AUSTRALIA

Rio Tinto Ltd's $15.2 billion rights offer, the fifth-biggest on record, generated strong demand from UK investors, putting the world's top iron ore miner back into growth mode after a debt-funded purchase of Alcan had brought it to its knees.

The new chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell Plc faces the tallest order in European business -- to make his company the continent's top earner this year, next year, and well into the next decade.

Asian stock markets put in a mixed performance on Wednesday, with Seoul gaining but Tokyo and Sydney weak as data showed the process of swinging the global economy around to a recovery would be a slow grind.

Asian stock markets struggled to gain ground on Wednesday as economic data showed the process of turnaround to recovery was likely to be a slow grind, and the dollar capitalized on that more cautious sentiment.

China's steel giant, Ansteel, got government approval from China for an A$162.06 million ($130.69 million) share placement with Australian iron ore miner Gindalbie Metals Ltd, a spokesman with Ansteel said Last Saturday.

If you are dizzy from trying to choose among all the fitness regimens out there a new survey of fitness and health experts, who were asked to identity the top trends, may help.

As hard-hit Western banks and hedge funds scramble to sell their Asian loans and bonds, one newcomer expects to pick up these choice assets at rarely seen discounts.

Boeing Co , the world's No.2 plane-maker, suffered another heavy blow to its Dreamliner project on Friday when a major customer, Australia's Qantas Airways , scrapped and deferred orders for 30 new planes.

Wall Street looked set for a weak open on Friday with investors ready to take profits after stocks gained more than 2 percent in the previous session.

Opportunistic property investor NewRiver Retail has suspended plans for a 250 million pound ($406.3 million) listing on London's Alternative Investment Market stock exchange, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a weak open on Friday with investors set to take profits after a gain of more than 2 percent in the previous session.

(Corrects in 2nd paragraph to say 15 orders were canceled, not 30)

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.2 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.2 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.1 percent at 5:37 a.m. EDT.

The Australian Dollar opens marginally higher from this time yesterday at 0.7965 after another 24-hour session in which most of the action happened offshore.

China's Wuhan Iron & Steel Inc (WISCO) made a nonbinding offer of $400 million for a minority stake in Brazilian miner MMX and its subsidiary MMX Sudeste Mineracao, MMX said on Tuesday in its website.

SouFun, China's top real estate website, is eyeing an initial public offering next year in Hong Kong or the United States if the global economy recovers, Chairman Vincent Mo said on Wednesday.

Asian stocks tumbled on Tuesday, as confidence in the recovery ebbed and falling commodity prices and a sharp drop on Wall Street spooked investors into taking profits and buying the yen for safety.

Asian stocks tumbled on Tuesday, after falling commodity prices and a sharp drop on Wall Street spooked investors into taking profits and buying the yen on speculation the rapid pace of recovery may not be sustainable.

A $68 billion merger of coal giants Xstrata and Anglo American would rattle a global steel industry that is already reeling from a tie-up between two of its biggest iron ore suppliers.

The Australian parliament's upper-house Senate began debating plans for the government's carbon trading scheme on Monday with little sign the package of 11 bills will pass.

National Australia Bank Ltd will pay $660 million for most of British insurer Aviva Plc's Australian businesses to become the country's dominant investment platform provider and insurance underwriter.