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At exactly 7pm, Kim Dotcom and allies – Laila Harre (leader of the Internet-Mana party), Glenn Greenwald (American lawyer and adversarial journalist) and Bob Amsterdam (Dotcom’s lawyer) – took the stage at the Auckland Town Hall, to raucous applause. Adding to the atmosphere was Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden via videolink. They had come for Dotcom’s …

The New Zealand dollar gained amid mixed US data as investors await the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting starting today. The kiwi rose to 81.72 US cents from 81.26 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index advanced to 78.51 from 78.07 yesterday. US data overnight presented a mixed picture of the state of the world’s largest economy, as the New York Fed’s …

Wall Street fell while US Treasuries rose after a report showed a surprise decline in US industrial production a day before Federal Reserve policy makers begin their two-day meeting, which may offer new clues on the timing of an interest rate increase. The focus is on whether the Federal Open Market Committee will change its language with regards to interest …

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey talks up his country’s potential to be the “world’s number one energy exporter” within the decade but China’s ban on the sale and import of coal with high ash or sulfur content may impact forecast returns. The Chinese Government’s crackdown is in response to the heavy pollution in Shanghai and Beijing and social unrest in many …

The Australian is today reporting that Australia is on track to sign free-trade agreement with China at about the time of the November G20 meeting in Brisbane, after the latest round of negotiations left senior ministers believing the deal can be clinched by the end of the year. The Oz story hedges bets somewhat about where the expected signing will …

The New Zealand dollar may decline this week, weighed down by weaker local data and a more positive view of the greenback. The kiwi will probably trade between 79.60 US cents and 83.40 cents this week, according to a BusinessDesk survey of 10 currency traders and strategists. Five pick the local currency to decline, three say it will probably remain relatively …

Infratil shares rose to the highest in more than six years on the prospect of a capital return after the A$605 million sale of its Australian energy operations, which will generate a $44 million fee for manager HRL Morrison and Co. The Wellington-based company sold Lumo Energy and Direct Connect Australia after reviewing its ownership of the assets in May, …

Trade Me Group, New Zealand’s biggest internet auction site, has bought Wellington-based online credit card payments firm Paystation for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the month, and included two related firms, web developer Face and server hosting unit Netspace Services, Wellington-based Trade Me said in a statement. The purchase price was confidential, but …

I’ve always been reluctant to believe in media conspiracies, but having watched the way in which Radio New Zealand and TVNZ have been covering this election campaign I have to conclude that those driving the election coverage on those channels are either wildly Left-wing or plain ignorant, and I’m genuinely not sure which explanation is the more plausible. The media …

The former directors of Feltex Carpets have been found not liable for alleged disclosure failings in the failed carpet-maker’s 2004 prospectus in a representative lawsuit on behalf of 3,639 former shareholders.     In a reserved judgment in the Wellington High Court, Justice Robert Dobson  said while there was “some justification” for a number of the criticisms of the content of the prospectus, …