Sydney - Australian shares soared Wednesday at the opening bell in the wake of a big rise on Wall Street.

The ASX200 put on 163 points, or 3.5 per cent, to reach 4,762 in the first 30 minutes of trading.

Analysts predicted continued turbulence - the index lost 4.2 per cent Tuesday - until a financial bailout package passes the US Congress.

An indication of the uncertainty - and the effect of the market turbulence on the real economy - was the postponement of plans to build a new terminal at Canberra airport.

Sydney - Eddy Groves, who founded Australia's troubled ABC Learning Centres Ltd 20 years ago, left the world's biggest child minding company Tuesday.

Earlier this year margin calls forced Groves and his wife, Le Neve, to sell almost all of their shares. They announced they would be leaving all board and management positions.

The biggest shareholder in the company, which has operations in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the US, is Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings.

The stock was placed in a trading halt in August. It has delayed announcing its results until accounting procedures are clarified.

Sydney - Australian stocks sli

Sydney - Australian stocks shifted into reverse late Monday after getting an initial bounce from the long-awaited US bail-out package. 

The ASX 200 slipped 97 points, or 2 per cent, to close at 4,807. 

Initial enthusiasm evaporated as analysts digested the terms of a package that may cost US taxpayers 700 billion US dollars. The details of the package appeared to sap confidence. 

Sydney - Australians are concerned about climate change but want others to pay for curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause it, an opinion poll released Monday said.

Sydney - Lobby groups Sunday called on the Australian government to ban a caffeine-laden soft drink called Cocaine that is due on the market in November.

"Calling a drink Cocaine is just wrong," Queensland Consumer Association state secretary Max Howard told the Sunday Mail.

He urged Canberra not to follow Britain and the United States in permitting the sale of Cocaine.

Paul Dillon, head of Sydney-based Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, said the product would send a message that cocaine was cool.