THE NEWS WRAP: Gina Rinehart first woman to be named Australia’s richest person

Gina Rinehart has become the first woman to be named Australia’s richest person, beating fellow mining magnate Andrew Forrest to the top spot.

Rinehart’s wealth increased from $US2 billion to $US 9 billion in the past year, according to Forbes magazine’s list of the 40 wealthiest Australians.

Coles intensifies price war

Coles has ratcheted up the dairy price war with arch rival Woolworths by slashing the price of its own brand butter and cream.

The move follows last week’s dramatic drop in milk prices, with two-litre cartons lowered to $2 each. It’s feared that the price war could adversely affect small independent stores.

The Daily unveiled

News Ltd has unveiled The Daily, its first iPad-only publication that it hopes will be the “newspaper of the 21^st century”.

The $30 million project, which has a staff of 100 journalists, will cost US99¢ a week, or $US39.99 a year, but is currently only available via US iTunes accounts. Reviews for the publication have so far been mixed.

Meanwhile, News admitted that it may consider selling struggling social networking site MySpace as it revealed that News’ net profit had doubled in the second quarter of 2010-11. 

Overnight

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 11.88 points to 12,030.09, while the Australian dollar jumped to 101.33 US cents.