Melbourne, Feb 21 : Students can have a better understanding of human anatomy, if all the organs and parts are painted on a real live body, according to an Australian expert.

Professor Paul McMenamin, of the University of Western Australia, reckons that body painting can turn out to be a useful tool in anatomy classes.

"Essentially we''re using a three-dimensional canvas in the shape of the body," ABC Online quoted him as saying.

"You can paint the muscles on and bring them to life. It''s just fantastic when you see it. People just go ''Oh my God,''" he added.

McMenamin has been using body painting in classes for about four years.

Sydney - Australian police Saturday seized video clips and log books from the militant Sea Shepherd protest ship that clashed with Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, news reports said Saturday.

Police boarded the Steve Irwin on Friday when it docked at Hobart, Tasmania, and confiscated video, taken from the ship's helicopter, showing a whaler's explosive-tipped harpoon piercing a whale.

"The whale was then pulled alongside the boat and it was shot seven times with a shotgun," Steve Irwin crew member Andrew Perry told Hobart's Mercury newspaper. "It was an incredibly distressing thing to behold. We've never been able to get footage like that before. It's going to be damning."

Injured Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait's international career hangs in the balance with doctors refusing to state a specific date for his comeback. Tait is thus in doubt for playing the ODI series against South Africa.

Tait, Australia's fastest bowler is down with chronic hamstring tendonitis. He sustained a left-hamstring tear during a domestic ODI match against Queensland in Brisbane on December 3.

Sydney  - Australian Harry Nicolaides is out of prison and on his way home to Melbourne after being pardoned by Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the author's brother said Saturday.

Nicolaides was released from a Bangkok prison on Friday, Forde Nicolaides told Australia's AAP news agency.

He was arrested in August and jailed last month on a conviction for insulting the royal family.

Sydney - Two weeks after forest fires in Australia claimed 209 lives, razed 1,830 homes and left 7,500 homeless, profiteers were stalking the blackened region north of Melbourne.

"Overwhelmingly, we've seen the very best of human behaviour over the last couple of weeks but there are a few sharks out there," Victoria state Premier John Brumby said Friday. "There are a few vultures who have been trying to get in and snap up cheap property while people are vulnerable."

Sydney - Two weeks after forest fires in Australia claimed 209 lives, razed 1,830 homes and left 7,500 homeless, profiteers were stalking the blackened region north of Melbourne.

"Overwhelmingly, we've seen the very best of human behaviour over the last couple of weeks but there are a few sharks out there," Victoria state Premier John Brumby said Friday. "There are a few vultures who have been trying to get in and snap up cheap property while people are vulnerable."