Sydney, Mar. 16 : New Zealand''s women cricketers face their most important match in four years against India tomorrow, eyeing revenge against the side who eliminated them from the previous World Cup.

A spot in Sunday''s World Cup final against unbeaten England beckons for the winners of the Super Six match at North Sydney Oval, after Australia tumbled from contention when India upset them by 16 runs at the weekend.

Sydney - An 11-year-old girl missing from her home in Australia's far north is likely to have been taken by a crocodile, Northern Territory police said Monday.

The girl went missing Sunday when she was swimming with friends in a Darwin river.

Her shorts have been found but there has been no sign of the girl or the crocodile.

One of the friends said she saw a crocodile in the river shortly before her friend went missing.

It would be the second fatal crocodile attack in the far north in five weeks.

Sydney - People with companion animals are like people with companion humans: happier, healthier and longer-lived, says Melbourne researcher Tim Rogers.

While the standard logic is that pet owners get out more, and so are fitter because they take more exercise, Rogers says it has more to do with the quality of the outing than simply the cardiovascular benefits of being at one end of a leash.

"Most researchers are now converging on the idea that it's the sense of emotional closeness and support that pets provide that is behind their stress-busting power," he said. "It now appears that animal companions benefit our lives in much the same way as do human companions."

Sydney  - Without their distinctive livery, lots of little reef fish would look much the same. Colour differentiates them, not shape.

The blue-striped fangblenny, found in coral reefs in Indonesia and Australia, is different. What marks it out from every other fish known to man is that it can change colour at will.

The default colour is brown, but the fangblenny can switch to yellow or a range of other bright hues to deceive other fish.

"Their repertoire of disguises appears to prevent or reduce detection by potential victims," says Queensland University marine biologist Karen Cheney. "They may also escape from predators by hiding in a large shoal."

Sydney  - The Hong Kong-owned ship that spilt oil over 60 kilometres of beaches on Australia's east coast was impounded in Brisbane harbour Sunday.

The start of legal action against the Pacific Adventurer came as the state government in Queensland said it was half way through a clean up operation that began after Wednesday's spill.

Bribie Island and the Sunshine Coast are now almost free of oil but only a quarter of the fouled beaches on Moreton Island are clear.

Oil sprang from the 180-metre vessel when containers that fell overboard in a storm holed the hull and pierced fuel tanks.

Sydney, Mar. 15 : Australia's Brett Lee has revealed that he intends to return to international cricket by bowling faster than ever.

Once regarded as the "Golden Boy" of Australian cricket, Lee, 32, is under pressure to reclaim his place in the Test and one-day teams for the Ashes Tour.

He will try to win his place on a diet of four-over spells in the Indian Premier League that gets underway next month.