Sydney - A volunteer firefighter acclaimed a hero after

Sydney, Feb. 12 : James Hopes might not have given any stupendous performance in recent Chappel-Hadlee One-day series against New Zealand, but his simple and straight forward approach to the game, has captain Ricky Ponting showering all praise on the all-rounder.

Ponting praised Hopes particularly for his match winning performance against New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee series-levelling win on Tuesday in Adelaide.

Hopes took two wickets for 37 runs from his ten overs.

Sydney  - Unemployment in Australia rose to 4.8 per cent in January from 4.5 per cent in December, official figures released Thursday showed.

Economists had predicted as many as 17,000 jobs would be lost, but 1,200 jobs were created with a steep fall in full-time employment was outweighed by a rise in part-time employment.

The unemployment rate rose despite the increase in jobs because the number of people looking for work - what economists call the participation rate - went up.

Sydney  - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 42-billion-Australian-dollar (27-billion-US-dollar) spending programme was voted down in the upper house of the federal parliament on Thursday.

The opposition Liberal Party voted against the package and Labor failed to win the support of independent MPs it needed to get the legislation through both houses of parliament.

Rudd said the massive stimulus package would put the government deeply into debt but was necessary to stop the faltering economy from falling into recession.

Sydney, Feb. 11 : A research has found that Australia could be giving shelter to hundreds of war criminals from conflict zones as diverse as East Timor and Afghanistan.

According to the Daily Telegraph, there suspected war criminals could have entered as refugees or visitors from former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Rwanda, East Timor, Afghanistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Lebanon. Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Tibet, Nigeria. Chile, Iran, Iraq and India.

Sydney, Feb. 11 : New South Wales batting dynamo David Warner may have been dropped from the Australia squad, but the cricket world still holds an abundance of opportunities for him.

On Sunday, Warner is expected to play for his country again in a Twenty20 match against New Zealand, and if not, will make his first-class debut against Victoria.

Even with young sensation Phil Hughes not playing as he prepares to leave with the national squad for South Africa the following day, NSW coach Matthew Mott claims there are an ample number of options to partner Phil Jaques.

"I think if David was to come in it would be in the middle order somewhere," Mott said.