Melbourne, Jan 23 : Aussie swimming champ Stephanie Rice has revealed that she was bullied during her teenage years in school.

Rice, 20, a three times gold medal winner at the Beijing Olympics last year, said that she was a victim of some nasty schoolyard pranks and hurtful teasing.

"I was bullied and picked on as a kid," the Daily Telegraph quoted her as telling the Australian Women''s Weekly.

"It started when I was about 10. I guess I was an easy target, as I had no self-confidence.

Melbourne, Jan 23 : A Flinders University computer scientist is trying to make the shoe phone a reality.

Post-doctoral fellow in bioinformatics, Paul Gardner-Stephen, who first developed a `phone inside a shoe' as an amateur theatre prop, insists that there are practical and technological advantages of the device, reports News. com. au.

"Relaying voice communications via a shoe is technologically similar to relaying medical data for remote patient monitoring, such as pulse, blood pressure, blood oxygenation and so forth,'''' Dr Gardner-Stephen said.

Melbourne, Jan 23 : It seems that designer Catharine Martin has a habit of upstaging her director husband Baz Luhrmann. Martin has yet again upstaged her husband after receiving an Oscar nomination for her costumes for the epic Australia, while Luhrmann has not been nominated in any category, reports News. com. au

Earlier, in 2002, Luhrmann dazzled Hollywood with the musical Moulin Rouge!.

While the film picked up eight Oscar nominations, Luhrmann received just a nomination for being one of three producers.

Melbourne, Jan 23 : U2 singer Bono's pictures showing him partying with two bikini-clad teenagers in St Tropez were posted on the social networking site Facebook.

The 48-year-old rocker, who was on holiday with long-time friend Simon Carmody, had his arms around the two girls, with a brief description added to them.

Bono met the two 19-year-olds, American fashion student Andrea Feick and her British friend Hannah Emerson, and was seen drinking with them at the Nikki Beach bar in St Tropez.

But Feick has said that their relationship never crossed the line beyond friendship.

Melbourne, Jan. 23 : At least thirty Bosnian and Serb tennis fans were ejected from the Australian Open following a race riot on Friday.

According to the Daily Telegraph, two groups of fans were involved in what police called a "chair throwing competition" in Garden Square at Melbourne Park around 4 p. m. this afternoon.

Two people were charged with riotous behaviour and a third was given an on-the-spot fine.

Melbourne, Jan 23 : A US airline allegedly denied a flight to a female flight attendant for not dressing provocatively enough.

Karin Keegan, 37, says a male JetBlue employee told her to change into a lower-cut shirt and tighter pants before boarding the plane.

But even after wearing the clothes, the hostess was denied the flight saying she was too late to get on the plane.

And now Keegan has filed a lawsuit against the airline in Pittsburgh federal court, reports News. com. au.