Esther Tanquintic-Misa

At least three people have been confirmed dead in a fire that razed down a home for the elderly in Quebec province in Canada on Thursday. Some 30 others are still missing.

TransCanada Corp has started operating on Wednesday the Texas leg of its controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Effective March 1, 2014, Beijing will no longer be approving proposals for new constructions of industrial plants, including oil refining, steel, cement and thermal power plants. Proposals for improvements of existing ones will likewise be barred.

A new research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B has found that flu medications can actually help spread the influenza viruses more rapidly from one person to another.

Despite terrorism scares and anti-gay sentiments, prices of hotels in Sochi, Russia, host of the 2014 22nd Winter Olympics, have started ballooning and could reach by as much as $243 per night, a whopping jump of 121 per cent.

A U.S. District Court Judge in California on Tuesday has ruled that Korea's Samsung did infringe Apple Inc's autocorrect patent technology, two months before the telecoms giants face each other for a late March trial date.

China's dangerous air pollution isn't only confined to harm its residents. It has been found to be dangerously invoking more severe and frequent cyclones in the northwest Pacific.

Employees addicted to smartphone use even into their bedtime are ought to kick the habit. A study released by University of Washington showed that while smartphones may be useful for a lot of things, it may post some risks to one's sleep patterns.

Apple Inc is in another legal battle. The iPhone maker has been slapped with a lawsuit in Massachusetts by three customers who alleged that the company had been selling users' personal information to third parties.

Some 1,700 employees from the aerospace division of Canadian aeronautics company Bombardier are bound to lose their jobs in the coming weeks.

Electricity suppliers have managed to restore all of Auckland's power supply on Wednesday after ex-tropical Cyclone June's powerful wild winds hit the area on Tuesday.

China has developed its own mobile operating system called China Operating System (COS) that will rival Microsoft's Windows, Google's Android and ChromeOS, as well as Apple's iOS and MacOS platforms.

Papua New Guinea will no longer be issuing Australians visas on arrival, Peter O'Neill, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, made the announcement on Monday.

Who could have imagined that with her sheer 5'1" frame, Vanessa Cervantez could give birth to a whopping 15lb baby boy. And baby Andrew Jacob Cervantez wasn't actually her first child. He was her third, and biggest so far.

Rescuers and volunteers in New Zealand remained optimistic the 46 pilot whales they refloated on Monday have been able to go swim in the deep waters. They scoured the beaches on Farewell Spit on Tuesday and found not one of the beautiful creatures got stranded again.

Best not to get sick at anytime in Canada. A new survey that looked into the waiting times of Canadian patients in setting urgent appointments just to be checked and treated by their family doctors within a day has been found to be the worst among the 11 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED).

Three weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pounced on critics, particularly American critics opposed to his country's anti-gay laws. He specifically told them to look at themselves in the mirror first before throwing tantrums and verbal shenanigans against Russia.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), embattled operator of crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, has detected a new radiation contaminated water leak at the plant's No. 3 reactor building.

Large amounts of rainfall are expected to fall down on New Zealand and Australia early this week. Kiwi farmers at upper North Island however are excited over the development.

Bitcoin automated tellers machines may be proliferating all across Canada, but the country's finance department was quick to warn residents the digital currency has yet to be recognised as a legal tender.

Residents living in Canada's Toronto and the rest of the GTA are advised to take the necessary precautions in anticipation of blowing snow and frigid temperatures expected to blast the region on Sunday lasting through Monday.

Not only did Lt Gen Gu Junshan owned dozens of homes and crates of luxury liquor, he also possessed a golden statue of Mao Zedong, a golden washbasin, a golden statue of a ship. The Chinese people aren't pleased.

The incident that killed an American-Canadian baby placed on a luggage conveyor belt at the Alicante airport in southeast Spain was all due to the mother's fault, Spanish authorities said on Thursday.

Efforts to refloat and save the eight whales stranded off the New Zealand's South Island have ended on Thursday, but not on a good note. The volunteers were left with no choice but to euthanise them just to end the sufferings of the beautiful creatures.

Canadian Governor General David Johnston on Thursday announced the country will be having royal visitors in May. The Prince of Wales, Charles, and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, will be visiting Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) four months from now.

Tim Laidlaw and Declan Vogel-Paul, two Australian snowboarders who are trying their luck in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, had lost their snowboards onboard an Air Canada flight on Monday. Good thing the management of Air Canada located the items and had it immediately sent to the waiting pair by Wednesday evening at Quebec.

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.

On Jan 12, a couple dined at Alinea, a fine-dining establishment in Chicago with three Michelin stars. They had their 8-month-old with them. As is habitual with kids, the baby had a crying bout inside the restaurant, subjecting other diners to the noise, fuss and all. Chef Grant Achatz, Alinea owner, wasn't happy. Though he didn't bolt the trio out of his restaurant, his rant on Twitter created the same noise, if not much more, than the crying baby.