Sydney  - The finger-paintings of a 2-year-old would normally be praised for their creativity by doting parents and get a place under a fridge magnet along with shopping lists, bills and postcards.

Aelita Andre's parents have managed to convince a Melbourne gallery that their tot's acrylics deserve a solo exhibition next month, news reports said Sunday.

Australian national broadcaster ABC also said that art critics are bitterly divided over the honour Brunswick Street Gallery owner Mark Jamieson has bestowed on the daughter of Russian-born photographer Nikka Kalashnikova and husband Michael Andre.

Sydney  - A 15-year-old boy surfing with his father became the third shark attack victim in Sydney in as many weeks when he was mauled at picture-perfect Avalon Beach on Sunday.

"He's got extensive bite wounds and lacerations," a spokesman for Royal North Shore Hospital said. "He has severe injuries but I don't think at this stage they're life-threatening."

Nick Miller from the Avalon Beach Surf Lifesaving Club said the pair were the only surfers in the water when the boy was gored just after dawn.

Sydney - The global financial crisis and the battle in Afghanistan would feature strongly when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd meets US President Barack Obama in Washington next month, officials said Friday.

The March 24 tryst in the White House would be Rudd's first meeting with Obama.

Their meeting would come a week before the summit of the Group of 20 (G20) April 2 in London, which both leaders are scheduled to attend.

The prime minister also attended the December summit in Washington of the G20, which consists of 19 of the world's largest economies and the European Union.

Sydney  - Major fires were burning Friday across the southern Australian state of Victoria as more than 3,000 firefighters tried to hold containment lines with high temperatures and strong winds intensifying the bushfire danger.

More than 200 schools, childcare centres, and many national parks and tourist attractions in south-west Victoria and along the picturesque Great Ocean Road have been closed because of the fire threat.

Sydney, Feb 27 : People vying for Tourism Queensland''s Best Job In the World have branded the campaign worst run contest ever after repeated website failures prevented them from submitting their applications.

Fifty job seekers, out of more than 34,000 applicants around the globe, have been shortlisted for the 150,000-dollar stint as `island caretaker' on the Great Barrier Reef, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

However, blog sites and Internet forums have been buzzing with complaints since the weekend, when the Tourism Queensland website crashed on the eve of the competition deadline.

Sydney  - Fifty fortunate applicants have come a step closer to the dream job of caretaker on a paradise island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Nearly 35,000 people applied for the position with applicants from 200 countries led by 11,565 job seekers from the United States, followed by Canada (2,791), Britain
(2,262) and Australia (2,064).

"I think we're safe in saying that this is the most sought-after job in the world," Queensland state Tourism Minister Desley Boyle told the local media.