Dubai, Apr. 22 : Australian cricketers have welcomed Andrew Symonds back into their fold despite his poor form, both on and off the field.

Australia''s acting skipper Michael Clarke said the way Symonds played in his comeback series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates would be vital to his future prospects.

And Clarke said it was up to the all-rounder to decide whether he also needed to prove anything off the field, after several recent disciplinary lapses resulted in him being removed from the team to undergo counselling.

Canberra , Apr. 22 : In the times of a great economic slump, when Australians are struggling to make both ends meet, hundreds of thousands of dollars of Oz taxpayers money are going into Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s three-course gourmet meals on every RAAF VIP flight.

The catering overhaul was introduced last month after an angry Rudd reduced a RAAF flight attendant to tears over food provisions.

The Prime Minister later issued a public apology, but it could not save him from being named, ‘Kevin Rude’.

Melbourne, Apr 22 : Nicole Kidman’s sister Antonia is three years younger to her, but at a recent event she looked quite older than her famous sis.

Although the ‘Australia’ actress had earlier described her TV presenter sister as her ''other half'', people witnessed a big contrast when Antonia appeared for a television awards ceremony this week.

Antonia, 38, a mother-of-four showed off her toned legs and slim physique in a short dress and towering heels.

Sydney, Apr 22 : Exposure to cigarette smoke induces abnormalities in babies'' brains, thus putting them at increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, say Australian researchers.

To reach the conclusion, researchers from University of Sydney analysed the brain tissue of babies who had undergone an autopsy at Sydney''s Glebe morgue.

After analysing, they found exposure to any second-hand smoke could precipitate these brain cell changes, and not just exposure in utero by maternal smoking.

Sydney - Gamblers who tipped that the government was wrong and that Australia would fall into recession this year were rewarded with big pay-outs Wednesday from internet betting agency Centrebet.

Centrebet financial analyst Neil Evans said the smart money had always been on the economy contracting in two consecutive quarters and that astute gamblers had always discounted claims that billion-dollar stimulus packages would keep the economy growing.

This week Prime Minister Kevin Rudd conceded he was wrong and that the economy would indeed go backwards in 2009.

Sydney, April 22 : In an analysis of fossil deposits in central India, an international team of geologists has found that complex life, in the form of multicellular organisms, existed on earth more than 400 million years earlier than previously thought.

According to a report by ABC News, the finding comes out of research aimed at ending controversy over the age of the Vindhyan basin in central India.

The controversy concerns two fossil discoveries in 1998, which gave conflicting views over when the Vindhyan sedimentary basins, which spread over more than 100,000 square kilometers of central India, were formed.