Melbourne, Oct. 15 : The Supreme Court of the Australian state of Victoria has been told that a senior al Qaeda member had told a Melbourne Muslim convert that Osama Bin Laden "wanted a white boy" to carry out a terrorist act.

Joseph Terrence Thomas met senior member Khaled bin Attash just three weeks before he tried to leave Pakistan in 2003. According to The Australian, the court heard that it was at this meeting that Attash told Thomas and some other men he would pay 10,000 Australian dollars to anyone who committed a terrorist act.

Melbourne, October 15 : Aussie researchers will soon be exploring the possibility of installing solar panels in people’s clothing to generate electricity.

The study will be one of the research projects that are being funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), an agency of the federal government.

The funding will be used to study everything from protecting the Tasmanian Devil from the deadly facial tumour disease to maintaining public health during heatwaves.

There will also be a study about the interactions between humans and robots.

Melbourne, Oct 15: Men have invaded ladies'' fashion domain a little further, for after ''man-bras'' and ''manscara'' the latest must have for men is "Mantyhose."

"Mantyhose" or pantyhose for men have become a popular sheer garment from truck drivers to cowboys.

A self confessed male hosiery-wearer Harisnya is so passionate about the issue he set up e-MANcipate, a website aiming to "accelerate the acceptance of male pantyhose as a regular clothing item".

The site offers men a step-by-step guide on how to wear pantyhose without damaging it.

Melbourne, Oct. 14 : Air investigators have blamed a faulty computer system for the terrifying mid-air plunge of a Qantas flight between Singapore and Perth last week.

A fault in the Airbus A330-300''s air data inertial reference system is believed to have led to erroneous information being sent to its flight control computer, causing the autopilot to shut down.

The aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet when the fault occurred, causing it to descend up to 650 feet in seconds.

Melbourne, October 14 : While most Aussies believe that U. S. Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin can’t run the world''s largest economy, the one thing they would love to see her as, is their barbecue mate.

This suggestion is based on a survey wherein people the former beauty queen was voted a more popular barbecue guest than her running mate John McCain and their Democrat rivals, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The poll, focused on the upcoming US election, revealed that about 44 per cent of the 2663 people surveyed would love to invite Palin around for a barbecue.

Melbourne, Oct 14 : Educations chiefs have expressed concerns over the increasing "inappropriate sexual behaviour" in primary school students in Adelaide, Australia.

According to the SA Police figures obtained by The Advertiser, 42 sexual assault offences were reported in schools last financial year with the crimes including rape, attempted rape, unlawful sexual intercourse and indecent assault.

A total of 204 such offences have been reported in the past four years with 15 sexual assault offences during "core" school hours on Monday to Friday between 8.30am to
4pm and a total of 78 during those hours since 2004-05.