AAP

Laboratory operator Campbell Brothers has increased its first half profit forecasts due to better than expected trading.

Excessive government red tape is hurting the nation's productivity and stopping Australian companies from hiring more workers, a survey says.

Wesfarmers managing director and Fremantle Dockers board member Richard Goyder will join the AFL Commission, with two other members of the league's governing body to step down.

Commonwealth Bank has been rated the worst of the major home lenders, while the industry's smaller players remain the peoples' favourites.

Telstra will launch its 4G mobile network today.

Resources giant Rio Tinto has increased its stake in Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines to 49 per cent.

The Australian share market opened more than two per cent higher this morning, recovering some of yesterday's losses when shares closed at a two-year low.

The Australian dollar has risen almost two US cents on renewed optimism that Europe may avoid a recession.

US stocks rallied sharply Monday as investors saw positive signs in European efforts to find a way to resolve the eurozone debt crisis.

The Australian dollar has hit a 10-month low as uncertainty grows whether Greece can get help to avoid a debt default and a global recession can be prevented.

Labor frontbenchers have rallied around the prime minister amid fresh speculation of a Kevin Rudd comeback and as the Greens made the case for Julia Gillard to see out this term of government.

The Australian share market fell more than one per cent to a two-year low, pulled down by investors selling out of miners and energy companies after commodity prices slumped.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has renewed his calls for executives' salaries to be regulated to prevent "out of kilter" increases.

Production has started on Woodside Petroleum's Okha floating vessel that is expected to produce 30,000 barrels of oil a day.

The chief operations officer of the state's beleaguered fire agency has resigned just a week after the authority's new head took the reins.

Australian investors have taken heart after European finance leaders pledged to do whatever is needed to resolve the eurozone sovereign debt crisis and ensure financial stability.

Wage growth under enterprise bargaining agreements perked up in the first three months of 2011, particularly for public servants, government data shows.

Australian mortgage holders are creating bigger financial buffers for themselves as financial market turmoil gives them the jitters, a survey shows.

International air travellers will face delays at Australian airports this week and next as customs officers take industrial action amid a standoff over pay and conditions.

Treasury officials have rejected claims their carbon price modelling collapses if the United States does not introduce an emissions trading scheme.

The Reserve Bank of Australia should cut interest rates because the local economy is starting to tank with some sectors already in recession, the federal opposition says.

A key Western Australian business lobby group has highlighted industrial relations and energy as areas of policy failure in its annual report card on the Barnett government.

The Australian dollar has opened weaker from where it was on Friday but looks to be well supported, on hopes that world finance leaders could soon announce a solution to Europe's debt crisis.

US stocks halted their downward slide on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovering just above the break-even mark at the close, despite ongoing gloom about the state of the global econ

The Australian dollar and local shares have had another tough week on fears that Europe and the US will drag the global economy into recession.

So, just what did everyone expect policymakers to say about the economic outlook?Aside from the blindingly obvious.The world's share markets took a battering this week.

Australia's largest rare earths miner Lynas Corporation has posted a 33 per cent widening in its full-year loss following a year blighted by controversy.

A bird strike has forced a Qantas flight heading from Perth to Melbourne to turn back soon after take-off.

Fashion brand owner Just Group will stop selling sandblasted jeans after aid agency Oxfam threatened to complain to the consumer watchdog.

Wireless telecommunications services continue to grow, but not at the expense of fixed-line broadband, the competition watchdog says.

Shares in Australian stock exchange-listed Blackgold International Holdings rose after the Chinese coal producer acquired the holder of a coal mine in Chongqing municipal province in China.