Vittorio Hernandez

There are talks that Filipino champ Manny Pacquiao and American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr could possibly retire from professional boxing in 2015, which fuels the speculation that the dream match must take place before the two pound-for-pound king contenders become too old for the bout.

An unnamed 41-year-old Australian man who pleaded guilty last week to raping his former girlfriend, burned her flesh and ate some of it, will be sentenced in 2015 in a Sydney court. The violent crimes actually happened eight years ago in 2006.

Fans of voluptuous reality star Kim Kardashian who enjoyed looking at her plump behind and ample breasts would be happy to know that she enjoyed the experience and want to bare her body again before she has a second baby.

In the US, new claims for unemployment insurance (jobless claims) rose by 12,000 to 290,000 in the latest week. The Job Opening and Labour Turnover (JOLTS) figures shows job openings fell from a 6-year high of 4.853 million in August to 4.725 million in September, below forecasts centred on 4.823m.

Australian shares closed in the red for the fourth day with the ASX 200 slipping by 0.4 per cent. An improvement from the miners after a 3 per cent slump in just two sessions helped limit the losses.

Barely a day after Kim Kardashian's plump buttocks-baring photo became viral on the Internet, the image not only led creative minds to come up with memes mimicking her pose but also led to the crafting of a Christmas tree trinket without looking out of place.

Australian shares are sliding for the fourth day taking the losses this week to 1.8 per cent. The ASX 200 index is down 0.4 per cent and is trading below the 5450 mark. It has been a rocky ride for markets in recent months however with local shares surging by 6 per cent over the past month.

Public display of a female celebrity's backside is just one side of the coin. The flipside is showing to the world their frontal assets, whether it is only partially by the use of peek-a-boo top designs that tease with ample views of cleavages and breast sides and undersides to full topless shots.

Blame it on reality star Kim Kardashian for starting a battle of the backside. After People Magazine released its November cover showing her ample buttocks, comedienne Chelsea Handler decided to up the war by posting images of her behind on Instagram.

Equities continued to consolidate with a mild risk-off tone in a fairly quiet session on the economic calendar. The highlight was perhaps comments by Fed member Charles Plosser who reiterated the Fed should begin raising rates soon in order to avoid being far behind the curve. While Mr Plosser is traditionally a hawk, I think the market is gradually moving in that direction and this perhaps weighed on equities. On the other side of the spectrum, Kocherlakota maintained his dovish stance and said...

There are a number of anecdotes as well as jokes on airline meals. Australian flag carrier Qantas hopes to dispel some of those with its offer of Wagyu beef and 50 percent bigger portions on economy seats.

Another wealthy man has been added to the short but growing list of people who have pledged to help create a better world by donating a significant part of their fortune to charities.

Alibaba founder and former school teacher Jack Ma is today's modern version of the poor little rich man. At 50, he became China's richest person after the Sept 19 initial public offering (IPO) of the e-commerce giant on New York Stock Exchange.

The Fappening is not over yet, although because of tighter monitoring and threats of lawsuits, leaks of nude celebrity selfies hacked have been coming in trickles. At the same time, some of Fappening's first batch of victims are speaking their minds about the incident.

Iron ore prices has fallen to a five-year low of $76 per tonne in the international market. But it isn't the worst case scenario because a Citibank study forecasts the price of this key steelmaking-ingredient could still drop to less than $60 in 2015.

In the US, whole sale inventories rose by 0.3% in September after a 0.6% gain in August - a result that should support the September quarter GDP result.

Australian shares continued to lose ground over the course of the afternoon on Wednesday. Buying support was scarce in the second half of the session which was reflected in the final result, which saw the ASX 200 end at session lows. At the close of trade the ASX 200 was almost 1% lower or 54 points.

Even if Canadian singer Justin Bieber gatecrashed the Saturday Bible study session of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the team lost the next day to the New York Jets, the Steelers are not blaming Bieber for their loss or are considering him a jinx.

Australian shares are falling for the third day with buyers remaining uninspired to enter the market. The ASX 200 index is down 0.6 per cent and is trading below the 5500 pt mark for the first time since last Thursday.

Despite her being a social media hit, many people see reality star Kim Kardashian as a fluke - one who may be rich in physical assets but short on talent to become a real Hollywood A-lister. Such as perception is not surprising because of her penchant for baring her body and not having a real body of work considered of artistic merit insofar as real films are concerned.

Was it a daring rescue by a brave boy or an Internet hoax perpetuated to gain global sympathy for the Islamic State extremists?

The quiet November trade period continues to leave the market to its own devices. The US markets opened and closed largely unchanged to see the DOW and the S&P just resting against the record prints fromMonday.

While eight-division title holder Manny Pacquiao has several mansions in the Philippines and the US, his Nov 22 opponent, American boxer Chris Algieri, lives in the basement of his parent's house in New York City. The basement, which serves as his living quarters, doubles as his training room.

Fertility clinics in Australia are considering overseas sperm donors because of the shortage of local donors amid the high demand from single women and same-sex couples for male seed.

Was it the phone or the suitor's fault? That question begs to be answered after an unattached male Chinese programmer spent 500,000 yuan to buy 99 iPhone 6s online on Singles Day in China to convince the woman he was wooing to marry him.

In the US, the NFIB business optimism index rose from 95.3 to 96.1 in October. And chain store sales were up 3.8% in the latest week compared with a year earlier according to Redbook, down from 3.9% in the previous week.

Australian shares ended in the red for the second day with the ASX 200 slipping by 0.1 per cent. Despite losses of 0.5 per cent so far this week the ASX 200 still remains above the key 5500 pt level.

Local shares started the second session of the week much like the first, in reverse. The path of the ASX 200 to the session lows was orderly and took the first hour at which point the market was down by 16 points. As lunch approached there appeared to be little evidence that buyers were keen to make any impression and the index loitered within sight of the worst levels of the morning. The lead offered by US share markets didn't translate to sentiment at the open locally. The Dow Jones and the...

Despite his impressive 20-0 record, unbeaten American boxer Chris Algieri remains the underdog in his Nov 22 bout in The Cotai Arena in Macau against eight-division title holder Manny Pacquiao. According to OddsShark.com, Algieri is a 6-1 underdog.