AUSTRALIA

Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue is to release a download-only concert album, Kylie Live in New York.

Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto on Saturday signed a $116 billion iron ore joint venture agreement to combine their Western Australian iron ore operations.

The draw of the teams who will face each other in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa took place Friday in South Africa.

A U.N.-led drive to raise cash to help poor nations cope with global warming is looking fairly encouraging, three days before a 190-nation climate conference, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Friday.

Japan's trading houses, which made fortunes from heavy bets on coal and iron ore, see water as their next big investment target as industrialization and urbanization in emerging economies boost demand for clean water.

Japanese brewer Suntory Holdings, which is in talks to merge with domestic rival Kirin Holdings, said on Friday it will buy a U.S. Pepsi bottler and may consider more such acquisitions.

Asian stocks held most of the week's gains before monthly U.S. jobs data on Friday, although property and bank shares fell in many markets as soft U.S. data raised concerns about the pace of economic recovery.

I'm a flashpacker and I'm proud of it. I haven't always considered myself one, of course. I used to relish sitting on train

The European Central Bank will start to unwind its crisis support for the euro zone economy this month but made clear on Thursday these moves are not meant to signal a coming rise in benchmark interest rates.

The European Central Bank kept rates at a record low of 1 percent as expected on Thursday, leaving markets firmly focused on how it plans to handle the delicate process of phasing out its financial crisis support.

Singapore, a Southeast Asian city-state with high per-capita emissions, will head to global climate talks next week with a pledge to cut carbon pollution by 16 percent versus projected business-as-usual levels by 2020.

The European Central Bank is set to begin the delicate process of phasing out its financial crisis support on Thursday, backed by new staff forecasts which should show greater economic optimism.

Federal Reserve officials sounded a relatively upbeat note on the U.S. economy on Wednesday, but warned timing withdrawal of the bank's extraordinary support for the economy will prove difficult.

Tiger Woods, the world's top-ranked golf player, issued an apology on his website today for his transgressions and personal sins following a series of extra marital affair rumors.

U.S. central bankers should not let pockets of weakness distract them from fighting inflation as the economy recovers, Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said on Wednesday.

Rachel Uchitel, one of the women Tiger Woods allegedly had an affair with has denied any involvement with the golf star but details have surfaced revealing the opposite.

Australia's parliament rejected laws to set up a carbon trading scheme on Wednesday, scuttling a key climate change policy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and providing a potential trigger for an early 2010 election.

The parliamentary defeat of Australia's carbon-trade laws has handed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a trigger for an election from early 2010 to salvage his emissions trading scheme and key climate policy.

Australia's parliament rejected laws to set up a sweeping carbon emissions trade scheme on Wednesday, scuttling a key policy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and setting a trigger for an early 2010 election. Here are some facts about how the failed carbon-trade scheme would have looked.

Tiger Woods admitted in a statement posted on his website today, that he let his family down and regrets his transgressions with all his heart.

Indonesia's censors have banned Balibo, an Australian-made film about five foreign journalists who were killed by Indonesian troops during the 1975 invasion of East Timor.