AUSTRALIA

Credit card consumers have difficulty finding details about their debt on statements, results of an international study show.

A Canadian pension fund moved closer to sealing a takeover of Australia's Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group on Tuesday, raising its offer to $1.3 billion and securing the approval of the two biggest shareholders.

Some of Australia's biggest corporate names, including resource giants Rio Tinto and Woodside, may be investigated by consumer regulators over complaints they have been deceptive on climate change.

SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest telco, on Sunday launched in Singapore a service that lets mobile subscribers download music files and videos which it hopes to introduce to other parts of Asia.

Boss too mean? Staff fond of slacking? It comes with the territory, says a new study that found personality traits have a big influence on your job.

You know the neighborhood straightaway – Chinese signage, glowing red lanterns everywhere, maybe even some neon: you’ve stumbled into another urban Chinatown.

China cheered Australian investors with its undimmed appetite for resources assets as one state-owned firm, Minmetals, clinched a $1.4 billion deal and another, Chinalco, vowed to bounce back from the shock of its failed $19.5 billion Rio Tinto tie-up.

Asian stocks edged higher, powered by a sharp rise in commodity-related shares as oil prices extended gains on Thursday, keeping a rising trend in raw materials prices intact and boosting the Australian dollar.

The World Health Organization was poised on Thursday to declare that the new H1N1 virus has caused the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, health sources said on Thursday.

The World Health Organization has called an emergency meeting of experts on Thursday to discuss the spreading H1N1 flu outbreak, in a sign the U.N. agency may be poised to declare a pandemic.

More Australian companies are blocking access to social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook, trying to make employees more productive in a sagging economy, the country's dominant phone company says.

China's pursuit of mega-sized deals with global leaders in strategic industries will slow as Beijing recovers from Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto's stunning rejection of a $19.5 billion tie-up with state-owned Chinalco.

World stocks rose for a second day in a row on Wednesday as improving economic data in Asia and a weak dollar pushed oil to a fresh 7-month high above $71 a barrel, fuelling gains in resource-related stocks.

Asian shares rallied on Wednesday as reports of stronger-than-expected industrial output in China raised optimism about the global economy, lifting metals and oil prices at or near multi-month highs.

A forward-looking measure of hiring expectations held steady in the United States and other large economies amid signs employment is starting to stabilize, but prospects in several countries worsened, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is on the verge of declaring the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, but wants to ensure countries are well prepared to prevent a panic, its top flu expert said on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization is getting close to declaring a full H1N1 influenza pandemic but wants to make sure countries are well prepared for such a move to prevent a panic, its top flu expert said Tuesday.

Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar opens beneath US79 cents for the first time since May 29 amid further greenback strength overnight. As expected, trading was fairly muted yesterday thanks to the Queen's Birthday public holiday.

Pope Benedict was very upset by revelations that priests and nuns had beaten and raped children for many years in Irish industrial schools, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin said on Monday.

Nineteen leading agricultural exporting nations, including Australia, Brazil and South Africa, kicked off talks in Bali on Sunday aimed at pushing forward troubled world trade negotiations.

Rio Tinto dumped plans for a landmark investment from China on Friday, opting instead to raise $21 billion through a rights issue and a joint venture with one-time suitor BHP Billiton.