Vittorio Hernandez

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott heeded the call of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for Canberra to boost its military commitment to help defeat the Islamic State (IS) which is occupying large tracts of land, including Mosul, the country's second-largest city.

2015 is barely three trading days old and already the two biggest themes that were predicted to affect the markets this year are making headlines - oversupply of commodities and the Eurozone.

In US economic data, the New York ISM index rose from 663.4 to 673.8 in December.

Australian shares rose in the final 20 minutes of trade to end 0.3 per cent firmer in what was a choppy session. The ASX 200 Index was up by as much as 0.6 per cent at one stage today and was down by a little more than 0.1 per cent at its worst. Despite all holidays being behind us for major sharemarkets - volume is likely to remain light over the next fortnight.

An American man with the rare medical condition called diphallia has just released a book sharing his experiences of having two working penises.

Australian shares are improving at lunch despite a softer start. The ASX 200 Index is up by 0.3 per cent after a 0.8 per cent slump on the open. An air of normality is returning to markets this week following a fortnight of patchy trade due to holidays. Volume however is likely to remain quiet with investors still remaining in holiday mode for the first few weeks of a new year.

The ongoing controversy involving Prince Andrew, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Roberts is turning out to be a "he said" and "she said" story. Now, a third voice has been added with Virginia's father, Sky Roberts giving his version of the story. Although Roberts admits not having talked to his daughter the past three months nor hearing anything from her about sex with Epstein, the Duke of York or other people the months prior, he insisted that Virginia was introduced by ...

Denee Mallon of Albuquerque, New Mexico, just made medical history by having Medicare cover the cost of her sex reassignment surgery and probably being the oldest who had undergone sex change at age 74.

A 58-year-old reptile handler was feeding a saltwater crocodile at Snakes Downunder Reptile Park and Zoo in Queensland, Australia when the reptile decided to include the man's thumb as part of its meal on Sunday.

On the first trading day of 2015, price of iron ore registered a slight increase to $71.26 per tonne on the spot market, up from $66.84 before Christmas. The improvement could be seen as an auspicious start for Australian iron ore miners who suffered a significant dip in income due to price of the key-steelmaking ingredient hitting a five-year low in 2014 because of the low demand in China and glut in supply.

Activity will slowly start to pick up again this week with market participants making their way back to trading after a break. China and Japan return to trade after having been on New Year's related breaks for most of last week. Attention is likely to be on Europe for the next few weeks as investors digest the developments from Greece and what this means for the euro. Comments made by Greek Prime Minister Samaras suggesting the country's euro membership is on edge heading into the January ...

In US economic data, the ISM manufacturing index eased from 58.7 to 55.5 in December, well below the consensus estimate of 57.6. Construction spending fell by 0.3% in November, below forecasts for a 0.3% gain.

Buckingham Palace denied on Friday the claim of a woman that she had sex orgies with Prince Andrew.

The local sharemarket has recovered early losses to finish the first session of the New Year in positive territory. The All Ords (XAO) finished up 26 points or 0.5 percent to 5,415, while the ASX 200 (XJO) improved by 25 points or 0.5 percent to 5,435.

For the first day of trading for 2015 we saw the Australian market opened slightly weaker off 12points before coming back to be only down 5points by 10.30am ESDT.

If rideshares, ice bucket challenges and selfies dominated 2014, for 2015, among the trends that will be prominent are the use of latex and turtleneck for fashion and Middle Eastern food for cuisine.

After he heard that AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was missing less than an hour after the Airbus jet left Surabaya for Singapore, Tony Fernandez, the CEO of the embattled air carrier was in the Indonesian city within the same day.

Australian police in two states had a buy first working day of 2015 arresting almost 700 people on New Year's Day. In Queensland, they arrest 630 people, while in Sydney, New South Wales, they arrested 62 revelers.

How would next leader of the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia respond to oil prices and the Islamic State problem is now being speculated following the hospitalization of King Abdullah bin Adulaziz on Wednesday.

Most global financial markets were closed on Thursday for the New Years Day holiday.

Australian shares failed to maintain early gains and finished modestly lower this holiday-shortened trading session. Volume was very light; in fact today was the quietest day of 2014 with only $1.3bn worth of shares traded.

Australian shares are flat in what has been a volatile but quiet week for local stocks. The ASX 200 is up just 2pts at lunch, slumped by 1 per cent yesterday and surged by 1.5 per cent on Monday. It has been half as busy as usual so far this week - with investors in holiday mode. Today is likely to be an uneventful session for the Australian market as the ASX will be closing at 14:10pm AEDT (two hours earlier than usual).

Even before Indonesian officials confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed and is on the ocean floor, the embattled air carrier's share had plummeted 13 percent on new of its disappearance on Sunday.

Authorities arrested and sent to jail on Tuesday Cho Hyun-Ah, the Korean Air vice president whose rage over being served macadamia nuts in a plastic bag instead of on a plate delayed the plane's departure and arrival.

Global markets are set to finish the year with a bit of downside on the back of resurfacing Greece concerns. Some analysts feel another Greek political debacle will make it harder for ECB President Mario Draghi to pursue his grand plan of sovereign bond purchases given opposition from other northern nations such as Germany. There will be little event risk to look out for across the region today with some key markets like Japan already closed for New Year's related holidays. Perhaps China's...

Hours after Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency have located the missing AirAsia QZ8501 jet on the ocean floor on Tuesday afternoon, divers were immediately dispatched to the crash site to retrieve the bodies.

The search for the missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501 is over three days after it disappeared enroute to Singapore. The search agency confirmed that the ill-fated plane's wreckage was found during an aerial search on Tuesday afternoon.

Australian shares extended their losses this afternoon to shed 1 per cent and wipe out a chunk of yesterday's 1.5 per cent surge.

After the Islamic State seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, the militant group took over the secular education system and left families with no choice except to send their children to IS religious schools or have no education at all. Among the lessons taught at such schools is how to behead captives, reports the Wall Street Journal.