Esther Tanquintic-Misa

The Catholic Church in Australia on Thursday has proposed to work on a new systems and procedures on how it would deal child sex abuse cases in the future.

What a gay child lost from his own mum, he recovered from his own grandfather. For members of the LGBT community, it's disheartening enough that society until this day continues to misunderstand them. But it's doubly depressing if it's your own parents, more so the mother who carried you in her womb, would become be the one to disown you.

It was an eye for an eye. Two European men and one local Madagascar man were lynched and burned on Thursday by an angry mob off Nosy Be island for allegedly killing an eight-year-old for his genitals. The latter has been alleged as a victim of human trafficking by the three.

Thirteen activists associated with the Greenpeace organisation have been slapped with charges of piracy in Russia, following an ocean protest against oil drilling in the Arctic. This as Greenpeace activists in Germany chained themselves to fuel pumps at Gazprom petrol stations to protest the latest action against the illegally detained comrades.

Japanese Telco NTT Docomo has just unveiled in its home turf an intelligent wearable device that could topple Internet search giant Google's avant-garde Google Glass device.

Extinction of koalas is now beginning to unfold as another casualty of the burgeoning global climate change, which has dried up too many trees.

They may be becoming one of the world's richest dominions, but the Chinese are a known sloppy pack when touring other countries. Yes it is a fact. Otherwise, China's very own National Tourism Administration won't be publishing a 64-page Guidelines On Civilised Travel Abroad if the Chinese were behaving civilly and properly outside of their home turf.

It was a photo contest not meant to show the most vivid, beautiful and eye-turning picture. It was a photo contest meant to show off the most thought-provoking and livid picture that would most perfectly capture the state of Florida's water pollution problem.

Japan, already without nuclear power supply, has signed a 20-year supply arrangement with U.S. oil company Chevron Corp for the latter's $29 billion Australian Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

At least 17 countries around the world, including Australia, the U.S. and many from Europe, have signified interest in taking-in refugees fleeing the almost three-year old civil conflict currently rampaging Syria. The United Nations lauded the countries' collaborative effort, although the respective governments have yet to formally issue a quota-based number of refugees each is willing to take in.

Those already looking forward to their retirement may also well plan ahead for their golden age years. According to a Global AgeWatch Index report released by the UN Population Fund and advocacy group HelpAge International, the best country to grow old into is Sweden because of its superb social support, education and health coverage.

It has been a known fact for childless couples around the world that they can opt to have children birthed for a fee by a surrogate from India. Many from Canada and the UK have done it and actually have been thankful in doing it. Thus, India's "rent-a-womb" industry has flourished so much that a local doctor has spearheaded the construction of the world's first baby factory, while the Indian government mulls over regulating the sector.

Nathan Verhelst, born female named Nancy, is a 44-year-old Belgian national, thought that after following his heart to have a sex change, he will finally live "happily ever after." Apparently, it turned out otherwise. Dissatisfied over his physical transformation, Nathan filed for legal euthanasia to achieve his peace of mind.

The federal government of India, which seriously intends to cut the country's gold imports, has called on its many wealthy Hindu temples to disclose their gold holdings. But the institutions flatly rejected it, invoking the all familiar religious cliché 'God forbids.'

Google Japan has decided to join its country's fascination with vending machines. The company has just launched a vending machine type in Tokyo that sells Android apps.

Canada on Monday has finally closed down the Kingston Penitentiary Correctional Facility, its version of the U.S.' Alcatraz as part of the federal government's cost-cutting measures. In October, the facility will open yet again this time as a tourist spot complete with guided tour packages.

Canada and its network of mobile service providers has launched a database of stolen and lost smartphones to curb the rising incidences of theft in the country. Essentially, any wireless device including cellphones and tablets that was reported lost or stolen may no longer be activated or reconnected.

Women who had experienced early menopausal but still wish to have babies may now have the option to undergo a cutting-edge fertility treatment called in vitro activation (IVA). The seemingly non-fertilizing ovaries will be removed through an experimental surgery, get these treated in a laboratory and then implanted back into the woman's body.

A new study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America has found that most smartphones, including laptops, maybe tweaked to become useful earthquake sensors as well.

The polar bear that has attacked a Canadian man early this September has managed to evade getting euthanised. Instead it will be relocated to the International Polar Bear Conservation Centre at Winnipeg's zoo.

Japan has urged its local governments as well as national universities to stop referring to Google Maps for directional advises on their respective Web sites. Japan was furious over how Google Maps treated some of its disputed islands.

Organisers of the Taipei leg of the world-renowned Color RunTM event are currently in the hot seat for allegedly dumping into the city's Dajia Riverside Park the remnants of the coloured powder it had doused on the marathon runners on Saturday.

You'd think it only happens in the movies, but yes, giant insects swarming on humans and killing them actually does happen. In China, 28 people have died after getting bitten by a swarm of Asian giant hornets.

Barely two months after it was launched, Pakistan's first and so far only gay Web site, Queer Pakistan, has been blocked by authorities. Officials said the Web site defied Islamic norms and traditions. A day after it was blocked, Queer Pakistan came back online on a different domain name.

China is inarguably working to achieve so many things right now. Aside from racing to have cleaner and improved air quality by 2017, it only has set its sights to launch its own space station by 2023.

Capturing pics of surfers riding the perfect waves has always been a staple among most photographers. They just have to wait for the perfect wave to come up. But imagine the double fun when a dolphin gets into the fray with the surfer and the perfect wave. Matt Hutton was there at the right moment, and what a beauty his photograph of all three elements turned out to be.

Russia's law banning "gay propaganda" doesn't defy the charter of the Olympic Games, and so the winter event will proceed as scheduled in 2014 at Sochi, the International Olympic Committee announced on Thursday.

China is planning to build as much as to 40 massive projects to convert coal to synthetic natural gas (SNG) as it zealously works to curb its coal pollution emissions. But a group of researchers had strongly warned it best to all together shelve the project because the SNG plants will greatly increase China's greenhouse emissions, releasing yet another environmental disaster.

China's Alibaba, the country's largest e-commerce company, has shunned the Hong Kong bourse for its planned initial public offering (IPO). Reportedly estimated to be worth $70 billion up to $120 billion, the IPO is being mulled to be organized in the U.S., either by the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.