Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart has secured a $7.2 billion debt deal for the Roy Hill iron ore mine project in West Australia's Pilbara region.

On April 1, Uruguay's legalisation of marijuana, the very first among the world, takes effect. To prepare for the influx of demand, the small South American nation has taken its sights on Canada to fill in the gaps.

In a rare show of solidary and brotherhood, Catholics, Muslims and Anglicans around the world converged on Monday to sign a deal that would launch the Global Freedom Network that would work towards the elimination of human trafficking worldwide.

Horse owners in Australia are being advised as the first case of the bat-borne Hendra virus had emerged in Bundaberg, Queensland. The afflicted horse has been put down.

Australia's all poised to lift the hiatus it imposed on livestock exports to Egypt two years ago. Livestock exporters however aren't exactly excited to jump on the gun as the suspension timeline could have been lost to other exporters.

A defect in the water filtering system at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant had forced operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) to suspend yet again its decontamination process at the facility.

A charity in Colombia fighting obesity has stepped in to impose radical changes in the diet of an 8-month-old baby boy who no longer looks cute at his whopping 55-pound weight.

Gerald Francis Ridsdale, a former Australian Catholic priest, described his paedophile tendencies as "God's work." In raping a four year old girl, he told her she was "God's little angel."

A Canadian family residing in Calgary have been slapped with identity theft, spanning at least 114 fraud charges. Police alleged the family - a couple, two of their children and their daughter-in-law - pocketed $56,000 in the scam that involved Home Depot credit cards.

Australia's second-biggest department store chain, David Jones Ltd, has appointed an advisor to help look into the A$3.4-billion ($3.09-billion) merger offer being flaunted by much bigger rival Myer Holdings Ltd. This after it rejected a proposal earlier lodged by the latter in just less than two months ago.

Home at last. The last 84 Canadian soldiers from Afghanistan have touched down at Ottawa airport on Tuesday effectively ending Canada's longest military deployment.

Residents of Kuda Huvadhoo in Dhaalu Atoll, a remote island in Maldives, have claimed seeing a "low flying jumbo jet" white aircraft with "red stripes" fly across the island on the morning the Malaysia Airlines MH370 was first reported missing.

Described as normally friendly dogs, a pair of Alaskan malamute dogs have mauled to death a 7-year old girl from Manitoba, Canada.

At least three million people from around the world have joined a crowdsourcing project to help locate the week-old missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 airliner.

In a statement sure to agitate already frustrated local fishing groups, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday said Fukushima may release treated radioactive water into the ocean waters.

With nary a competition in sight, Canada's big three wireless carriers have all raised prices for their monthly plans by $5 as well as on their discount brands Koodo, Fido and Virgin. All their base plans now cost the same.

The skull of an ocean lion believed to be two million years old as well as fossils of saber-tooth cats has been unearthed by an exploratory excavation team that's part of preparations for constructing Los Angeles' new subway extension.

Ten days after it first went missing, at least three jet takeover theories have erupted, and 600 possible landing spots have been drawn for the still missing Malaysia Airlines MH370. Still all figures. Nothing inconclusive.

A diamond found in Brazil had led scientists to announce that an ocean's worth of water could possibility be located beneath the planet Earth's crust.

Cyclone Lusi was just all wind and howl. But no rain, to the frustration of New Zealand farmers who badly it need for their crops.

Crop yields in temperate and tropical regions stand to slow down in the face of global warming, even at just a rise of 2°C, a study showed.

Effective March 14, Malaysia Airlines will no longer be using MH370 from its roster of flight codes, essentially relegating to history the fate and mystery of the missing plane.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner has invited Pope Francis to the U.S. Congress. If the latter accepts it, he becomes the first spiritual leader ever to address the members of the U.S. parliament.

Thanks to a passenger who knew CPR, a 15-month old baby who suddenly stopped breathing mid-flight from Tampa, Florida to Phoenix Sky Harbor was saved. US Airways Flight 678 then decided to divert to Houston to make an emergency landing.

Radioactive activity from Fukushima has reached Fraser River Valley in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. Although the scientists uncovered very low levels of cesium-134 in the soil, they remain baffled as to how it arrived in the area.

Numbers of suicide cases in Fukushima continued to rise since 2011 triggered by depression and uncertainty over the future.

A male teacher from South Waikato has been found guilty of sexually abusing his young students, as well as providing drugs to a minor. He has been slapped with a 7-year imprisonment sentence.

Day six has rolled by for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Authorities around the world continued looking for a needle in the haystack. The uncoordinated response of the Malaysian government to the incident has been a cause of national embarrassment for its citizens.

A late season winter storm has caused delayed flights and road closures in several parts of Canada. Several colleges and universities have also suspended classes.