Sydney  - Three people are dead, two missing and dozen injured after an explosion on board an asylum-seekers' boat that was being towed to Christmas Island by Australian authorities Thursday.

The boat, which arrived off Australia's west coast from Indonesia, was carrying 49 people believed to be from Afghanistan.

Sydney  - Most of us know what stock we were bred from and can even name mums and dads going back generations.

An Australian animal shelter is now offering a genealogy service for dogs.

Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne is the first provider of DNA testing for dogs outside the United States.

There's been a scramble for the appropriately named BITSA test, which costs around 100 US dollars, is a mail-order service, and can establish breeding going back three generations. All the Lort Smith pet detectives need is a saliva sample.

Sydney  - A ballerina, Spiderman, a vet, a train driver and sometimes even a sea lion: these are the jobs that toddlers see themselves in when they grow up.

Kate Castine, an adviser to Australia 's department of education, isn't happy about this and wants 4-year-olds to be more serious about their career options.

As well as the danger of the nappy-bound hankering after non-existent jobs such as that of a mermaid even, there is a risk that they will just want to copy mum and dad and be farmers or housewives, doctors or welfare dependents.

Sydney  - Qantas Airways Ltd took

Sydney, Apr. 15 : Noted cricket columnist Peter Roebuck is of the view that Australian selectors would need to carry out surgical changes in the national squad if the team is to regain its number one status in Tests and one-dayers.

Sydney  - An Australian carpet-layer relieved his new bride of almost everything she owned by convincing her he was a secret agent engaged in international espionage, a court in Melbourne was told Wednesday.

Wayne Charters, 54, pleaded not guilty to obtaining money by deception from single mother Karen Roberts, but agreed that he had stolen the suits he and his best man wore at the 2003 wedding.

"I genuinely believed he was the man of my dreams," Roberts told the court.