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Online Dating Scams Top Australian Financial Fraud

Australians were tricked out of Aus$82 million (US$66 million) last year, with online dating scams accounting for the biggest losses, the competition regulator revealed Monday.

More than 91,000 scam complaints were received in 2014, figures from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) showed.

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Inquiry Threat into Australian Iron Ore Industry

The huge iron ore industry in Australia faces the threat of a parliamentary inquiry amid claims the world's biggest miners, including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, are flooding the market to wipe out smaller competitors.

The steel-making commodity is the nation's largest export with Australia accounting for 60 percent of the world's sea-borne supply, and the slumping price has hit government revenues hard.

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Minister: China Infrastructure Bank will Uphold Standards

China's foreign minister worked on Saturday to allay concerns that Beijing's new regional infrastructure bank would not meet international standards as he met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The U.S. declined to become a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) amid doubts over how it would be managed, but several of Washington's closest allies signed up, including Britain, France and Germany.

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India's Modi Brings Home $22 Billion in China Deals

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi got down to business on the final day of his trip to China on Saturday, saying his country was open for investment as firms signed deals worth more than $22 billion.

"Let us work together in mutual interest and for progress and prosperity of our great countries," Modi told executives from 200 Chinese and Indian companies at a business forum in the Chinese commercial hub Shanghai. "Now India is ready for business."

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Fitch Keeps Greece's High-Risk Rating as Default Looms

Ratings firm Fitch kept Greece's high-risk credit rating unchanged Friday, saying the risk that the eurozone country would default on its debt was a "real possibility."

Fitch Ratings affirmed the "CCC" rating it gave the debt-riddled eurozone country in late March in a two-notch downgrade from "B."

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Scandal-Hit Petrobras First Quarter Results Dip 1.1%

Brazil's state-owned Petrobras oil, mired in a graft scandal, on Friday posted Q1 revenue down 1.1 percent on the same period last year, indicating it may turn a corner after a year of woe.

The company reported net income of 5.330 billion reais ($1.778 billion) on sales of 74.4 billion reais.

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British Government Announces 'Unusual' Extra Budget

Britain's finance minister announced plans for a second 2015 government budget on Saturday to quickly implement his Conservative Party's campaign promises of spending cuts and savings following a surprise election win.

"On the eighth of July I am going to take the unusual step of having a second budget of the year," Chancellor George Osborne wrote in The Sun newspaper.

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Etihad Says Top U.S. Airlines Get $71.5 bn in Subsidies

Etihad Airways said on Friday that the U.S. government has provided America's three biggest airlines with more than $70 billion in benefits and concessions, citing a report it commissioned.

The Abu Dhabi-based airline has itself come under attack from U.S. rivals over subsidies.

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Bundesbank Critical of ECB Aid to Greek Banks

The head of the German central bank or Bundesbank hit out in a newspaper interview Friday at the ongoing provision of emergency liquidity to Greek banks by the European Central Bank.

Given the fact that the ECB is banned under its statutes from financing states' debts, "I don't feel it's correct that banks with no access to the markets are awarded loans used to finance the government debt of a country which also has no access to the markets," Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann told the business daily Handelsblatt.

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U.S. Oil Production 'Important' amid Clean Energy Transition

President Barack Obama Thursday called U.S. oil production an "important" source of energy as America transitions towards cleaner resources, defending his move to allow petroleum giant Shell to drill in the Alaskan Arctic.

Obama's administration gave the petroleum giant a green light three days ago to explore the Chukchi Sea near Alaska -- as long as the Anglo-Dutch firm has the correct permits from the agencies that regulate the environment and marine mammal health.

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