Vittorio Hernandez

Delays continue to hound Brazil just over a week before the first game is held on June 12, particularly the construction of football stadiums where the matches would be held.

Rapes continue to be committed against females and males as well. Headlines over the weekend include the sexual assault of two teenage Indians who were gang raped by seven men and hanged from a tree and rape of a Malaysian teen by 38 men. To help fight sexual abuse, several devices had been made available in the market the past few years.

Techies are fond of subjecting newly released gadgets to a torture tests to find out how these devices could withstand the unexpected and also to test claims of manufacturers. However, in some of the tests, it was the tester whose credibility is placed under question for the manner the torture tests were carried out which could be dangerous if gadget users would imitate them after watching the torture test on video sharing sites.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will finally meet this week during the PM's 9-hour stopover at Batam Island in Indonesia. It would be the first face-to-face encounter after the spying row in late 2013.

An Instagram post by Pacquiao's rival for the pound-for-pound king title over the weekend would cause boxing fans probably to ask if the pounding that unbeaten American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr got from his May 3 bout versus Argentinean boxer Marcos Maidana could have affected his brain.

The world will witness a monarch retire as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced on Monday the abdication of King Juan Carlos. The 76-year-old king who assumed the crown in 1975 after the death of dictator Francisco Franco is passing the crown due to weak health.

Local stocks managed to rise for the first time in three sessions. Promising Chinese data on Sunday and a better end to the week across U.S. markets acted as catalysts. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose by just shy of 0.5 per cent, closing near the highest level of the day.

Despite a weaker start the Australian sharemarket is creeping higher at lunch. Better than expected Chinese data out yesterday together with a firmer end to the week in the U.S. are helping local stocks. The market is being held back most by the miners, with continued weakness in the iron ore price pushing the sector lower.

US equities extended their gains on Friday, with the S&P printing yet another record high of 1924. Once again the S&P closed at the highs of the session and this is a positive sign heading into the new week. There are plenty of key events on the economic calendar this week that could really set up equities for solid gains. Firstly, we've already seen positive signs from China's manufacturing PMI reading. We also have the ECB policy decision, which is widely tipped to deliver stimulus. Whil...

In US economic data, personal income rose by 0.3% in April, in line with forecasts. But consumption fell by 0.1%, short of forecasts tipping a 0.2% increase. The Chicago purchasing managers index rose from 63.0 to 65.5 in May, above the median forecast of 61.0. Consumer sentiment rose from 81.8 to 81.9 in May, short of the 82.5 median forecast.

For the second time, Fairfax Media closed its board room door to majority shareholder and mining billionaire Gina Rinehart. The media company opted to replace retiring director Sam Morgan with advertising executive and TV personality Todd Sampson.

British authorities held over the weekend the deportation order for 31-year-old Nigerian migrant Afusat Saliu back to her homeland. She and her two daughters, 2-year-old Rashidat and 4-year-old Bassy, were supposed to be forcibly sent back to the African nation on Thursday evening which she opposed because of fear that genital mutilation would be forced on her daughters.

A global gold-trading platform is being planned in the pilot Shanghai free-trade zone, and ANZ Bank wants to play a role in it. The trading platform is seen as a potential challenger to the London and New York exchanges.

Young people being addicted to devices is a consequence of the technology age as the mobile phone, iPad, laptop or iPod became part of the growing up experience of the millennials.

To prevent a recurrence of embarrassing photos of the Duchess of Cambridge coming out in media, Buckingham Palace hired a female minder who would accompany Kate Middleton in her trips.

Congratulatory messages flooded Twitter on Sunday morning after Filipino boxer Nonito Donaire Jr won over South African pugilist Simpiwe Vetyeka in a technical decision at the The Venetian in Macau.

Money talks, even for multi-titled boxing champions who swear they will never deal with a particular boxing promoter. UAE fight promoter Prince Amir Shafipur wants to prove that right by promising on Friday that he would make possible what Muhammad Ali has been calling for. That is the Dream Match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather which the prince vowed to bring to Dubai in 2015.

Mount Sangeang Api in Indonesia erupted on Friday, spewing ashes in the air between 20,000 and 50,000 feet in the air and up to 15 kilometres across. The ash plume swept towards Alice Springs in Australia. The eruption caused Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia to cancel all flights between Australia and Bali. Among the cancelled route were Bali-bound planes from Melbourne, Darwin, Adelaide and East Kimberley. Also cancelled were Jetstar Asia trips between Bali and Singapore.

After posting angry Instagram videos over his recent brawl at Fatburger with rapper T.I., American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr decided on Thursday to show his happy and content life. He posted this time a video of himself immersed in a hot tub aboard his yacht while cruising Miami, which was reposted several times over on YouTube.

The Australian share market was sold off today, meaning that the gains for the month were virtually wiped out. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) closed lower by 25.4 points or 0.5 per cent today to 5473.8.

Tyrone Bowd, a 24-year-old Australian, has a big problem that needs immediate surgery. Otherwise, his life could be endangered. Bowd is suffering from scrotal lymphedema, diagnosed a year ago, which caused his scrotum to swell as big as a watermelon and keeps on growing that it is already down to his knees.

The Australian sharemarket is losing ground for the second straight day but for just the second time in a fortnight at lunch. Continued weakness in the iron ore price (Australia's biggest export) is placing the miners under pressure. U.S. markets managed to rise overnight despite recording its first quarterly economic contraction in three years overnight. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.2 per cent.

With the threat from the Opposition to block the proposed budget for 2014-15, Prime Minister Tony Abbott had reached out to incoming crossbench senators to assure more support for the document.

The S&P rallied to yet another record high, despite US Q1 GDP being revised lower to a 1% contraction. Not only did the S&P print a record high, it also closed at a record high of 1,920. This is a very encouraging sign heading into the weekend as it shows the momentum finished firmly to the upside. Unemployment claims for the week dropped sharply to 300,000, which was much better than the expected 321,000. This essentially took the four-week average down to 311,000 and sets next week's non-fa...

In US economic data, March quarter GDP was revised lower from +0.1% to a -1% annual contraction. It was expected to decline by -0.5%. The result was affected by the adverse weather conditions earlier in the year. US pending home sales increased by 0.9% to 97.8 in April, mildly below expectations of 1% increase. Sales are down 9.2% on a year ago. US jobless claims fell by 27,000 to 300,000 last week.

Unlike Floyd Mayweather Jr who is embroiled in a lady problem after rapper T.I. engaged Money May in a burger joint brawl out of suspicion the boxer is sleeping with his wife, Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao is giving way to a female celebrity.

The brawl between American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr and rapper T.I. continues to be the talk of the town as both camps released Instagram videos.

Brazilian authorities reminded World Cup tourists not to buy iguanas, parrots and other wildlife as their souvenir of the FIFA soccer matches hosted by the South American nation. About 600,000 foreign tourists and 3.1 million Brazilians are expected to converge in 12 World Cup cities in Brazil for the tournament which starts June 12.

Charles Powell, a condom designer, is offering a new design for the male contraceptive. Unlike other new designs which offer mostly new materials, his design trims the rubber sheath by placing a cover only on the glans of the penis