Vittorio Hernandez

The Philippines was once tagged the texting capital of the world. On Tuesday, Time bestowed on the Southeast Asian nation another world title - the selfie global capital - on Makati City, the country's financial centre.

Another wedge seems to have been placed between Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart and her prodigal son John Hancock. Mr Hancock was appointed on Tuesday as non-executive director of Volta Mining, a competitor miner of Hancock Prospecting owned by the mining mogul.

Eight-division title holder Manny Pacquiao started the second phase of his training for his April 12 date with American boxer Timothy Bradley at MGM Grand in Las Vegas for their anticipated rematch.

The theory that the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 is a victim of terrorism appears no longer credible, according to the Interpol, because of the discovery of the users of the two stolen passports.

The Australian share market closed flat on Tuesday, despite another big fall in the iron ore price. The commodity plunged nine per cent to close below US$105 / dry tonne within the last session. However our mining players managed to brush off the big drop after falling heavily during yesterday's trade. A gain in financial stocks helped the market close steady, with the All Ords down just one point to 5429.3.

The ASX 200 started with modest gains on Tuesday, notwithstanding the weaker finish seen in US markets overnight. At its best levels in the first hour of trade the index was ahead by 11 points, although that lead faded quickly. Patchy improvements for the financials helped the market hold its ground initially.

We are currently inundated with influential macro events: China data; Russian-Ukrainian tensions; sluggish Japanese data; indifferent US data; steel demand in China and the slide into bear markets of industrial commodities.

In US economic data, the employment trends index rose from 115.99 to 116.39 in February.

Flappy Bird had been shot in the air by its Vietnamese creator, paving the way for the return of the original avian-led online game in a new version.

A New Zealand man changed his name to a 99-character name after he lost a drunken bet in a poker game. His new name is Full Metal Havok More Sexy N Intelligent Than Spock And All The Superheroes Combined With Frostnova.

Because authorities are still clueless what really happened to the Boeing 777 jet of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, they are now considering other explanations behind the mysterious disappearance of the ill-fated plane.

In spite of the Vine prohibition on porn content, the video-sharing site said it would still allow nudity if it is for educational use. But who will determine what is lewd and what is educational?

Air Canada is studying the possibility of hiking its plane fares due to the country's weak currency, including charging for initial checked luggage.

Although Thailand appears to be a haven for stolen passports based on recent accounts of Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel, a lot of Australians too had lost their passports in 2013.

The Australian share market started the trading week firmly in the red today, following a sharp fall in the iron ore price which weighed on mining stocks. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) closed down 46.2 points or 0.8 per cent to 5430.8 after rising 1.1 per cent over the course of last week.

The Australian sharemarket is having its worst day since early February, partly driven by a fall in China's monthly trade surplus and a weaker iron ore price. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.7 per cent, with the mining sector the the biggest loser. This is only the sixth time in 23 sessions that the local market is losing ground.

Thailand is a haven for passport thieves. It turns out that it was not only the passport of 37-year-old Italian Luigi Maraldi which was stolen in the popular beach resort of Phuket and used to board the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

In February, many people believed a hoax story that a Chicago teen killed his brother for getting a high score on Flappy Birds. The story seemed so credible because in real life there have been incidents of people killing their own siblings or relatives over winged creatures. This time, it's for real. ABS-CBN reports that a 17-year-old Filipino killed his own grandmother, who raised him from childhood because his parents are separated, for interrupting his Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) game ...

We start the week on a downbeat note with a raft of disappointing headlines from the weekend putting Asia on the back foot. While non-farm payrolls surprised significantly to the upside on Friday, disappointing China data, escalating Russia/Ukraine concerns and the missing Malaysian aircraft have all contributed to a sombre mood.

In US economic data, non-farm payrolls (employment) rose by 175,000 in February, ahead of forecasts for a gain of 149,000 jobs. The unemployment rate rose slightly from 6.6% to 6.7%. Average earnings grew by 0.4%. The trade deficit expanded from US$38.7 billion to US$39.1 billion in January, just ahead of forecasts.

It has been one month exactly since Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen pulled out the very popular online game Flappy Bird from the Google Play store.

The Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Marcos Maidana May 3 bout continued to generate interest among boxing fans as tickets sold as of Saturday reached more than 14,700 out of 16,000 seats according to fight promoter Richard Schaefer.

A device that would make women achieve orgasm with the mere push of a button would soon become available in the market. The gadget uses electrodes that are attached to a woman's spine to trigger an orgasm using remote control.

Poking a hole in a condom and getting the girlfriend pregnant because of the prank is considered a form of sexual assault, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday.

China is optimistic that by the end of 2014, it would have signed a free trade agreement with Australia. Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said in a press briefing on Friday that the prospects of inking the deal as soon as possible were optimistic.

Although the Malaysian government is not dismissing the possible that the cause of Flight 370's disappearance is terrorism after it was revealed that two passengers used stolen Italian and Austrian passports, rescuers are studying another angle.

Is the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 jet a victim of terrorism? That angle is one possibility that has come up after the Foreign Ministry of Italy said that one passenger listed on the flight manifest, Italian Luigi Maraldi, is not on board the plane since his passport was stolen in Thailand in August 2013.

Passengers of the Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing on early Saturday while flying over South China Sea included telecom executives, metal traders, beach goers, two babies, calligraphers and a Queensland couple who are empty nesters. The Sydney Morning Herald identified the Aussie empty nesters as Catherine and Robert Lawton, 54 and 57, who are flying to different parts of the world after their three adult daughters have left home.

The ill-fated Malaysian Airlines plane is still missing, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday. He quoted the confirmation from the Vietnamese Navy that it has not yet located the wreckage of the jet in its territorial waters to belie a previous report that the plane crashed into the South China Sea.