THE fortunes on all sides seemed to swing in Afghanistan this week, but one piece of good news was the freeing of Perth aid workers Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch after a three-month ordeal as prisoners of the Taliban.
THE fortunes on all sides seemed to swing in Afghanistan this week, but one piece of good news was the freeing of Perth aid workers Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch after a three-month ordeal as prisoners of the Taliban. The pair, along with six other aid workers, were rescued by anti-Taliban forces and later flown to Islamabad by three US Special Forces helicopters. Locked in cells in the city of Ghazni, the eight aid workers were left behind by Taliban forces retreating from US bombs and local militia. Ms Thomas and Mr Bunch are now receiving counselling at the German headquarters of the Shelter Now International, the international aid organisation they had been working for at the time of their arrest. The pair had been facing the death penalty for allegedly preaching Christianity.
WESTERN Australia’s weather was unkind to several wheatbelt communities, with water damage from Sunday night’s storms forecast to reduce the value of this year’s harvest, at one time threatened by a lack of rain, by millions of dollars.
THE big news in resources was the Newmont Mining rival bid for Normandy Mining LImited, ann-ounced at Normandy’s annual general meeting. Reported to value Normandy at $A1.70 per share, and trumping AngloGold’s $A1.46 bid, the offer has pitted the US and South African companies against each other in the race to become the world’s largest gold producer.
A subsequent independent report put Normandy at $A1.88 and sent its shares to a year high of $A1.59. Colorado-based Newmont has also put in a bid for Franco Nevada Mining, which has a 19.9
per cent stake in Normandy.
THE ramifications of consolidation in the international energy sector continue to strengthen for Australian interests and projects. An unheralded announcement by major Timor Sea gas stakeholder, Phillips Petroleum, for a planned merger with Conoco Inc has reignited talk earlier in the year that company tensions and competition, and not taxation issues alone, would delay Timor Sea developments. To be known as ConocoPhillips, the proposed merger would create a company much more able to withstand market competition from Shell for development arrangements and the sale of gas from the Timor Sea.
The announcement follows the ExxonMobil merger earlier this year, last year’s ChevronTexaco merger and the creation of Total Fina Elf in 1999, and once again raises further consideration of how Australian companies can best position themselves.
Meanwhile, OPEC has cut oil production for the fifth time this year, in a bid to boost oil prices.
FUEL prices in WA may be set to rise again if Mobil decides to leave the State as a result of WA’s stringent clean fuel specifications. This would create a monopoly situation for BP as WA’s sole petrol refiner, potentially pushing prices up for motorists as early as next year. In this situation, Shell would be unable to pick up any more of the market, as it is already rationing supplies to WA.
The BP refinery in Kwinana is the only one in Australia that produces petrol that meets WA specifications regarding the use of toxic, performance improving additives.
THE Perth Mint operator Gold Corporation reported a $5.8 million loss for the 2000/2001 financial year. The company claimed a general collapse in the metal investment market was to blame for the corporation’s poor performance and worse-than-expected sales of leftover Olympic coins.
The loss comes in the wake of two years of record profits and chairman Peter Unsworth claimed the group would return a profit for this year. The decline in the US dollar gold price and a decline in investment in gold bullion were also identified as factors in the Corporation’s disappointing result.
LANTANA picked up a swag of awards at the Australian film industry’s night of nights – the AFI Awards. Lead actors Kerry Armstrong and Anthong La Paglia both picked up Best Actor in Leading Role awards for their roles in the powerful film. Ms Armstong also took out the best actress award in film and television for her role in the television series Seachange.
LEYTON Hewitt became the world’s number one tennis player this week after beating Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean in the lucrative Tennis Masters Cup in Sydney.
The win pushes Mr Hewitt’s total annual earnings for 2001 past $10 million with prize money for the Masters Cup alone totalling $2.94 million – the highest earnings in a single tournament in history.
AGAINST a background of claim and counter claim about the strength and wisdom of rival bids for Ansett assets, the company’s administrators revealed Ansett Mark II was trading at a slight loss but had regained some lost corporate travel accounts.
ERG Limited has made another acquisition, a software licence and equipment deal with Motorola, that will enable ERG to move into the developing and marketing of smart card technology for applications outside the transit sector. Under the deal ERG will be able to produce smart cards with embedded operating systems.
IN the face of concerted opposition from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group, the ACTU launched a claim for shorter working hours before the Industrial Relations Commission, seeking the inclusion of an anti-unreasonable hours clause in industrial awards.
WESTERN Australia’s weather was unkind to several wheatbelt communities, with water damage from Sunday night’s storms forecast to reduce the value of this year’s harvest, at one time threatened by a lack of rain, by millions of dollars.
THE big news in resources was the Newmont Mining rival bid for Normandy Mining LImited, ann-ounced at Normandy’s annual general meeting. Reported to value Normandy at $A1.70 per share, and trumping AngloGold’s $A1.46 bid, the offer has pitted the US and South African companies against each other in the race to become the world’s largest gold producer.
A subsequent independent report put Normandy at $A1.88 and sent its shares to a year high of $A1.59. Colorado-based Newmont has also put in a bid for Franco Nevada Mining, which has a 19.9
per cent stake in Normandy.
THE ramifications of consolidation in the international energy sector continue to strengthen for Australian interests and projects. An unheralded announcement by major Timor Sea gas stakeholder, Phillips Petroleum, for a planned merger with Conoco Inc has reignited talk earlier in the year that company tensions and competition, and not taxation issues alone, would delay Timor Sea developments. To be known as ConocoPhillips, the proposed merger would create a company much more able to withstand market competition from Shell for development arrangements and the sale of gas from the Timor Sea.
The announcement follows the ExxonMobil merger earlier this year, last year’s ChevronTexaco merger and the creation of Total Fina Elf in 1999, and once again raises further consideration of how Australian companies can best position themselves.
Meanwhile, OPEC has cut oil production for the fifth time this year, in a bid to boost oil prices.
FUEL prices in WA may be set to rise again if Mobil decides to leave the State as a result of WA’s stringent clean fuel specifications. This would create a monopoly situation for BP as WA’s sole petrol refiner, potentially pushing prices up for motorists as early as next year. In this situation, Shell would be unable to pick up any more of the market, as it is already rationing supplies to WA.
The BP refinery in Kwinana is the only one in Australia that produces petrol that meets WA specifications regarding the use of toxic, performance improving additives.
THE Perth Mint operator Gold Corporation reported a $5.8 million loss for the 2000/2001 financial year. The company claimed a general collapse in the metal investment market was to blame for the corporation’s poor performance and worse-than-expected sales of leftover Olympic coins.
The loss comes in the wake of two years of record profits and chairman Peter Unsworth claimed the group would return a profit for this year. The decline in the US dollar gold price and a decline in investment in gold bullion were also identified as factors in the Corporation’s disappointing result.
LANTANA picked up a swag of awards at the Australian film industry’s night of nights – the AFI Awards. Lead actors Kerry Armstrong and Anthong La Paglia both picked up Best Actor in Leading Role awards for their roles in the powerful film. Ms Armstong also took out the best actress award in film and television for her role in the television series Seachange.
LEYTON Hewitt became the world’s number one tennis player this week after beating Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean in the lucrative Tennis Masters Cup in Sydney.
The win pushes Mr Hewitt’s total annual earnings for 2001 past $10 million with prize money for the Masters Cup alone totalling $2.94 million – the highest earnings in a single tournament in history.
AGAINST a background of claim and counter claim about the strength and wisdom of rival bids for Ansett assets, the company’s administrators revealed Ansett Mark II was trading at a slight loss but had regained some lost corporate travel accounts.
ERG Limited has made another acquisition, a software licence and equipment deal with Motorola, that will enable ERG to move into the developing and marketing of smart card technology for applications outside the transit sector. Under the deal ERG will be able to produce smart cards with embedded operating systems.
IN the face of concerted opposition from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group, the ACTU launched a claim for shorter working hours before the Industrial Relations Commission, seeking the inclusion of an anti-unreasonable hours clause in industrial awards.
