AUSTRALIA

Chinese stocks sank 6 percent to a three-month low on Monday, weighing on Asian shares, sapping investor willingness to take risks and giving the yen an added boost after Japanese voters swept the opposition into power.

Apple will sell five to seven million iPhones in China in 2010 as a result of its deal with the country's second-largest mobile carrier, a Wall Street analyst said on Friday.

Southern right with calf sighting verified by scientists

Tiffany & Co posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on cost cuts and slightly recovering demand for jewelry, and raised its full-year outlook, sending its shares up 8.7 percent.

Tiffany & Co posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on cost cuts and slightly recovering demand for jewelry, and raised its full-year outlook, sending its shares up more than 8 percent.

Brazilian miner Vale is not not talking with Chinese steelmakers about the iron ore benchmark price for 2009, now and it will go on supplying iron ore to China at a temporary price, which is 60% to 80 % of the 2008 price, company CEO Roger Agnelli said on Wednesday.

Electronic dance music with heavy bass, unknown vocalists and mixed by club disc jockeys regularly tops pop charts in Europe but in America such music has been an underground genre with little mainstream success.

An Australian jeans retailer has installed cameras in its dressing rooms to help women answer for themselves that perennial fashion question -- does my bum look big in this?

Private equity firm TPG has hired three banks to lead manage an IPO of Australia's top department store Myer Group, sources with direct knowledge told Reuters on Tuesday, valuing Myer at about $2.1 billion. The IPO, the biggest initial public offer on the Australian stock exchange since the credit crisis took hold two years ago, underscores a return of confidence in the market and heralds a wave of new listings.

New Zealand tourism operator Tourism Holdings Ltd. (THL.NZ) reported a 80 percent fall in full year profit on Wednesday as the global recession hit the tourist industry.

Brazilian iron ore miner Vale is not in talks with Chinese steelmakers on 2009 benchmark prices and will likely keep offering provisional prices on ore shipments, Chief Executive Roger Agnelli said on Tuesday.

Asia is going to be way short of the new H1N1 vaccine to fight swine flu when the next surge of infections hits during the cold season this year, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Stock index futures were higher on Tuesday on news that Ben Bernanke will be renominated as chairman of the Federal Reserve and ahead of key consumer confidence and housing data.

Uncertainty over Australian and New Zealand plans to cut carbon emissions is hurting businesses in both countries, undermining stock market valuations and raising financing risks, big Australasian firms said on Tuesday.

Stock index futures were slightly higher on Tuesday on news that Ben Bernanke will be renominated as chairman of the Federal Reserve and ahead of key consumer confidence and housing data.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed start for Wall Street on Tuesday after U.S. shares ended flat in the previous session as investors took a breather from a four-day rally.

An executive from Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (Chinalco) denied recent media reports that the company is in talks with Australian miner Rio Tinto on a possible bauxite deal, local media Caijing reported on Monday.

Faced with an economy starting to emerge from recession and stubborn prices pressures, Israel's central bank on Monday raised short-term borrowing costs by a quarter-point to 0.75 percent on Monday to rein in inflation.

The publisher of Reader's Digest on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, carrying out its plan to cut debt and transfer ownership of the 87-year-old U.S. magazine and other businesses to a group of lenders.

Venezuelan Stefania Fernandez, an 18-year-old brunette, won the Miss Universe 2009 title on Sunday, giving her South American country its second consecutive win and its sixth title in the beauty pageant.

The flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza may not be worthwhile to treat seasonal influenza in healthy adults, British researchers reported on Friday.