POLITICS & POLICY

A rebound by banks and health-care shares helped push blue chips higher, although not enough to help them avoid a losing week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 67.21 points, or 0.5%, to 12640.78, Friday.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground today for the third time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) falling 1 pct or 39.9 pts to 4093.8. Despite today's slump, the Aussie market has actually only eased by 0.32 pct over the past five days thanks to a strong performance on Monday.

Julian Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy for close to three days and there is no telling him what awaits him in case his high-profile application for asylum was rejected by the country he cherry-picked because it apparently opposes bullying from the United States.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 may have spooked the nuclear power industry as well as the uranium sector, but judging from the global activity wherein Chinese companies combined forces to bid for a UK nuclear power project, Britain poised to switch back to nuclear power after 20 years and the Lithuania parliament approving the construction of a new nuclear plant, nuclear power has regained its former stronghold - alive and kicking and most definitely back on the radar.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan was hardly surprised that Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) launched a legal challenge on Friday that questions the constitutionality of the Gillard Government-initiated minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) set to take effect in July.

More and more non-Chinese rare earths miners are turning aggressive with their respective exploration programs, wanting to get a slice of the rare earths pie in anticipation of the sector's potential supply glut in the wake of China's planned stricter monitoring on its rare earths industry.

Global-growth worries slammed stocks Thursday, triggering a bearish recommendation from Goldman Sachs that accelerated declines and helped drive major benchmarks to their second-biggest one-day drop of the year.

A global economy that supports healthier environment will be the wave of the future, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Friday, which in turn would eradicate poverty and generate more employment opportunities at the same time.

The Australian government needs to level the playing field of the domestic aviation industry that would allow Qantas Airways to legally accept foreign investments and survive what the national carrier calls as serious threats to its existence.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has taken a nose dive as global markets suffer heavy falls after disappointing economic data from China and Europe weighs on the market.

Embattled MP Craig Thomson has had two hits in his favour over Health Services Union (HSU) fund misuse charges he is facing. First, the former prostitute who initially claimed that Mr Thomson was her client recanted her statement two weeks ago. On Thursday, a court sacked HSU whistleblower Kathy Jackson who was instrumental in filing of charges against the MP.

Scandals continue to plague Australian legislators. The Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper controversies have yet to subside, but on Thursday the spotlight was again on Senator Mary-Jo Fisher who quit her post effective Aug 10, 2012.

While Australian MPs are still debating whether to recognize same-sex unions in the country, the Australian Bureau of Statistics have given gay couples de facto recognition by including same-sex couples in results of the 2011 census which it will release Friday morning.

Unless Peru gets to develop new mines at the soonest possible time, it is likely its mining output will all the more decline in the coming years, with overall mining production expected to fall 4 per cent on 2012 on depleted reserves, slowing global demand and domestic political upheavals.

Iron ore cargo traffic in India has been largely affected by its mining ban, with data handled by major ports having dropped 5.1 per cent to 94 million tonnes in May 2012 compared to a year ago, a report by The Economic Times said.

You'd think millionaires, specially the Australian moguls, hardly felt the crunch of the ongoing global fiscal crisis? Well, think again. Because apparently, the millionaires from this tiny island country were the ones that experienced the toughest of luck in 2011 as far as their financial worth is concerned, a study published Wednesday revealed.

Despite a stronger start to trade this morning, the gains fizzled with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slumping by 1 pct or 43.1 pts to 4133.7. Around ¾ of all companies ended either flat or in the red by close of business.

A diplomatic row between China and France appears to be brewing following the arrest last week in Cambodia of a French national, who Beijing said must be extradited to China so he can shed light of an ongoing criminal probe.

Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced on Wednesday it is now ready to deploy recycled rare earths metals in a wide range of auto parts before the current year ends. This pronouncement came two months after it said it has developed a technological approach that would recycle at least 80 per cent of used rare earths metals in hybrid car batteries.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard indeed left a mark as the G20 summit on Los Cabos, Mexico ended Wednesday, at first earning the ire of European leaders for her unsolicited economic advises and then attracting a second-look from the fashionable Christine Lagarde as the gathering neared its conclusion.

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.