Vittorio Hernandez

Russia has responded to EU and US sanctions by placing heavy restrictions on food imports from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the past few months.

There are only two boxers who made it to the newly released list of 50 fittest athletes by Sports Illustrated. They are eight-division title holder and Filipino congressman Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten American boxer Floyd Mayweather.

The Australian government awarded on Wednesday a $48.4 million contract to Dutch firm Fugro Survey to lead the underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 jet that left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8.

In an attempt to convince former customers to return as well as existing clients to keep their accounts, telecom giant Vodafone has spent close to $1 billion investment in the past 12 months on 4G for its Australian market.

In US economic data, the trade deficit narrowed by 7% to $41.5 billion in June. The smaller deficit was driven by a fall in petroleum imports to a 3 year low. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to widen.

Passengers aboard the regular 11 am cruise were treated to a spectacular water animal battle on Tuesday, Aug 5, when notorious 5.5-metre Australian crocodile Brutus battled it out with a bull shark at the Adelaide River.

Temperatures continue to rise in Oakland's already hot real estate market due to cash buyers, the Oakland Local reported. According to the report, real estate practitioners saw a great deal of cash transactions in the market, compared with similar activities more than a decade earlier during the U.S. housing bubble.

The weakness continues this month, with the Australian market slipping for the fourth day following softer American shares overnight. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO), which is a measure of local market performance is down by 0.3 per cent and is trading below 5500pts for the first time in three weeks. Geopolitical risks in Ukraine and Russia continue to keep investors on edge, with reports of an increase in Russian troops on Ukraine's border.

Markets overnight were moving along in a fairly routine fashion, after having seen slightly positive data from Europe and the US. This lead to Europe recovering from four days of losses and the US market moving slightly in the red after having rallied on Monday.

Transport operators would often downplay accidents involving their vessels, coaches or jets, especially near misses, but in the case of a Singapore Airlines Flight SQ351, it was Singaporean Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew himself who admitted it was only minutes away from suffering the same fate as Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 which was hit by a missile and crashed with all 298 people on board.

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi sold 15 million smartphone in China during the second quarter of 2014, beating the two other technology giants Samsung Electronics and Apple, according to a market research firm Canalys.

A messaging app that is said to combine the best features of Facebook, Skype and WhatsApp is set to debut twice in Tokyo's and New York's bourses via an initial public offering (IPO).

British boxer Amir Khan is still hopeful he could meet either Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny Pacquiao before the two boxing greats hang up their gloves forever.

About 3,500 mining jobs would be lost, following the going into administration of Australian miner Bluestone Global. The company, listed in the Australian Stock Exchange, said in a statement on Tuesday that it failed to secure shareholder support to fix its balance sheet by merging with other companies.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the third day despite a strong performance from US shares overnight. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) fell by 0.4 per cent; however is still only 2 per cent away from revisiting the six-year highs reached late last week.

As the reality of climate change is felt across the globe with warmer weather, rising sea levels, and stronger weather disturbances, many communities in the U.S. are working together to create a "green community."

With many products nearing patent expiration, prescription drug sales are expected to surpass the $1 trillion mark by 2020, EvaluatePharma reported in its 7th edition World Preview report.

Despite disappointing results from Boeing and other companies, the U.S. stock market logged record-high earnings due to positive earnings from technology firms.

There was a solid recovery in US markets overnight, however this is not surprising considering the profit taking and reactions to 'good news is bad news' that resulted in falls last week.

A new report on The Wall Street Journal noted that Twitter is underutilised by a majority of real estate professionals in promoting their listings, with most realtors sending out an average of only 0.5 tweets per day.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba looms to become the fourth largest technology company in the world once it launches its initial public offering in New York in September. It will be behind Apple, Google and Microsoft, wrote Techtimes.

The criticisms over eight-division title holder Manny Pacquiao's choice of new American boxer Chris Algieri as opponent for his Nov 22 bout continues with one expert warning the Filipino champ it is a lose-lose situation for him.

Australia's Future Fund has reached $101 billion on Monday, exceeding the $100 billion mark at the end of June after its investment returns for the 2013-14 financial year yielded $12 billion.

The winning streak continued with shares hitting fresh six-year highs, rising for a third day and remaining above the key 5600pt level. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) improved by a modest 0.1 per cent despite mixed performances from global markets overnight. The US economy expanded at a faster than expected 4 per cent annual pace in the June quarter, while comments by the US central bank relating to inflation has increased the market's expectations of an earlier rate rise.

The last week of July was a big week for the U.S. stock market as 22 companies went public. The share launches was led by Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF), which is expected to raise $3.1 billion, making it the largest initial public offering (IPO) in 2014.

Retail investors were among those who were attracted to the Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) of Chinese pork producer WH Group on Tuesday, July 29. WH raised $2.05 billion in its second attempt at IPO, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The Fed's view being proven correct. Over the weekend, the non-farm payrolls showed over 200,000 jobs were created, however part-time employment is leading the way and wage inflation is stagnant at best. Average hourly earnings month-on-month fell to 0%, and unemployment rose with participation still sitting near 1977 levels.

In US economic data, non-farm payrolls (employment) rose by 209,000 in July, just short of forecasts tipping a 233,000 lift in jobs. The unemployment rate rose from 6.1% to 6.2%. Personal income rose 0.4% as expected in June. The ISM purchasing managers index rose from 55.3 to a 3-year high of 57.1 in July, above the forecast of 56.0.

Two Australian medical students beat 14,000 other teams in Microsoft's yearly global technology contest, Imagine Cup. The competition, on its 12th year, has college and high school students battling to create tech solutions with a wide range of issues from health to games to innovation.