Sydney - Despite inflation rising to its fastest pace since 1995, interest rates are likely to fall again before the end of the year because the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is more worried about slowing growth than rising prices, economists said Wednesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.2 per cent in the September quarter, taking the annualized inflation rate to 5 per cent from 4.5 per cent in the year to June.

Melbourne, Oct 21: Men should stay miles away from mobile phones if they don''t want to screw up their plans of fathering a child, for a new research has shown that males who talk for hours on cellphones may damage their sperm.

An experiment on semen revealed evidence of DNA damage after 16 hours of exposure to radiation similar to the output of a mobile phone.

To reach the conclusion, researchers at the University of Newcastle built a device to irradiate sperm at the same radio frequency as mobile telephone calls.

Sydney - Kevin Rudd needed something to give his poll ratings pep and it came in the ghastly form of a stock market meltdown that wilted the pension plans of millions of Australians.

Now, the approval ratings of the 50-year-old former diplomat, a year into his first spell as prime minister, suggest he could walk on water.

"It puts him into the 70-per-cent range and only one other prime minister has done that," said pollster John Stirton, noting that only Bob Hawke, 36 years ago, was a more popular prime minister.

People tend to rally round their leader in a crisis. It's happened to Britain's Gordon Brown. For Rudd, as for Brown, the acclamation is particularly pleasing.

Sydney - Australian politicians learned Tuesday that the country's oldest practising lawyer had died aged 100 and that they would need to look for a new exemplar of grateful employment and retirement postponed.

When he succumbed to a stroke last week, George Bilbie was still working in the Newcastle law firm that he founded in 1944.

"I'm one of the luckiest people out there," Bilbie said a few months before his death. "When you are brought up poor, you appreciate everything you get."

Sydney - Australi

Melbourne, Oct 20 : A new study has revealed that more than eight million Australians want a reduction in alcohol advertising, with half of them revealing that alcohol has had a negative impact on their family.

The study was conducted by Roy Morgan Research for the Salvation Army, which is calling on people to consider their drinking habits, and the impact they have on their families.

It was also revealed during the study, which was conducted amid a massive debate over closing pubs earlier to stop violence, that two million people have experienced physical arguments or threats as a result of alcohol consumption within their family.