THE NEWS WRAP: Petrol tipped to hit $1.50 a litre

Petrol prices could hit $1.50 a litre for consumers and businesses this week due to the escalating crisis in Libya.

The continued conflict in the country, which produces 2% of the world’s oil, has pushed the price of Brent crude to $US116 a barrel. Analysts have warned that Australians will feel the full effect of the price rise in around two weeks’ time.

Business attack tax summit

Leading businesses have criticised the Federal Government’s tax summit for excluding the mining tax, the carbon price and the GST, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The summit, which was pushed back by three months following the federal election, has also been attacked for only lasting two days.

Gmail

The Chinese government is blocking the country’s access to Gmail, Google has claimed. The search engine giant has said that the government block makes it appear as if there’s a technical issue with the email service, even though none exists.

The incident is the latest clash between Google and the Chinese government, which has previously demanded that search engine results be censored. 

Overnight

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 172.25 points to 12,030.77. The Australian dollar moved above parity again, to 100.51 US cents.