I know it's pointless to ask you to change your mind; bigots armed with the intransigence of religion are rarely swayed. But hopefully some of those reading this post will be forewarned that Orson Scott Card has become a poison-spouting

CRUDE oil traded lower in Asia on Tuesday as investors focused on waning global energy demand, but the conflict between Russia and Georgia threatens price volatility, dealers said.

BUSINESS conditions have weakened to the lowest point since the weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, in a sign the economy could be slowing faster than had many expected, a report shows.

RIO Tinto has completed the sale of its Kintyre uranium project in Western Australia's East Pilbara region to Canada's Cameco and Japan's Mitsubishi Development for $US495 million ($564 million).

OPTUS says it's making headway towards an ambitious target of becoming Australia's leading mobile phone carrier.

ST GEORGE says Westpac's $17.5 billion takeover offer for the bank is still justified, despite St George posting a 12.5pc profit jump.

SHARES in APN News & Media slumped more than 4 per cent yesterday, after it posted flat first-half earnings that affirmed an advertising slowdown.

GOLD continued to head south yesterday, hitting its lowest point in nearly eight months.

AN Australian woman who fell ill on Papua New Guinea's Kokoda Track was airlifted out by a US navy chopper.

Virgin plane forced to land at high speed Emergency services put on alert Investigators treating the incident as serious

THE parents of a nine-year-old boy missing for five days refuse to consider he might have been harmed in any way.

HUGE bundles of evidence against accused murderer Tony Mokbel have made his prison cell a fire risk, his lawyer says.

ANTI-GM protesters have posted Victorian Premier John Brumby's farm on an online map depicting where genetically modified canola is grown.

A NIGERIAN man who tried to wash off his murder victim's blood using his own urine claims he is being discriminated against in a Victorian jail because of his race.

A NAUTICAL-themed restaurant and bar in New York, partly designed and backed by actor Heath Ledger, will open soon after his father Kim funded the project's completion.

A WOMAN accused of suffocating her four-week-old baby boy has been allowed to travel to a NSW ski-resort for a holiday before her next court appearance.

A PERTH court has extended the bail of an alleged Nazi war criminal who faces a three-day hearing next week into his possible extradition on the war crimes charges.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd enters the West Australian election campaign tomorrow, with acting opposition leader Julie Bishop predicting his appearance will prove a negative for the Carpenter government.

DENNIS Ferguson, who is charged with molesting a young girl in 2005, has been granted bail to allow him to appeal to the High Court

A QUEENSLAND man has been charged over a multimillion-dollar offshore tax avoidance scheme.