Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Pope Francis has made his yet most radical move in his one-month tenure as the 266th supreme spiritual pontiff when he created over the weekend an eight-man advisory panel to check and review the efficiency and perhaps debate the existence of the Roman Curia.

The new avian influenza A H7N9 virus gripping China has spread out to other parts of the country, yet disease experts continued to downplay an outbreak, claiming it still "is nothing out of the ordinary."

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) on Monday said it will tender before the federal government's review of workplace laws a plea lobbying for Aussie employees to be given the right and access to more flexible working hours.

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has expressed concern the new avian influenza A H7N9 virus could spread outside China and potentially infiltrate the rest of the world.l

It was a party of mixed reactions when Woodside Petroleum announced on Friday morning it is no longer pursuing its planned $40 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Kimberley region.

After much rumour explosion, Australian tech start-up We Are Hunted has confirmed it had been bought by social media giant Twitter, as the latter prepares to launch its music app this weekend.

A truck has collided into the Perth-Kalgoorlie pipeline early Friday morning, rendering damages of at least $100,000 to the water line. But the management of the water line assured residents there won't be any disruption to the supply of water.

In a show of alliance rarely seen in any global front, the labour union movement at Australia's NSW has joined forces with the state's local business groups to support the creation of what could be Sydney's second airport at Badgerys Creek Rd.

Australian police have busted a drug ring network, capturing at least 90 people, during an inter-state operation that covered south-east Queensland.

The number of unemployed Australians has contradicted surprise previous gains as the latest figures showed the March jobless rate figure jumped to 5.6 per cent. It was the country's highest in 3½ years.

After the Mardi Gras organisers and the gay community campaigned to keep it permanent, the iconic rainbow crossing on Oxford Street at Sydney has been eventually ripped off.

India's federal government is planning to commission at least four studies to aid the country achieve its carbon emission reduction cuts as a prelude to the new global climate agreement expected to be signed in 2015.

China's financial centre Shanghai has confirmed it will start its carbon emissions trading this coming month of June. Although no specific date was provided, it made sure the system will be up and running before the month ends.

Tropical Cyclone Victoria, in just an overnight, has morphed into a Category Three system, as it further packed in strength off the north-west coast of Western Australia.

For as long as your internet is connected to servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff, you can pretty well imagine Shodan has seen its content and presumably accessed it. Suffice to say, the Internet technology has gone creepier by the minute.

Charges of bribery and illegal entry await the 12 Chinese fishers on board a fishing vessel that ran aground in the Philippines' Tubbataha Reef Natural Park, the latest mishap in a span of just two months, even as park rangers admitted its monitoring radar was off at the time of the accident.

Cancer has become the leading cause of deaths in China's Beijing, and by 2020, from 2.5 million annually, the cancer-related deaths in the world's second-largest economy will balloon to 3 million per year.

You think you got lucky plucking out those giant, supersized crabs from the ocean. Think again. Those oh-so-delicious crabs didn't get to that size because they were healthy. They got big thanks to the carbon dioxide (CO2) and other toxic emissions that come out of the world's too many power plants, factories and vehicles that settle in the ocean.

Just when the Philippines thought the worst is over yet for its endangered Tubbataha Reef, it faced yet another unfortunate incident on Monday night when a Chinese fishing vessel ran aground in the treasured marine sanctuary.

International transatlantic flights are inclined to face more and nastier experiences of turbulence as carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise and render alterations to the global weather phenomenon.

Australian doctors have advised residents, particularly the very young and the elderly, to already have their shots as they forecast a severe flu season for this winter.

As the number of deaths due to the new avian influenza A (H7N9) reached seven in China, a member of the country's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has said the current health scare now gripping the world's second-largest economy is but a scheme planted by the United States.

Facebook has started rolling out a paid messaging service in UK, charging users from a low 71p to as much as £11 to send messages to people outside their circle of friends. The highest rate is afforded when touching base with celebrities, depending on how famous they are.

Australia, known as having some of the best scientists and research infrastructure in the world, has unfortunately lagged behind, or so it seems. Latest data released by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) showed the number of clinical trials that Australia undertakes has fallen for the fourth consecutive time in five years.

A week after the nation was first reported to be suffering from what could be a pandemic, China's stocks have been hit, slumping 10 per cent versus the high posted in February, as the number of infected rose to 21 on Sunday.

Local police in Olongapo City, a province in northern Philippines, are doing round-the-clock investigation work to gather evidence that could point to the motive of the death of an Australian beach resort general manager who was killed at gunpoint to his temple on Friday night.

Australia and Japan have finally reached an agreement on how to go about the exchange of their respective agricultural products as negotiations for a bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries continued.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Malaysia has created a committee body to monitor the rare earths processing facility of Australian miner Lynas Corporation in line with the latter's compliance to the 31 recommendations with regards to its temporary operating license (TOL).

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has ordered the Bank of Queensland to refund a total of $12 million to some 6,000 customers following the over computation of interest on home loans due to a system error.