THE NEWS WRAP: Grounded flights set to resume today

Flights are resuming this morning after a volcanic ash cloud again disrupted air travel, although aircraft remain stranded at several airports.

Qantas and Virgin flights have resumed from Adelaide, while Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin flights will start from Melbourne at 11am.

However, Qantas and Jetstar trips from Sydney and Newcastle won’t resume again until 2pm, with Virgin starting at 4pm in Sydney and Canberra.

More than 500 domestic flights were cancelled yesterday due to a plume of ash spewed from the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile.

Foster’s set for bidding war

Further bids for Foster’s are expected after the Australian brewing firm rebuffed a $9.5 billion takeover offer from South African rival SAB Miller.

Market analysts expect SAB Miller to up its price, while Japanese brewer Asahi and Grupo Modelo, the maker of Corona, have also been mooted as potential bidders.

Gillard urged to adopt ‘Robin Hood’ tax

Julia Gillard has been urged to sign on to a new ‘Robin Hood’ tax that would take money from financial institutions and use it to tackle climate change and help international development.

A group of 65 signatories, including World Vision and Australian Council of Trade Unions, called on Gillard to impose a 0.05% wholesale financial transactions tax. The so-called Tobin tax has the support of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and has been put to the Group of 20 world leaders.  

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 109.63 points to 12,190.01. The Australian dollar slipped to 105.77 US cents.