Sydney  - A second Australian was charged Wednesday with arson following forest fires north of Melbourne that claimed over 201 lives, razed 1,830 homes and left 7,500 homeless.

Police allege the 38-year-old man was spotted Tuesday throwing lighted cigarettes into dry grass near Myrtleford, where two people died in the February 7 blazes.

The fire brigade extinguished the fire and the man, whose name was withheld, was charged with two counts of arson.

Earlier this week a Melbourne court identified Brendan Sokaluk as the 39-year-old man charged over a forest fire in his hometown of Churchill that killed 21 people and burned out 36,000 hectares.

Sydney/Johannesburg, Feb. 17 : Australian captain Ricky Ponting wanted to learn all he could about the youngest member of the touring squad, Phillip Hughes, and would have been most surprised to hear that Hughes loves to breed and show chickens.

For Hughes, this activity is a passion, but he rarely talks about it.

"He used to show chooks, and he used to help me breed them. It is something he keeps very close to him, and it is something he can''t do in the city, but it was one of his hobbies," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted his father, Greg, as saying.

Sydney - An Australian firefighter was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle Tuesday, bringing the official death toll from the nation's biggest natural disaster to 201.

Fires were still burning north of Melbourne, where 3,500 volunteer firefighters backed by water-bombing aircraft were engaged in bringing the blazes under control.

The firefighter died near Marysville, where 100 people out of a population of 500 are believed to have perished in the February 7 conflagration.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said the heat was so intense that some bodies might never be identified.

Sydney, Feb. 16 : The Australian cricket team flew to South Africa today with captain Ricky Ponting claiming that the South Africans would be under more pressure than his side.

Ponting wasted no time in trying to turn pressure on to the hosts before the three-Test series that will determine the official No. 1 team in the Test rankings.

"There won''t be any added pressure on us, maybe on South Africa with that at the back of their minds," he said at Sydney airport.

Sydney, Feb. 15 : Australian wicketkeeper batsman Brad Haddin will lead the national team for the first time today in the absence of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.

With the squad leaving for South Africa on Monday, the Australian selectors have told Ponting to take a break, while his deputy Clarke is recovering from an injury to his back.

"It''s probably come about in the same way that me opening the batting has come about - with blokes being rested or injured," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Haddin as saying on Saturday.