Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Marte Deborah Dalelv, the Norwegian woman slapped with a 16-month jail time in Dubai for reporting rape but later pardoned by the Emir, has finally come home to the waiting arms of her loved ones in her native homeland.

The school principal of the Indian school who served free lunch to its students, yet some unfortunately died due to pesticide poisoning, has been arrested on Wednesday.

Now that the newly-born son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has been named as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, designs of commemorative chinaware bearing his actual name have been released online and made available for pre-order for royal watchers and souvenir collectors.

South Korea's youth's love for smartphones has gone bordering addiction. The federal government is poised to introduce nationwide counseling programs for youngsters by the end of the year to curb the rising technology-related affliction.

Arjean Marie Belco, the indigenous Filipino woman who was earlier denied by KLM Airlines to board her flight from Malaysia to Brazil, has finally landed in Rio de Janeiro. Goodxorg, the nonprofit group who organised and sponsored Ms Belco's trip in time for the World Youth Day 2013 festivities, believed its scholar was denied her "right to travel" all because she did not fit KLM's idea of a traveler, thus essentially "a case of discrimination."

Local police from the tiny rural Japanese village in the Yamaguchi Prefecture are now hunting down a suspected serial killer who also happened to be a prolific "haiku'' poem writer.

Prices of gold futures have dropped on Wednesday, a day after India announced it will be imposing restrictions on its imports of the safe haven yellow gold metal.

Police responding to the scene could just only shake their heads. A Russian woman, who wanted to inject some spice in her and her boyfriend's sex life, suggested to do it a stairwell. And at the throes of passion and for some Ripley's Believe It Or Not reason, her head got stuck between the handrails.

Accepting, much more legalising same-sex partnerships, provide the key ingredients for the faster ushering of the Apocalypse, or the complete and final destruction of the world, Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said.

Two years after the great 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan and the resulting tsunami that damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, its operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) finally admitted on Monday that the stricken facility had likely poured contaminated radioactive water into the ocean waters.

Consistently shunning preferential treatment and special attention, Pope Francis has done what most heads of state would not. For his first overseas international trip since becoming the 266th pontiff, Pope Francis opted to carry his own luggage bag, fall in line and then wait for his turn to board commercial aircraft Alitalia for his week-long visit to Brazil in celebration of the World Youth Day 2013 festivities in his home continent.

Pope Francis has departed from Rome and is now on his way to attend and lead the 2013 World Youth Day in Brazil, his first ever WYD activity as well as first international trip since his installation in March as the 266th pope and successor of Benedict XVI.

The United Nations has issued a warning to all 750 million smartphone users around the world to be wary of the removable SIM card on their smartphones. A German research firm has discovered a flaw in the old encryption technology used to make the device operational, enough to make it susceptible to the illegal activities of hackers.

Marte Deborah Dalelv, a Norwegian national, couldn't believe her fate. She had been raped against her will while on a business trip to Dubai, and yet she had been slapped by a 16-month jail time just because she had the guts to report the incident to the local police.

Six urban management officers known as "chengguan" in China were jailed over the weekend following the brutal, violent killing of a watermelon vendor on Wednesday last week. The chengguan's two supervisors were likewise fired from their posts.

A pregnant Chinese woman patient infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus has given birth to a healthy baby girl on Wednesday, despite being diagnosed with the deadly bug two months earlier.

Peace and order law enforcement officers in Brazil on Thursday announced that masks of any form and design will be banned for the entire duration of the World Youth Day 2013, most especially during the scheduled mass of Pope Francis on July 23 in Rio de Janeiro.

Fond of the ocean waters and how the glorious sunrays can give you that envyingly tan but definitely scared of sharks? An Australian company has just introduced an anti-shark, 'invisibility' wetsuit that could protect the wearer swimmer from the fangs of a hungry shark.

Rival cellular smartphone makers Apple and Samsung have responded to clamors to create anti-theft features on their products. Top prosecutors from the U.S.' San Francisco and New York City states said law and security enforcement officers will now road test the efficiency of the new safety elements of the smartphones.

It was one for the books. A yet-to-be-born child has been put up for sale in India, no less than by his or her own mum.

Workers employed as maids and domestic help in Saudi Arabia may now get a day's off from weekly work, following the passage of a new law by the kingdom's Council of Ministers this week.

Despite a steadily rising number of deaths now at 45 worldwide, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is still not considered a global health menace, a panel of experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Pope Francis, who had earned a reputation for keeping his security detail on their toes whenever he goes out of the expected cordon sanitaire during events in Vatican, will be doing the same for his first international trip. On Wednesday, the Vatican announced this year's newly-installed spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic church had just dumped the idea of riding the ever famous bulletproof popemobile for his Rio de Janeiro, Brazil trip in observance of the World Youth Day 2013 festivitie...

Public nurses and midwives across the state of New South Wales in Australia have decided to take their employment-rant related concerns to a higher level. Patients confined at NSW state hospitals and community health service centres may expect work disruption as the nurses have voted to a state-wide strike action on July 24.

Some 20 children have died on Tuesday in eastern India after eating a free school lunch that unfortunately poisoned them. Authorities believed the death tally could rise in the coming days as dozens of other children have been hospitalized.

A Chinese man convicted in 2011 of fraud and illegal fund-raising activities had been executed on Friday, and his family was the last to know about it. Although the family could only shrug, no matter how painful it was not to have seen their loved one for the last time, Chinese nationals nonetheless questioned the rather merciless and inhumane final gesture.

Authorities in China have ordered the closure of a museum in Jizhou, a city in the northern province of Hebei, after it was discovered that most of its exhibits on display were fake, counterfeit or knock-off items. Its license had likewise been revoked.

GPS (global positioning systems) signals messed up during storms are indeed tricky and risky for drivers and pilots. But undependable they may be during weather disturbances, this very same haywire activity could prove useful to NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Scientists from both institutions have discovered that the wind speeds and wind strength of tropical cyclone storms can actually be predicted by just how messed up the actual GPS satellite signals are.

Are you a Catholic who has no time to go to church to undergo confession for committed sins, but have the time to actively update your Twitter account? Good news from Vatican. The 2013-installed 266th Pope Francis will pardon your sins through Twitter. But... you still have to follow the services lined up on World Youth Day, and yes, actively through Twitter as well as on other forms of social media and the traditional TV, radio and Internet.