ECONOMY

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) deputy governor and operations head, Geoff Bascand, said digital currencies may one day replace cash. In his recent speech before the Royal Numismatic Society in Wellington, he described digital currencies like Bitcoin as a challenge to the form and use of money.

The state of health of a woman during pregnancy very much determines the size of her newborn baby.

HIV home-testing kits, similar to the pregnancy tests, will soon be made available in Australia after the federal government lifted a ban restricting their manufacture and sale.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued what could be its highest alert to warn residents of Okinawa and the rest of the country to relocate to higher grounds in anticipation of massive wind damages and localized flooding brought by super typhoon Neoguri.

At least three people have died, among them a newborn boy, after a strong 6.9-magnitude shook the border between Guatemala and Mexico on Monday. The temblor injured 32 others, damaged dozens of buildings, toppled down power lines as well as triggered landslides.

In US economic data, the Employment Trends index rose from 119.03 to 119.62 in June. In European economic data, German production fell by 1.8% in May, the biggest reduction in two years and well below market expectations.

German airline Lufthansa will be entering into a joint venture with Air China that will see the two airlines share revenue on certain routes in Asia by selling each other's flight tickets. The routes are situated between China and Europe.

Crews of power supply utility firms on Monday are racing to restore electricity to more than 250,000 homes and businesses groping in the dark in Atlantic Canada after tropical storm Arthur lashed through the area on Saturday morning.

The Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia has developed a new breed of apple, dubbed as "black apple" that can rival the Pink Lady as world's most popular apple.

Institutions or individuals fond of sending spam mail to Canadian electronic mailboxes should ought to think twice sending those missives or otherwise risk getting sued in court for millions of dollars. Canada's new anti-spam law (CASL) already took effect on Tuesday.

Residents in the U.S.' North Carolina coast as well as Canada's Nova Scotia area have been advised to take necessary precautions as tropical storm Arthur continued to gain strength, potentially hitting hurricane level by Thursday.

Canada could be seeing soon on its many runways its first ultra low-cost air carrier as Canada Jetlines Ltd. announced plans of raising $10-million to be able to enlist on the TSX Venture Exchange.

It was a busy night on the US economic calendar with the ADP jobs report and comments from Fed chair Janet Yellen hitting the wires. The ADP non-farm employment change came in at a much-better-than-expected 281,000, smashing estimates of 207,000. This saw expectations ramp up as we head into the official non-farm payrolls reading later today. With the July 4thIndependence day holiday on Friday, the data is being released on Thursday instead of the traditional Friday. The market is expecting to s...

Federal Reserve Chair Yellen delivered a speech at an IMF conference in Washington. She believes that raising interest rates to fight asset bubbles would be a bad idea, instead she argued better regulation would mitigate financial risk.

Rumours of an impending shakeup has forced Ernst von Freyberg, chairman of embattled Vatican Bank, to step down ahead of confirmations, Italian media reported earlier.

Concerns of radiation from Fukushima affecting Alaskan seafood have been ruled out by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Defying odds, US space agency NASA will relaunch today a satellite that will track the global warming-inducing carbon dioxide levels and its effects around the world.

Although China's red-hot economy has slowed down, the Asian giant is still the envy of many western economies that suffered contraction after the global financial crisis in 2008, while Beijing was logging double-digit GDP growth rates. However, a report by Bloomberg released on Monday indicated that the price of success of China's economic miracle is overworked workers that some were literally dying on their work stations.

The housing affordability across New Zealand has worsened, according to Massey University’s Home Affordability Report. The new report reveals the price of houses in the country will continue to rise in the coming years.

At least 200,000 are now displaced in Paraguay, forced to flee their homes after floods caused by incessant torrential rains inundated the Paraguay and Parana rivers.

Relaxed but looking tired, Pope Francis has resumed to his post as spiritual pontiff of the 1.2-billion strong Roman Catholic faith, appearing on Sunday at a two-hour-long Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Concerns are growing for the pope's medical situation as he has been abruptly cancelling appointments lately, or at least four times in the last seven months.

An international ratings agency has warned Australia of its "overheating" housing market despite the country's "very high" economic strength.

An international ratings agency has warned Australia of its "overheating" housing market despite the country's "very high" economic strength.

The tallest skyscraper in the Southern Hemisphere would soon rise in Victoria, Australia. The 100-storey tower will stand 319 metres tall upon completion.

Before the still missing ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, there was Asiana Airlines Flight 214 on July 2013. On Tuesday, authorities from the National Transportation Safety Board said the jetliner crashed and killed three people at San Francisco International Airport in 2013 because of human error on the part of its pilots.

Australian owners of light vehicles are now mandated to adhere to new emissions standards that could help the country achieve a year's worth cut of carbon pollution of 59 tonnes by 2030, the Climate Change Authority said on Thursday.

U.S. President Barack Obama may have the most number of followers on online social networking and microblogging service Twitter, but he is not the portal's most influential world leader. Pope Francis is.

In February 2014, Australia's joblessness rate hit 6 per cent, the highest rate since 1997. Employment experts believe that by identifying the hot jobs over the next five years, Aussies could help prevent their becoming unemployed since they could initiate steps this early to shift careers or learn a new trade.

A dentist from Maryland is fuming mad and will sue British Airways after the airline made an erroneous entry into its airline booking system that flew the passenger and his companion to the southern Caribbean island of Grenada, instead of the ancient city of Granada, Spain.