Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Train commuters coming from the northern side of Sydney going into the central district and vice versa have been advised to squeeze in extended time in their travel itineraries after the Newcastle and Central Coast Lines got partially closed due to "urgent overhead wiring repairs."

An Australian mother was aghast as she saw her four-year-old child almost got kidnapped right before her very eyes.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has started working on a vaccine for the avian influenza A (H7N9) now gripping China, which has so far claimed five lives on Thursday. The number of people infected have likewise risen to 14 cases.

Lowering the Australian voting age to 16 years old won't bear any significant political results, a study made by the Australian National University (ANU) showed.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has auctioned off its Geelong refinery in Australia, sending anxieties to some 400 workers who risk to lose their jobs should the company fail to find a buyer.

With a current population of 1.4 billion, and still actively growing, not to mention an also increasing elderly population, China is getting headaches where to place its dead. Faced with the reality and problem of scarce land, the world's second-largest economy has started to pitch the option of sea burial to its citizens.

Still yet to be released to the global public, but Google's Project Glass is already being cloned by Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine.

The avian influenza virus H7N9 has claimed another life in China as well as increased the number of infected people. Statistics as of Wednesday now put the number of dead people at 3, and 9 the number of infected.

Toro Energy, potentially Western Australia's first uranium miner, is now looking for joint partners to push through its planned uranium mine project in Wiluna town in the northern Goldfields.

Frequent travelers of China Southern Airlines bound for Australian destinations Perth and Brisbane may now experience the comforts of its new A330-200 aircraft.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged the global populace to refrain from panicking over the new bird flu pandemonium in China even as the number of infected has added four new cases on Tuesday, taking the total of reported cases now to seven.

The water quality at South Australia's Adelaide beaches is now being questioned and might be subjected to quality testing following the surge of carcasses of dolphins, fish and penguins that have washed ashore in the recent days.

A very "fast-moving" band of rain has brought an unexpected large amount of rainfall, submerging Sydney's CBD in panic-gripping flash floods on Wednesday morning.

Hong Kong-listed China Foods Ltd, consumer food arm of Cofco, China's largest state-owned food conglomerate, is eyeing to purchase wineries located in Australia and the United States, in an acquisition that could be worth at least $20 million.

Combined naval forces from Australia and Canada have seized some 500kg of heroin valued at $100 million from a boat in what could be one of global maritime history's biggest multi-national naval operation. The bust operation happened somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

The numbers tell a story of China's growing air pollution menace. Claiming 1.2 million lives so far, the data from a new scientific study looking into the leading causes of death worldwide, China's latest figure accounted for 40 per cent of the world's total number of deaths.

What! The International Space Station has been invaded by an alien? People back on Earth got concerned for the team aboard the station, but eventually learned they were goofed because it was an invasion concocted no less than by renowned Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut and the commander of Expedition 35. Still all part of April Fool's day global phenomenon commemoration.

The fact the con announcement made no less by Kai-Fu Lee, former head of Google China, was reposted 30,000 times by early Monday evening, was a testament of the hunger the Chinese netizens have for the outside world. But alas they knew it late that Mr Lee had just played an April Fool's day prank on them, one that further fuelled the already contained anger and resentment against Chinese internet censorship.

Shares of Australia's largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM), tumbled in Sydney on Friday to a four-year low after the mining firm slashed by 10 per cent its annual production guidance output.

Less than a month, he was installed as the head of world's Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis is set to visit Brazil in July. He is also to visit his native Argentina, Chile and Uruguay in December, according to reports by the Argentinean press.

As far as world history goes, it must first take a death before anything takes the identity of that dead person. Streets get renamed after a person dies, to honor his contribution to the global civil society. But not in the case of less than a month old newly installed 266th pontiff, Pope Francis. A street in his native Argentina has just been renamed after his honor.

For his first ever Maundy Thursday mass as newly installed pontiff of the 1.2-billion strong Roman Catholic secular religion faith, Pope Francis has chosen to hold it at a youth prison wherein his 12 disciples during the re-enactment of the washing of the feet will be acted out by prisoners themselves.

The bushfire that raged through Dereel in western Victoria on Thursday, although fanned by the continuing dry hot summer, may have been intentionally staged up, according to arson detectives.

A fast-moving bushfire west of Melbourne has claimed several buildings, with at least 40 more houses under threat. Three firefighters and one resident have been reportedly injured.

In what seemed to be a further confirmation to his simple, humble and laidback lifestyle, one week old newly installed Pope Francis has shunned the Vatican Palace and instead has chosen to remain living in the Vatican guesthouse where he has actually been staying since coming to Rome to participate in the papal conclave that chose him to become its supreme spiritual pontiff.

Yes getting a henna tattoo is indeed pretty, especially if one gets it to mark memories of vacations at far away beaches. But careful. What could only meant as temporary application may actually induce permanent damage to the skin.

Issues on funding as well as where to house the future development bank to rival the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have stalled the member nations of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

Chinese netizens are now wild with fury after reports with accompanying photographs showing a 7-month-old baby forcibly aborted out of his mother's womb by Chinese family planning authorities went viral over the weekend.

It's only end of March but families, friends and Australian troops stationed at Afghanistan have been given an early Christmas treat as the Australian government closes down its main base at Tarin Kot by end of the year, effectively sending back home 1,000 troops.