disputed temporary operating license (TOL) for its Malaysian rare earths processing plant before the year ends, depending on how fast it can expedite its compliance to the conditions needed to release the TOL.

Although the Tuesday temblor that shook Victoria was the biggest earthquake to rock the state in three decades, the buildings suffered only superficial damage. A construction expert explained the strength of Victoria buildings to changes in building regulations in the aftermath of the magnitude 5.6 earthquake in Newcastle in 1989 that killed 13 people.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar tested the USD1.0220-50 resistance window overnight while Greece finally swore in a coalition government and the US Federal Reserve continued "the twist".

Although there were objections to the multi-million dollar expansion of a Sydney brothel, the Land and Environment Court ignored the opposition on moral grounds.

U.S. stocks finished a volatile day roughly where they started, as investors balanced positive developments in Europe against some disappointment that the Federal Reserve held off on more aggressive action to juice the economy.

China will be imposing stricter standards and regulations in its rare earths mining to salvage what remains of its rare earths reserves amid continued rampant illegal mining activities, even at the expense of a massive shakeup in the global supply and demand for the precious raw commodity.

The performance of the Australian sharemarket continues to be heavily influence by offshore developments. Last night, most global markets improved strongly (up by as much as 2 pct). A Greek coalition seems close to being announced and there has been speculation the Europeans will use a chunk of their bailout funds to buy Italian and Spanish debt (no confirmation). The bad news for the Greeks is that they will need to face the Germans this Friday in the European football championships (a coincide...

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is poised to spend $4.2 billion to support increased iron ore output from its mining operations in Australia and Guinea amid global concerns of a manufacturing slowdown in China, the world's biggest consumer of the steelmaking key ingredient.

A U.S. report on human trafficking heaped praises on the Australian government to stamp out people smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region, citing the nation as a definitive leading figure in eliminating what it called as modern-day slavery.

Indian developer of airports, power projects, roads and mines GVK Power and Infrastructure will be selling a minority stake in its Singapore unit to raise funds to support its Australian projects as well as reduce outstanding debt dues.

Thousands of public employees in Queensland are in danger of losing their jobs following a state Commission of Audit finding that the previous government employed 20,000 more workers than it could afford.

Cracks are showing on the Coalition climate change stand as the party's support for the 20 per cent Renewable Energy Target (RET) was questioned by backbenchers.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought refuge late Tuesday on Ecuador's embassy in London, barely a week after the UK High Court had allowed the procedures for his extradition to Sweden to begin.

Flame was the brainchild of the United States and Israel, a report published by American publication The Washington Post said on Tuesday, claiming that intelligence and military officials from the two nations collaborated to create and dispatch the malware, with aims to undermine Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar remains well supported this morning following a night of strength in equity markets and upbeat statements from the G20 regarding Europe.

Speculation that U.S. central bankers are set to unveil additional stimulus measures lifted the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index for the fourth session in a row, as tensions eased across Europe's financial markets.

The firewall purse being worked on by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) got a significant boost late Monday as the world's emerging markets pledged a total of $US95.5 billion to the emergency fund that the global lender said will be used to fend off threats of recession around the world.

After a stellar start to the trading week, the Australian market lost a little ground today. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) fell 0.4 pct or 16.5 pts to 4167.4. It was another quiet day on the market with only around $3 billion worth of shares exchanging hands today. When discussing markets, the negative seems to receive significantly more attention than the good. Yesterday, the XAO rose by around 1.9 pct thanks to the victory by a pro-Euro and pro-bailout party in the Greek elections.

The 25 basis points cut handed down by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) this month was meant to push for stimulus "that would be expected to flow through to the domestic economy over the coming months."

The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) created to look into the safety of the highly disputed $200-million rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp. in Malaysia has concluded that the facility is safe and has strongly urged for the immediate release of the temporary operating license (TOL) to finally start the plant's delayed operations.

Russian firm Gazprom, also the world's largest extractor of natural gas, is mulling to build a gas pipeline to Japan as part of a memorandum of possible liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects expected to be signed between Russia and Japan next week.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to focus on Australia's domestic affairs instead of issuing unsolicited advices to G20 member nations, specifically to the struggling economies of the eurozone.

Massively knocked down by its own government's ruling to phase out nuclear power, Germany's second-biggest energy supplier, RWE, announced on Monday it will no longer build nuclear power plants, both domestically and overseas.

The ball on the Melinda Taylor affair is now on the International Criminal Court's (ICC) hands as Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Tuesday that an apology coming from the court could soon win the release of the detained Aussie lawyer and her ICC co-workers.

This week I wrote a post for Forbes.com entitled "3 Reasons Why Card-Carrying Capitalists Should Support Family Leave." To help individuals advocate for Paid Family Leave (which is really Family Leave "Insurance") in their state, Ellen Bravo the Executive Director of Family Values @ Work, a national network of 16 state and local coalitions helping spur the growing movement for family-friendly workplace policies, offered the following get-started tips:

Australian politicians are again playing the blame game just barely two weeks to the collection of the carbon tax on July 1. Coalition Senator George Brandis on Tuesday pointed to the carbon prices as the reason behind Fairfax Media's woes.

As long and as hard as some nations (especially the United States) have fought through the years to achieve and maintain independence, it's mind-boggling to think they would ever voluntarily surrender that sovereignty.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar is unchanged this morning currently trading at USD1.0115 as the offshore markets digested the result of the Greek elections.