ECONOMY

Pope Francis has decided to auction his 1,585cc Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glid for charity. The rocker bike was donated to the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church in June 2013.

Disregarding strong public opposition and reneging on its own word, Japan on Wednesday has given Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), embattled operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, the go signal to revive its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear facility.

Google Inc. has been found not playing fair and square in Canada. The country's federal privacy watchdog said the Internet services provider violated Canadian privacy law through targeted online health advertising ads.

Good news to those seeking jobs in the Canadian airline industry. Air Canada Rouge is on the lookout for additional flight attendants in 2014 to service its growing fleet as it expands its service to include Calgary and Vancouver this spring.

They were the very first who responded to the call for help when the Fukushima nuclear power plant got hit by a massive tsunami on March 2011. But never did the sailors aboard USS Ronald Reagan thought that they too would become victims of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Young men in Alberta lost their interest in studying when the province's oil sands sectors offered them jobs whose average hourly wage increase of 21 per cent was significantly higher than the 4 per cent salary hike granted to workers in other Canadian provinces.

Canada on Tuesday has launched the auction of several blocks of 700 megahertz (MHz) wireless spectrum to telecoms companies operating in Canada, where large players are expected to participate. At least one however has backed out due to lack of funding.

A radioactive drug against prostate cancer has been launched in the UK. Marketed as Xofigo, it contains polonium-210, the very same substance that killed Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB agent and Kremlin critic, in 2006 in London.

Australia may be shutting tighter its door to economic asylum seekers, but the country should open its door wider to skilled migrant workers for it to improve the national economy.

The New Zealand dollar is on its way to surpassing the Australian dollar for the first time in forty years, according to HSBC Bank Australia.. New Zealand's economic boom could drive the currency to new heights. HSBC considers the rebuilding of earthquake-damaged Christchurch as one of the driving forces

Amid cost-cutting measures, Canada has closed seven of its 11 Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries across the country. Around 1,000 scientists lost their jobs in the process. But what's saddening were the books which observers claimed never got digitized. They believed the books have been all together damaged and burned.

Fish caught in waters near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have been detected 124 times highly radioactive than the accepted limit, a report by the Asahi Shimbun said.

Residents at Northern Territory have been advised to prepare necessary precautions as a cyclone could potentially ram into the region on Wednesday.

London may be the world's most expensive city, but Sydney in Australia is the most reputable city in the world, a recent study by the Reputation Institute said.

Australian software company Atlassian Corp., in a move to boost initial offerings in the US and for healthier regulatory incentives, seeks to transfer domicile to the UK.

Don't you wish your mum or dad or both parents were Norwegian? That' because if they were, the family then would have been millionaires.The event when all Norwegians become theoretical crown millionaires happened on Wednesday when Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, which was established in 1990, rose in value to 5.11 trillion crowns or $828.66 billion. With a population estimate of 5,096,300, that made everyone a millionaire.

A new research from the University of Washington has revealed baby talking to infants can help them learn to talk faster and learn language skills earlier.

By end of 2014, China will no longer tolerate smoking in public places and the ban will be strictly imposed nationwide.

New Zealand's Fonterra Co-operative Group has lost its supply contract with French food company Danone over the milk powder contamination scare in late 2013. Danone will likewise slap appropriate legal action against the Kiwi company for NZ$492.9 million compensation.

At least one person has died in Canada from the fatal H5N1 avian influenza infection, the first ever also from the entire North America. The victim succumbed to the disease after recently travelling to Beijing, China in December 2013.

The deadly H1N1 strain of Influenza A has continued to spread to other parts in Canada, with the number of deaths likewise growing each day. The fatal strain has reached the province of Quebec. The threatening situation has prompted one Canadian regional hospital to revive its alert controls which it last used and implemented from the days of the SARS pandemic.

Until recently, news from China about its environmental concerns and problems were highly censored. But because it can no longer literally put a lid to control its spreading and unmanageable air pollution, China has admitted the smog haze situation in the country has already claimed thousands of lives.

For decades, New Zealand had stood under the long shadow of Australia, the economic power of Oceania. However, economists said it is Wellington's turn to shine in 2014 and upstage not only Canberra but other developed markets in terms of economic expansion.

The fatal Influenza A (H1N1) virus, which became pandemic in 2009-2010 with at least 18,138 global deaths, has staged a comeback in the U.S. Should the world worry?

No less than anti-gay controversy-laden Russian President Vladimir Putin road tested the various sites erected for the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympics by playing a game of ice hockey.

Sydney is the 11th most expensive city in the world, according to the Web site expatistan.com, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. However, compared to London, the costliest city, Sydney is 25 per cent cheaper.

Russia has barred some 132 used Japanese cars from entering the country due to radioactive pollution concerns.

The year 2013 has been recorded as New Zealand's second hottest year, according to Auckland University climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger on Monday.

People wanting to travel to Canada have been advised to take necessary precautions as the country is currently beset with a growing number of the deadly H1N1 flu cases.