A 114-year-old Californian woman was named the oldest woman living on Earth after Maria De Jesus of Portugal died Friday, Gerontology Research Group said.

Gertrude Baines was born in small town in south Atlanta in 1894 and now lives at Western Convalescent Hospital west of USC in Los Angeles.

Filipino cell phone users have truly developed a culture of texting after the Philippines retained its title as the text messaging capital of the world - sending a remarkable 1.39 billion text messages from a subscriber base of just 50 million.

At $0.024 per text message, local mobile phone firms obviously celebrated the new year with a bang.

An elderly man in Portugal takes revenge on his landlord by blowing up his apartment, causing part of the five-floor Lisbon block to collapse and catch fire.

Neighbors reported the 80-year-old man had threatened to pour petrol on his floor and set it alight after being evicted by his landlord.

It looks like England's heartache after their defeat at the World Cup has somehow extended to the European travel industry.

Still sulking after having their team lose their quarterfinals match against Portugal, many English tourists have decided to shun a holiday retreat under the Portugal sun, according to the UK travel industry.

As millions of soccer fans are watching the World Cup live from their homes around the world, English fans are drinking the host country of Germany dry behind the scenes in many of the country's pubs and bars.

Reports indicate that breweries are concerned they might not be able to meet the demand for beer by the time of the final game of the tournament.