Esther Tanquintic-Misa

If Aussie computer whiz kids can level up to include entrepreneurial skills in their list of technological expertise, Australia can create a sector of tech start-up firms that could contribute $109 billion to the economy annually by 2033 as well as create 540,000 new jobs.

A ray of hope is on the horizon for the bird flu scare gripping China for three weeks now as scientists from the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) on Tuesday said the influenza A H7N9 virus showed to be combination of genes from various viruses.

Grain growers in Australia's South Australia and Victoria have been advised to implement necessary measures as prevailing dry weather conditions are expected to continue for at least the next three months, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).

If parents and adults had paid more attention in the previous years to the complaints of children that they have been sexually abused by members of a religious church or community, the burgeoning number might have already been nipped right in the bud early on.

Believed to have sought the perks of an anonymous life in Rome, an Australian 67-year-old Catholic priest is bound to face 10 legal cases of sexual abuse related charges once he gets back home.

Rescue workers feared more dead bodies lie under the rocks that toppled over from the concrete structures that got destroyed during Saturday's magnitude 6.6 earthquake in Sichuan province. At least 207 have been confirmed dead as of Sunday, while the number of injured have reached more than 11,800.

With the cause of infection and transmission still unknown, the number of deaths due to the new influenza A H7N9 virus has risen to 20. The number of infected likewise jumped to 102 over the weekend.

Tsinghua University, one of China's universities which trained many of China's top leaders, is bound to receive a $300 million donation from no less than an American mogul, Blackstone Group investment company founder Stephen Schwarzman.

Japan has been shaken anew by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, located in Kuril Islands off the country's northern part.

Continuing to defy traditions, Pope Francis has thumbed down the release of monetary bonuses meant for some 4,500 Vatican employees and instead redirected the money to be donated to some charitable organizations.

With Shenzhen and Shanghai already slated to commence their respective carbon emissions trading in June, China is now mulling to draft its own national legislation on climate change.

Australian rare earths mining firm Lynas Corp remained confident demand for its rare earths will eventually pick up in the medium term as it announced it had been able to produce a full suite of rare earths products in the first quarter of 2013.

A study by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has warned that the world's coastline beaches could experience swelling and intense levels and heights of pounding ocean waves due to climate change.

Sixty-year-old cancer patient Christian Nayet was being driven to hospital for a series of scheduled laboratory tests. But when Jean-Francois Pina, his assigned ambulance driver for that night complained of feeling pins and needles in his fingers after an hour on the road, he knew a reversal of roles had to be done, and quickly, to save the man's life.

The one-month-old supreme pontiff of the Catholic church, Pope Francis, continued to show his humane and humble side when he accepted, albeit giddy with excitement, a jersey shirt personally signed no less than by famous soccer player Lionel Messi of the Barcelona Football Club, a fellow Argentine compatriot.

Attaining one's ideal weight level is hard enough, much more to maintain it. But the French has invented a high-tech fork that will not only be useful in picking up our food, it will also buzz every time you eat too fast.

After 18 long months, state teachers at Victoria have finally clinched a deal with the government, entitling them to a pay rise of between 16.1 to 20.5 per cent over three years. About 45,000 state teachers are expected to benefit.

Despite having China as its topmost trading partner, Australia's ambition to have a free trade agreement (FTA) signed with its fellow Asian country continued to get derailed, even after almost a decade-long negotiations. This time, the talks got hindered on China's insistence that Australia lift its foreign investment restrictions on state-owned enterprises.

Fears further escalated that the new avian influenza A H7N9 may indeed be transmitted through human contact after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that some of those currently infected in China did not have had any contact at all with poultry.

Despite the continued global uncertainty, the impact of the high dollar, coupled with challenging conditions faced by some sectors on the home front, the Australian economy will nevertheless grow solidly by 3.0 per cent in 2013 and 3.3 per cent in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Brazil has vowed to strengthen and intensity its security measures and tactics in light of the heinous Boston Marathon bombings on Tuesday which has so far claimed three lives and injured more than 170. Brazil is set to play host to two major global events this year, and then each next year and on 2016.

Shares of global iron ore mining giant BHP Billiton spiked by 25 cents, or 0.78 per cent, higher at $32.40 at 1035 AEST on Wednesday morning as it announced it will be maintaining its annual production guidance for the year.

A strong but shallow 6.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the northern coast of Papua New Guinea on Wednesday morning, but scientists immediately quelled off concerns of a possible tsunami aftermath in the Pacific.

The death toll from the new avian influenza A H7N9 in China has now reached 16, with the number of infected people likewise rising to 77 cases, all in just two weeks' time.

Elsewhere around the world, investors are panicking over the continued falling prices of gold, considered the best safe haven tool to counter inflation. But not in India where the price slump of the yellow metal has been more than welcomed, if not wonderfully embraced.

A simple updating on one's status in Facebook had turned into a nightmare for an Australian woman. After announcing to the whole world she had married the love of her life, here comes a woman who messaged her that the husband who she thought loved her enough to marry her was still legally married to someone else.

Australia wants to improve the emissions monitoring of its coal seam gas (CSG) projects by using direct measurement rather than alternative methods for estimating vented fugitive emissions from well completions and workovers.

China's ambitions to expand its dominance has gained foothold in the European region as it signed on Monday a free trade agreement with Iceland enabling access to the latter's abundant resources such as rare earths, iron ore and oil.

Bayside suburbs around Melbourne's CBD as well as riverfront properties in at least five areas in Victoria are at risk to exposure of rising and severe flood waters, a coastal flooding report released on Monday by the Municipal Association of Victoria revealed.