Sydney  - Money can't buy love, it is said, but can it happiness?

In these times of economic gloom, the Australian government has spent 1 million Australian dollars (647,000 US dollars) on "happiness workshops" for its bureaucrats and teachers, much to the chagrin of taxpayers, news reports said Thursday.

Sydney  - Paul Camilleri of Sydney's plush Restaurant Sojourn is offering a three-course lunch for 30 Australian dollars (19 US dollars).

"It'll be more bistro food, but I don't make any money anyway," he said.

Credit-crunch lunches are all the rage in corporate Australia, where the table talk is of job security not annual bonuses.

The McDonald's down the road has never been busier. But it's hard to say whether those who used to slide their chairs in at Sojourn are the same ones queuing for quarter-pounders.

Sydney  - Firefighters were gearing up as soaring temperatures and strong winds predicted for Friday increased the bushfire threat for communities in the Australian state of Victorian.

Ten major bushfires were still burning across the southern state, where wildfires in February claimed 210 lives, destroyed 2,029 homes, displaced 7,500 people, blackened hundreds and thousands of hectares of forest and farmland, and killed livestock and native animals.

Sydney  - Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett will lead his former rock band, Midnight Oil, at a star-studded benefit concert to be held in aid of Victoria's bushfire victims in Melbourne on March 14.

Garrett will reunite with his band for the concert, which will include American rockers Kings of Leon and iconic Australian band Hunters And Collectors, amongst others at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Midnight Oil last played at the WaveAid tsunami fundraiser at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2005.

Sydney - Fortescue Metals Group Ltd said Tuesday that Chinese steel maker Hunan Valin Iron and Steel will pay 558 million Australian dollars (357 million US dollars) for a 16.5-per-cent stake in the Australian iron ore miner.

Under what's known as a stand-still agreement, Valin will undertake to hold no more than 17.5 per cent of Fortescue.

Valin will buy 225 million newly issued shares and buy 275 million Fortescue shares from US-based hedge fund Harbinger Capital.

Sydney, Feb. 24 : New South Wales Cricket has decided to snub batting tyro David Warner for the team's upcoming Sheffield match against Queensland, putting a question mark on his future at NSW.

The rookie blaster, who thrilled crowds after making his one-day and Twenty20 debuts for Australia this summer, still cannot get a start for the Blues'' four-day side and has yet to play first-class cricket with only one game remaining after the Queensland clash this season.

He has already received a Cricket Australia contract this year.