Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Governments around the world are getting more and more panicky over perceived anti-government posts over at Twitter. And this panic, in return, has pressured the microblogging company to unfortunately release its users' very private informations.

Hu Yixuan only wanted to help a distressed pregnant get safely to her home to the waiting arms of her husband. Little did she know that her kindheartedness would lead to her untimely death.

The federal government of Canada and state government of Ontario have been reported to have started the necessary steps to divest their remaining collective 10 per cent stake in General Motors Co. Both governments have started to approach investment banks that could help in their offloading plans.

The Olympic Spirit, which is "to build a peaceful and better world which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play," hangs on a balance next 2014. Gay international athletes bound to compete for the honor of their respective countries in the 2014 Olympics in Russia will be specifically targeted as the country steps up its anti-gay quest.

One would think they raced to the crime scene because they were out to topple a terrorist or armed person. But no. The armed agents from the U.S.'s Wisconsin state Department of Natural Resources, complete with squad cars, were just out to kill a baby deer in a barn.

Knowing fully well it continues to be hounded by intrigues and controversies regarding its management of Church-related funds, the Vatican bank Institute for Religious Works has opened up a Web site for everyone to see as it aims for transparency in all its dealings.

Sexy and titillating magazines Playboy and Penthouse apparently no longer sell at US military exchanges, that's why the Army and Air Force branches of the US Department of Defense have decided to ditch them off from the newsstands.

Chinese students beating the September deadline school of opening in Canada are in luck. Albeit a slow and torturous process, the Canadian embassy in China was reported to remain issuing student visas.

Charges of grand theft and commercial burglary have been slapped against an employee of United Airlines and his girlfriend for allegedly stealing passenger items from luggage detained at the airport, following the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in early July.

The Philippine legislature is set to propose a bill that would require residential owners and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to insure their homes and structures against earthquakes.

Make or Break. People in Italy are on their toes awaiting the final verdict of its High Court on the long-running tax fraud case involving former prime minister and billionaire tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.

Who would have thought that reforming prisoners detained at the Guantanamo detention camp in Cuba, instead of a copy of the Quran, has been asking for copies of the scandalously wicked Fifty Shades of Grey series to while their time.

Raif Badawi, a liberal-minded Saudi Arabian who has founded the Free Saudi Liberals Web site, has been slapped with a seven year jail time as well as face 600 lashes for posting anti-government content over his online Internet site.

At least two people have died from the heat wave currently enveloping eastern and southern China, which on Tuesday has breached the 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) mark. For the first time ever, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has activated a level two emergency heat wave response as meteorologists forecast temperatures could reach 38 degrees C to 41 degrees C well into the first week of August.

Apart from the customary mandated paid sick and vacation leaves, a Russian lawmaker is proposing to offer another two paid days off for its menstruating women employee labour force.

A mum in Germany has given birth to a whopping 13.47 pounds heavy baby girl, in what has already been touted as the country's largest-ever baby born so far.

Australia has released the final list of names of athletes, led by Sally Pearson and Jared Tallent, bound to join the August 2013 IAAF World Championships to be held in Moscow.

Law enforcement authorities were flabbergasted when a young man from Virginia, U.S. had unwittingly went to his county's local police station to turn himself in as well as inquire for existing warrants issued against him on child pornography charges. The police could hardly believe their luck. It turned out the man had received a fake FBI online warning alert ordering him to pay a fine for child pornography found on his computer.

The effect the book Fifty Shades of Grey has given to some people, not to mention into their sex lives, has had a profound one. The book and its author E. L. James has received their fair share of thank yous, with some of the readers noting it opened new doors for them to explore. But this exploration apparently has gotten haywire at most. On Monday, the London Fire Brigade disclosed that of the 999 emergency calls it received, some were bedroom sex games gone wrong.

Just like any other family man, Invercargill taxi driver Tariq Humayun was just there to work for a day's honest living. But he never expected that the guy he would pick up from the central city would quell him so bad he's now almost close to the brink of thinking that Kiwis probably all are racists.

Four men were lucky to have come out still alive from their car after it was gobbled up by a landslide in China's Yan'an city, Shaanxi Province.

A study by German and Swiss scientists published in the journal Nature Geoscience has disclosed that earthquakes not only trigger landslides and tsunamis and do massive damages to infrastructure, not to mention lives lost. They also trigger the release of damaging greenhouse gas methane from underground reservoirs.

Ji Yingnan, a 26-year-old woman apparently jilted by her lover who is a Chinese government official just got even. Not only has she bravely identified her former lover, Fan Yue, a deputy director at China's State Administration of Archives, she has also revealed their relationship and the kind of lifestyle they had when they were still together.

One may be rich and have all the material riches in the world, but these aren't skin-deep. They only "bring the illusion of happiness," Pope Francis told the more than one million youth contingent who braved the rains and flocked to the Copacabana beach for the World Youth Day 2013 festivities on Thursday.

He may already be 76 years old and may technically only have one functioning lung, but Pope Francis had been up and about in Rio de Janeiro. His horde of security aides could hardly keep up as the pontiff of the Roman Catholic faith exuded the same energy level as with the youth contingent present in the World Youth Day 2013 festivities.

A South Carolina man, along with his wife, has been arrested for the death of a sex offender who hasn’t done anything wrong to him or his family. He only knew about him, his offenses as well as personal information from the state registry.

China, the world's chief emitter of carbon dioxide greenhouse gases, is poised to invest 1.7 trillion yuan (AU$298 billion) to remedy the growing air smog pollution problem lording over its horizons which has killed thousands and sickened hundreds over the years. Specifically, the amount will be used to institute programmes and measures to combat the smog situation in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.

Saudi Arabia's Mecca, the country's holiest city being the home of Mohammed and site of pilgrimage and travel for millions of Muslims, has slashed the allowed number of pilgrims to enter its perimeters as a counter measure to the fatal MERS-CoV virus threat.

Two Chinese government officials tasked to enforce the country's one-child policy had been stabbed to death by a disgusted father after he was told he can no longer register his fourth and youngest child until he pays the fines for breaking the law.