Sydney, Jan. 25 : Former Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath has described being a finalist for this year''s Australian of the Year as a "huge honour".

The NSW Australian of the Year said he was just trying to get through his life and make the most of it in the same way as anyone would.

"To be acknowledged in this way, it''s something very special. I''m sure there''s a lot of other people out there who probably deserve it more than me," Fox Sports quoted him, as saying.

Sydney, Jan 24 : Australian Open 2006 runner up Marcos Baghdatis has said it’s a “pain in the arse” that the event organisers keep making him play midnight matches.

Incredibly, a year after featuring in the infamous dawn showdown with Lleyton Hewitt, Baghdatis was again ordered onto court after 11.30 p. m. for another third-round encounter on against American Mardy Fish.

Baghdatis lost to Hewitt in an epic five-setter that finished at 4.34 a. m. in the morning.

Sydney  - A 20-year-old Malay

Sydney  - Only five of the 50 whales that beached on an Australian island are likely to survive, the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service said Friday.

The whales came ashore on Perkins Island, near Smithton, on Thursday and have defied frantic efforts to coax them back out into the Tasman Sea.

Parks spokeswoman Liz Wren said sandbars around Perkins Island were hampering the rescue efforts.

More than 250 whales have died in three separate strandings in Tasmania's north-west in the past two months.

Sydney  - Australian stocks tumbled Friday on news from Beijing that growth in China's economy had almost halved to 6.8 per cent in the year to December.

The ASX 200 lost 144 points, or 4.1 per cent, to 3,342. China's National Bureau of Statistics put out the figures that showed the likelihood of the first economic reversal in 16 years.

"They're worse than the market expectations and they confirm that the Chinese boom that has supercharged the Australian economy over the past five to seven years is receding rapidly," Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said.

Sydney - A Romanian tourist lost for six days in the 40-degree heat of Australia's Red Centre used his mobile phone to ring home and arrange a helicopter rescue, news reports said Thursday.

He set off last week on a 45-kilometre trek from Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, but ran out of water within three days of his Northern Territory trip.

He turned back and rang home when he was in mobile range, giving his coordinates from his Global Positioning System. Australian police were alerted and a helicopter dispatched.