A judge has told Apple it must show Samsung its contracts with Australian mobile-phone carriers, media are reporting.

Criminal charges have been laid against four directors of Capital + Merchant Finance – one day after the Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into the failed finance company.

The Securities Commission said it has laid criminal charges and issued civil proceedings against company directors Neal Nicholls, Owen Tallentire, Colin Ryan and Robert Sutherland.

Criminal charges have also been laid against former director Wayne Douglas, who resigned in February 2007.

Nokia says Apple's “free ride” is over. the Finnish phone giant has  filed a lawsuit that claims Apple’s handset violates 10 of its patents.

Earlier this week, Nokia reported a miserable first quarter result, clocking its first loss in a decade and a 20% decline in sales.

Financial news organisation Bloomberg has requested the details of who the US Federal Reserve is lending its trillion dollar bailout cash to under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as suing the Fed in a bid to force disclosure.

While Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said in September they’d comply with congressional demands for transparency, to date they have refused to name a single company to receive some of the trillion dollars they have dispersed thus far.

Lawyers working on cases against financial advisory firm Vestar have finally obtained information on the firm’s insurance policy.

Lawyer Duncan Anderson from Dennis King Law said court applications were underway to seek further detail on the extent of Vestar’s insurance cover from insurer QBE.

Investigations were also proceeding into the insurer’s potential liability.

There were “matters to overcome” but the case was progressing, he said. “It’s not dead in the water.”