Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Weight Watchers, the international diet programme, has endorsed a new line of diet wines from Australian producer McWilliams Wines.

So long as China keeps getting urbanised and demands steel and iron ore to fuel that very purpose, Australia's economy will remain OK.

Australia, currently third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Asia Pacific region and the fourth largest in the world, has awarded seven new offshore petroleum exploration permits in the gas-rich areas offshore the Northern Territory and Western Australia, Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson announced Thursday.

Supposed better days ahead for iron ore miners may have to take a longer backseat as prices of the key steelmaking ingredient once again plummeted to below $100 per tonne.

Jitters of a looming recession and escalating slowdown in mining could all the more be fueled as available jobs in Australia's mining industry has fallen, a first in three years.

"I'm not going to be the guy that lies on media, I'm not going to be the guy that stands up here and lies to Australia," thus said Australia's Olympic heat swimmer Tommaso D'Orsogna in an apparent tell-all interview over Channel 10 'The Project' on Wednesday night.

Sure they are disabled. But the fact cannot be discounted that Australia's Paralympic team brought home more golds and more medals from the London 2012 games than their abled but currently controversy embroiled counterparts.

Australia's largest department store chain, Myer Holdings Ltd, reported that its full year net profit sank 12.7 per cent to $139.365 million compared from a year ago as it continues to sail through tough conditions in the retailing environment.

Australia's Olympic swim team is now in submerged in hot water after a panel was requested to be established to review the team's lackluster performance in the recently concluded 2012 London Olympics in August.

New Zealanders are now having second thoughts of jumping over to Australia to find work as dreams of an improved life could very well be nipped in the bud by the resource-rich nation's slowing mining activities.

Yes, prices of the safe haven yellow metal gold could possibly hit $2,000 per ounce, or more, in the shorter term as the precious metals gets scarce and rare to access on dwindling global production.

The Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MoSTI) have declared to continue holding public fora in and outside the area where the rare earths processing plant of Australian miner Lynas Corp is located despite the temporary operating license (TOL) already having been released to the latter.

A new list of world university rankings for 2011-2012 released by QS World University Rankings has ranked the Australian National University (ANU) as Australia's best university, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the world's best.

As with any other proposition lies the advantage and disadvantage of it.Queensland, in a bid to hit its target of a A$1.6 billion ($1.66 billion) in extra revenue as well as reclaim its AAA credit rating, announced on Tuesday plans to raise the royalty on coal beginning October.

South Korea and Greenland have forged on a deal that will aid the exploitation of rare earths as well as other strategic metals.

India will soon foray into rare earths mining as it targets to open by December its 10,000 tonnes capacity monazite processing plant in the eastern state of Odisha.

Spot prices of iron ore jumped like crazy on Monday after Beijing announced over the weekend it would embark on an AU$150 billion ($US157 billion) infrastructure building plan to boost domestic spending, giving iron ore miners hope for better days ahead.

Prices of wheat in the global market could further escalate in the coming months as Australia, the world's No. 2 wheat exporter, had announced cuts in its wheat production forecast for the 2012/13 crop marketing year.

The Court of Appeals of Malaysia had upheld a decision by a High Court judge wherein the latter ruled that the opposing residents to the presence of the rare earths processing plant of Australian miner Lynas Corp in Kuantan should first appeal to the proper venue before bringing the matter to the High Chambers.

After its earth-shaking announcement in August that it is scraping its $30 billion expansion plans into the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine mega project in South Australia, BHP Billiton has consequently dropped related purchases of exploration rights surrounding the area of the dam.

Coal miners in resource-rich nation Australia, in the midst of a mining slowdown, have slashed down 900 jobs just this week alone.

Setting aside a longstanding territorial dispute, Japan and Russia have forged ahead to continue building a $7 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Vladivostok spurred by Asia's growing demand for the chilled fuel.

Japan's economy, affected by both international and domestic factors, grew slower than expected during the April-June period, hinting the world's third-largest economy, as with other stronger world economies, may be headed for a slowdown.

Target Australia Pty Ltd, an Australian department store chain owned by Wesfarmers, is now the target of a legal action after a US cosmetics and fragrance giant found the retailer has been selling fake M·A·C Cosmetics at its stores.

The dry weather spell currently hitting Western Australia could push down the production of Australian wheat, dropping far below an earlier government forecast.

Atlas Iron Ltd. wants to divest its share of a uranium prospect to focus on its iron ore expansion plans amid the commodity's plummeting prices in the world marker triggered by China's softening demand.

Still enmeshed in an international dispute lodged before the World Trade Organisation, Japan and China yet again face off in a race on who gets first dibs to explore and mine the precious rare earths elements off the Pacific Ocean.

As expected, opponents to the rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp in Malaysia vowed to continue their fight against the presence of the facility until the Australian miner packs up and leaves shores.

Shares of beleaguered Australian carrier Qantas Airways surged on Thursday after the flying kangaroo announced on the same day it has entered into a 10-year arrangement with Dubai's Emirates that will enable the Australian airline fly to London via Dubai.