Sydney, Jan. 13 : An Australian man known as Abu Asad trained with Lashkar-e-Taiba at a camp in Pakistan in 2001 after the terrorist attacks on the US on September
11, 2001, a man who met him at the camp told a Sydney court today.

Yong Ki Kwon told the trial of five Sydney men accused of conspiring to plan a terrorist act that he left his home in Virginia in the United States shortly after the attacks to defend Afghanistan against the expected US invasion.

Sydney, Jan. 12 : Australian Test opener Simon Katich does not believe the ongoing controversy surrounding former skipper Kevin Pietersen and former coach Peter Mooresa will damage England''s hopes of trying to win back the Ashes this year.

Katich, who has not looked back since being reinstated to national duty last year, and has amassed 461 runs at an average of 57.63 during the five Tests on home soil this summer, was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying: "It''s been huge news, but in saying that the Ashes are a long way away, they''ve got a lot of cricket to play and so have we."

Sydney - Dinara Safina carried momentum from last week's Hopman Cup final into her start at the Medibank International on Monday with a 6-2, 6-1 opening defeat of Romanian Sorana Cirstea.

Safina, who lost the teams final in Perth alongside her brother Marat Safin to Slovakia, dropped the first game against 18-year-old Cirstea but then opened up her firepower to sweep to victory.

"When I'm playing my best I know I can beat everybody," said the winner, who next takes on compatriot Vera Dushevina, who crushed Aussie wild card Emelyn Starr 6-0, 6-1.

Sydney  - Using tools used to be a distinguishing feature between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. Then monkeys were spotted cracking nuts with stones.

More recently, birds have been seen using sticks to trick termites out of their mounds. Dolphins are the latest to join the ranks of the tool users.

Janet Mann, a biologist at Georgetown University in the United States, has catalogued the antics of the bottle nosed dolphin colony at Shark Bay on Australia's west coast.

Sydney  - Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong began the Australian countdown to his much-heralded return to professional cycle racing Monday well away from the public gaze.

Armstrong, 37, comes out of retirement to compete in the star- studded field gathering in Adelaide for the Tour Down Under stage race.

South Australian Tourism Commission head Andrew McEvoy said the cancer survivor was whisked away from Adelaide airport to a secret location because of the huge international interest in his return.

Sydney  - An Australian schoolgirl dragged under the water twice by a five-metre great white shark won high praise Monday from her saviour.

"She came up and she was fighting the shark and hitting it and screaming, 'Help me, help me, help me'," Syb Mundy, 33, told Tasmania's Examiner a day after the attack. "She gave me the strength to stay there with her in the water when I saw the way she was fighting it off."

Hannah Mighall, 13, is in a Hobart hospital being treated for gashes to her leg.