Australia's largest investment group has effectively dropped its takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Telstra says it is within its rights to scrap thousands of payphones around Australia, and has been consulting with the community via stickers placed on phones under threat.

Australian shares are on the rise again after last week's falls.

The zinc producer Zinifex is spending $24 million in a major upgrade at its Hobart smelter.

Timber company Gunns says it could look to build its pulp mill in China instead of northern Tasmania if a hung Parliament delays the project's approval.

The head of BlueScope Steel says he remains as upbeat as ever about prospects for the industry, despite a global oversupply of steel being partly to blame for a half-year profit slump.

Strong sales in the United States and Latin America have pushed up the half-year profits of surfwear firm Billabong.

Boeing Australia has admitted its image has been tarnished by the long-running dispute at its aircraft maintenance base near Newcastle in New South Wales.

A group of Liberal backbenchers has told the Prime Minister that sending AWB chairman Brendan Stewart on a government delegation to Iraq is like waving a red flag at a bull.

Pizza-making chain, Domino's, has delivered a big increase in half-year profit, defying a generally subdued retail climate in Australia.

Queensland's Department of Natural Resources says it is not in the public interest to prosecute oil and gas producer Santos over delays in reporting the discovery of human remains.

Striking employees at Williamtown's RAAF base in New South Wales have unanimously voted to return to work tomorrow after nine months of industrial action.

A Western Australian consumer advocate is calling for investors in the collapsed Westpoint property group to help press legal action against the company.

The New South Wales Premier has defended the Government's strategy of using upfront payments for major infrastructure projects.

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell has been forced to evacuate an offshore oil field following attacks on its facilities by Niger Delta militants.

Darwin Airport says domestic travellers have accounted for most of a surge in passenger numbers through the terminal.

A US federal jury says drugmaker Merck is not liable in the 2001 death of a Florida man who used the recalled painkiller Vioxx.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) says BHP Billiton's search for coal in north-west New South Wales is the strongest indicator yet that the Murrurundi rail tunnel could be viable.

ACT Opposition Leader Brendan Smyth says a major investment bank has backed his "Convention Central" proposal.

Financial planners are bracing for a legal battle with a class action looming over the $300 million collapse of the Westpoint Property group.