Sydney  - Australia's Marina Dickson wowed a worldwide television audience of 1 billion and was praised by Pope Benedict XVI for her portrayal of the Virgin Mary in a re-enactment of Jesus Christ's final hours.

It was the high-point of the week-long World Youth Day celebrations in Sydney last year that drew 400,000 pilgrims from 170 countries.

Which is why the faithful were shocked Sunday when news broke that the beauteous 27-year-old had abandoned the Catholic Church and taken up with the evangelical Sydney-based Hillsong movement.

Sydney  - Australian John Allwood bro

Sydney  - The volunteers who battled Australia's worst forest fires were praised for their heroism Sunday at a service to remember the 209 who died in blazes north of Melbourne on February 7.

"Courage is a firefighter standing at the gates of hell, unflinching and unyielding," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told a gathering at a Melbourne sports stadium that included Britain's Princess Anne.

"For Black Saturday, what we saw at work was the worst of nature but the best of humanity."

Sydney, Feb 21 : Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin on Saturday said he had waited for 10 years to play for the country, and now the time has come to show some cricketing skills on the international level.

"I had waited ten years to play for Australia, and now time has come to do something on international level," Haddin said.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Haddin, who had broken his finger just before his Test debut, as saying that Test cricket is about playing more than cricket and it also tests the fitness of player as well.

Sydney, Feb. 21 : Neil D''Costa is a cricket coach with a difference. He has made a name for himself by pitching two youngsters into the Australian Test squad in the last five years - Michael Clarke and Phil Hughes, and now his own career is also undergoing a change.

He has been invited to coach at a cricket academy in Nagpur, India.

Flown out to meet the boss, the chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Shashank Manohar, he was astonished not only by the facilities, but also by Manohar's intelligence and vision.

Sydney, Feb. 21 : Noted cricket commentator Richie Benaud has revealed that the motivation for pulling up stumps was primarily a desire to see a new anchorman on Channel Nine for the 2010 Ashes series.

"There''s quite a good reason for that because it''s the Ashes year and it''s necessary for Channel Nine to get another commentator to come in for the Ashes series," Benaud said.

"You need to get commentators in and let them have a bit of experience. I''m retiring from commentary, but not from working 22 hours a day," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him, as saying.