POLITICS & POLICY

Part of a pipeline running to an oil refinery in Homs, Syria blew up Thursday causing thick black smoke to hover about the city where protest against President Bashar al-Assad started in March.

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Ltd., in a bid to honor delivery contracts and supplier commitments, is mulling to start road transporting by using trucks the initial supply batch of iron ore from its Simandou project in Guinea.

The Australian sharemarket is losing ground for the third time this week with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) down 1.4 pct or 60 pts to 4278.9. No sectors are being spared from the selloff at lunch.

Wine growers in Hunter Valley who belong to the area's wine industry association sought to kick out gas giant AGL Energy Limited (ASX: AGK) from their ranks because of the firm's stand on coal seam gas (CSG).

It's no secret that the war in Afghanistan has kept more than a few businesses aloft in these critical financial times but a French human rights activist is attempting a fresh way to break down the cycle of violence in Afghanistan: yoga and meditation

Emerging markets are again at the forefront of investment portfolios in 2012 as the dangers of inflation and stagnation had all been washed off by the tight monetary policies this year, a senior investment manager said.

The United States has declared that its planned stationing of U.S. Marines in Australian territory was to be taken as its exclusive ties with a long-time ally and not meant to antagonise any country in the Asia Pacific region.

The three other large Australian banks - National Australia Bank, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank - gave in to pressure and announced Friday that it will pass on in full to customers the 25 basis points cut in overnight cash rate approved on Tuesday by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

A survey of New Zealand working overseas shows that a quarter of Kiwi expats are not keen on going back home, the New Zealand Herald reported. A quarter of the respondents said they intend to live elsewhere, while 27 per cent are looking for work in NZ.

Australia's Defense Minister Stephen Smith said the country can only export uranium to India and not to Pakistan, which is also seeking the same access to the nuclear material.

From Craig James, Commsec Chief EconomistMORNING REPORT (8.00am AEDT) -- US jobless claims fell 23,000 to 381,000 in the past week - a nine month low. US wholesale inventories rose 1.6pct in October after rising by a downwardly revised 0.3pct in September. The October result marked the largest rise since May 2011.

From Morrison Securities: U.S. stocks fell in afternoon trading as investor focus shifted from disappointment over the European Central Bank to the closely watched summit on Europe's sovereign-debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 171 points, or 1.4%, to 12026 in recent action. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 23 points, or 1.8%, to 1238 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 42 points, or 1.6%, to 2607.

The state government of New South Wales says changes are necessary in the existing proceedings regarding organ donation sign ups and families overruling prospective donors’ decisions.

That shocking attack by Japanese planes on the multiplex of U.S. military bases in Hawaii was not just one of the most significant moments in American history; it was also one of the largest news days at the time.

Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith is in India to hold uranium export talks with officials of the south Asian nation in anticipation of the lifting of the ban.

Globe Metals & Mining on Wednesday announced the discovery of a new area with significant rare earth element (REE) mineralization at its Mount Muambe REE-Fluorite Project in Mozambique.

Mexican miner Grupo Mexico announced on Wednesday production output at its Buenavista del Cobre copper mine will hit 475,000 tonnes per year by 2015. The figure is a 6 per cent growth from estimates made earlier in April.

The Australian sharemarket ended a touch lower today with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) losing 0.3 pct or 12.4 pts to 4338.9. Almost all regions of the market lost at least some ground, with the energy sector by far the worst in percentage terms. The miners flirted with positive ground for most of the day and did not add to the market's weakness today.

Indian nationals better ought to brace themselves for more power shortages and energy crisis as state-run Coal India Limited (CIL) announced on Wednesday production targets for the current fiscal year as contained in its annual plan have been slashed to 440 million tonnes from 453 million tonnes.This, as the federal government of India rejected CIL's demand to scale down its target output.

India is now abuzz with activity related to its annual wedding season. In almost every nook and cranny, one will find hordes of beaming brides and their families hopping from one jewelry shop to another trying to find the perfect gold jewelry that is fit to their budget.To accommodate the budget, India's gold jewelers have devised ways to sell their merchandise, to the point of tweaking the jewelry's gold content.

Three tobacco entities are now arrayed against Canberra as international cigarette manufacturer Imperial Tobacco officially lodged its legal challenge against Australia's new plain packaging policy set to be imposed on cigarette products sold in the country.

Two months before the traditional lunar Year of the Dragon, the Chinese are already agog in their preparations, including acquiring and purchasing gold related products, even as prices of the yellow metal have surpassed $67.69 per gram in Beijing.Latest data gathered from the website of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) disclosed gold output by the world's second-largest economy grew by 8.436 metric tonnes, a 3.87 per cent hike year on year, to reach 226.38...

ANZ Bank announced on Thursday that it will pass on to consumers the full 25 basis points interest rate cut made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday. It becomes the first of the four large Australian banks to cut its interest rate by 25 basis points, leaving the pressure on Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac to follow suit.

Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has called for a repeat of Sunday's parliamentary elections, saying the results were tainted by widespread reports of fraud.

From an earlier 9.4 per cent projection, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government think tank, on Wednesday slashed to 9.2 per cent its forecast of China's GDP for 2011, citing the current sluggish economic recovery worldwide coupled with the country's tight monetary policy as well as withdrawal of stimulus measures on consumption as culprits for the growth slowdown.

The Australian sharemarket is losing ground for the second time this week with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) down 0.2 pct or 9.8 pts to 4341.5. Most sectors are lower with the energy and financial stocks holding the market back at lunch. The miners were lower in early trade, managed to creep into positive territory at around 11am (AEDT) only to pullback over the last hour.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who tried to sell the appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama in 2008, was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for corruption.

Oil tumbled after a report by the US Energy Information Administration showed the American nation's supply of oil and gasoline suddenly surged by 1.3 million barrels last week.

While smaller Australian banks have passed on in full to customers the 25 basis points overnight cash rate approved by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday, the four large banks are playing a waiting game which one will first pass on the rate reduction and by how much.