AUSTRALIA

About a quarter of Australia's sugar cane crop may have been destroyed after Cyclone Yasi tore through key growing areas, with the damage exacerbating already tight global supplies and helping push U.S. futures to three-decade highs last week.

PetroChina (0857.HK)(PTR.N) agreed to pay C$5.4 billion ($5.4 billion) for half of Encana's Cutbank Ridge shale gas project, marking the largest Chinese investment in a foreign gas asset.

Anglo American's thermal coal unit is keen to expand its operations in South Africa and beyond, but is waiting for price of acquisitions to come down first, the unit's head said late on Wednesday.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are warning poor regions that have so far not been hit by rising food prices, like sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, to get ready to face them.

Trevor Bailey, one of the greatest England all-rounders of the post-war era, has been found dead in a fire at a nursing home in Essex.

Wright Express, a company that provides mostly fuel payment processing services to commercial and government automobile fleets, release earnings results for Q4 2010.

Leon Russell has landed in the spotlight with Elton John album, appearance on David Letterman, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2011 induction and inclusion in Bluesfest lineup.

The Hong Kong stock exchange said on Thursday it will consider international alliances after Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext announced plans to form the world's biggest trading powerhouse.

British gas producer BG Group Plc posted a rise in quarterly profit helped by higher commodity prices and a lower exploration charge and the company lifted its full year dividend by 10 percent to 21.60 cents a share.

One-day 50-overs cricket returns to its spiritual and financial home next week when India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka host the World Cup after a 15-year gap.

When the world's batsmen dazzle crowds at this month's cricket World Cup, many will use bats hand-made in India. But lucrative global branding that masks the bats' true makers threatens the country's craftsmen.

New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram has been cleared to travel to the World Cup after sustaining an injury before the team's one-day match against Pakistan on Saturday.

Online travel advisor Cheapflights.com helps you to choose a loveshack to suit your beloved's tastes.

Australia's cruel summer of cyclones and floods could generate a new, devastating political storm for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who now must buck hostile public opinion to find a way to pay for the clean-up.

Studies published in the medical journal The Lancet, show that obesity worldwide almost doubled in the decades between 1980 and 2008.

Palm oil output and stocks, already lagging robust demand due to rains in top Southeast Asia producers, could be made worse should the cooking ingredient become the next target for emerging markets seeking to buy big and dampen adverse effects of booming world food prices.

Australians voiced relief and surprise after one of the world's most powerful cyclones spared the nation's northeast coast from expected devastation on Thursday, with no reported deaths despite winds tearing off roofs and toppling trees.

Protests of addictive pescription drugs such as oxycontin and suboxone could affect pharamceuticals shares.

One of the most powerful cyclones on record slammed into Australia's coast on Thursday, uprooting trees, tearing roofs off buildings and raising the danger of deadly storm surges.

The category-five storm, Cyclone Yasi, that has struck Queensland in northeastern Australia (already reeling from deadly floods last month) is likely to hammer global commodity markets, according to media reports.

Unemployment, poverty and social injustice are the top global concerns and most people think their country is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new poll.