Durban, Mar. 12 : Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has praised opener for maintaining his equanimity in the second Test against South Africa here, and added that during the match he was looking for signs of an inflated ego, which fortunately never surfaced.

Sydney  - The Brisbane judging panel said Thursday it was investigating press reports that one of the 50 candidates it shortlisted for the dream job of caretaker on a paradise island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef worked as a porn star.

Britain's scandal-mongering The Sun newspaper alleged that Russian police had interviewed Julia Yalovitsyna for her links with erotic film studios in her hometown of Petrazavodsk.

Sydney  - A clean-up was under way on Australia's east coast Thursday after beaches were coated with oil that leaked from a container vessel damaged in rough seas.

The oil has begun washing up on 8 kilometres of beaches in Moreton Bay near Brisbane and there are fears slicks will also spoil beaches on the Sunshine Coast.

The Hong Kong-owned Pacific Adventurer also lost half its load of industrial chemicals when 31 containers of ammonium nitrate toppled overboard. One of the tumbling boxes punctured a fuel tank and let 30 tonnes of oil flood into Moreton Bay.

Melbourne, Mar 12: An American woman landed herself in hospital with unimaginable injuries after a sexual experimentation with her partner went awry.

According to NBCWashington. com, the Maryland woman injured in the incident involving a sex toy attached to a sabre saw blade.

The St Mary''s County Sheriff''s Office said that the man who called 911 about the incident admitted to attaching the sex toy to the saw and using the high-powered, homemade device on his partner.

Apparently, the saw cut through the plastic toy and wounded the woman and left her with injuries, so severe, that she had to be rushed to hospital

Sydney, Mar. 12 : Australia's series defeat of South Africa on the latter's home turf, has convinced former skipper Mark Taylor that Ponting''s boys will start as favourites for this year''s Ashes series.

Taylor also said that ageing stars such as Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Andrew Symonds would have a tough time breaking back into a revitalized Test line-up.

"It just shows the value of going with young players," Fox Sports quoted Taylor, as saying after Australia''s 175-run victory in the second Test at Durban.

Sydney - Unemployment in Australia rose to 5.2 per cent in February from 4.8 per cent in January, official figures released Thursday showed.

A fall of 53,800 full-time positions was outweighed by a rise of 55,600 part-time jobs as workers were shifted from permanent to casual employment because of the economic downturn.

The unemployment rate rose despite the increase in jobs because the number of people looking for work - what economists call the participation rate - went up.