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By Pattrick Smellie New Zealand’s plantation forestry estate represents a major opportunity for New Zealand to become more self-sufficient in transport fuels, says the latest report from the Pure Advantage business lobby group seeking support for a “green growth” push in New Zealand. However, a “crisis of faith” in the forestry industry could stymie the newly emerging potential of forestry – …

Straight from the Whitehouse – Obama faces the press on fiscal cliff, Petraeus and more

Fox News asks the hard questions.

Fox canvasses the impact of General Petraeus effective sacking on the Benghazi hearings.

The name of the new institute set up by the NZ Government to help firms in the high-tech manufacturing and services sectors will be Callaghan Innovation. Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said naming the new Advanced Technology Institute after the late Sir Paul Callaghan was recognition of his passion for commercialising scientific research. “Sir Paul was one of New …

Solid Energy has completed the sale of the agribusiness division of Biodiesel New Zealand. The purchaser, Pure Oil New Zealand Ltd, is owned by Southern Packers, Midlands Seed, and a manager and agronomist who previously worked for Biodiesel New Zealand. Solid Energy said in August that as part of its response to the impact on its business of the extremely …

Trade Minister Tim Groser will meet with his Australian counterpart at the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Forum tomorrow in Canberra. “On both sides of the Tasman there is a high level of political commitment to strengthening and deepening our relationship, and this meeting will be important in helping us progress the single economic market agenda.” Groser says ministers will …

EUROPE REMAINS IN THE SPOTLIGHT, WITH ONE EYE ON GROWTH AND THE OTHER ON GREECE: Headlines on Greece ’s next tranche of aid and how to meet the predicted shortfall again generated some volatility in markets overnight. Policymakers seem to be making slow progress, although no final decision about the disbursement of the next tranche of aid will be made until …

UNDP’s Helen Clark says it is not difficult to draw up an inventory of global institutions and mechanisms which are struggling to reach decisions: The veto power in the UN Security Council can be a block to decisive action. The annual meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have often struggled …

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Perth for a summit to deepen defence links between Australia and the United States. The annual summit is the first since President Barack Obama visited Australia a year ago and upset  China by announcing that up to 2500 US Marines would rotate through a joint military training hub in the northern …