THE NEWS WRAP: Swan warns Australia not immune to global slowdown following jobless rate rise

Treasurer Wayne Swan has warned that Australia cannot escape all of the effects of the global economic slowdown, after new data showed a rise in unemployment.

Swan said that Australia’s economy remained strong despite the jobless rate hitting a two-year high at 5.4% and the International Monetary Fund cutting its global economic growth forecast.

But he added: “We are not immune from what is going on, particularly in the region.”

“Of course, you have seen weaker commodity prices in recent times and that will have an impact on our economy, on our national income and of course our budget.”

Nine faces administration threat

Nine Entertainment could be on the brink of administration after senior lenders signalled that they wouldn’t support a last-ditch plan to rescue the broadcaster.

A group of lenders, including hedge funds Oaktree Capital and Apollo Global Management, are understood to be sceptical of a debt-for-equity swap that would allow Nine to continue, Fairfax Media reports.

Warning over latest Firefox version

Mozilla has hauled the latest version of its Firefox browser offline after a serious security flaw was revealed.

Users who have upgraded to version 16 of the browser were advised to downgrade to a previous iteration until a remedy was found.

Mozilla said the flaw would allow “a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited.”

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.58 points, or 0.14%, to 13,326.39. The Australian dollar slipped to US102.63 cents.