Sydney - There's something stalking the suburbs of Sydney and it's not joblessness, homelessness or another of the nasty fellow travellers of the global financial crisis.

The 4 million people of Sydney were warned Friday that their children could be gobbled by leopards, panthers, cougars or other big cats that have escaped from zoos.

"I don't think it's necessarily an urban myth," Nathan Rees, the premier of New South Wales, said when commenting on reports that exotic animals were prowling the fringes of Australia's biggest city.

Rees, who is just two weeks into the job, was immediately accused of a scaremongering to distract attention from the scandals plaguing his government.

Sydney - The era of cheap debt that powered Macquarie Bank Ltd to becoming Australia's most admired and most profitable financial institution is over.

Shareholders were hoping Friday that a share-price rebound signalled it was not also game over for the nation's biggest home-grown investment bank.

There was hectic buying of a counter wallowing at a five-year low.

Sydney  - In the midst of a global financial crisis Sydney's most expensive house has changed hands.

A Japanese businessman Thursday agreed to pay back-to-the-wall financier David Coe 47 million Australian dollars (37 million US dollars) for Coolong, a harbourside mansion with its own sandy beach.

Coe, founder of struggling financial engineering firm Allco Finance, had the 4,000-square-metre property on the market for some months for 50 million dollars.

Sydney  - Australia's consumer watchdog warned carmakers and other heavy polluters Thursday to stop falsely presenting themselves as environmental angels.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chief Graeme Samuel said he would make sure the law caught up with companies that "give an overall impression to consumers that their product is environmentally friendly when it isn't."

He named and shamed US-based General Motors for claiming the Saab cars it sold in Australia were environmentally friendly vehicles.

"Every Saab is green," the advertising ran. "With carbon emissions neutral across the entire Saab range."

Sydney - A 77-year-old motorist who thought a passenger train would give way for her at a level crossing in Outback Australia was disabused when the venerable Ghan luxury locomotive shunted her car aside near Alice Springs on Thursday.

Sydney - Russia's incursion into neighbouring Georgia had prompted Australia to think twice about shipping uranium under a deal negotiated last year by the former conservative government, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Thursday.

Under a deal yet to be ratified, Australia agreed to sell Moscow uranium as long as it was used for power generation rather than for making nuclear weapons.