Sydney  - Shares in Lion Nathan Ltd leapt 40 per cent Monday after Australia's second-largest brewer agreed to a 6.5-billion-Australian-dollar (4.6-billion-US-dollar) takeover offer from Japanese beer maker Kirin Holdings Co Ltd.

Lion Nathan's board has agreed to sell Kirin the 54 per cent of shares it doesn't already own in the brewer that counts the beer brands Tooheys, James Boag, James Squire, Heineken, Hahn and XXXX in its stable.

The deal needs the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board and non-Kirin shareholders.

Sydney  - We already know that smoking in pregnancy results in babies that are around 250 grams lighter than those born to mothers who did not smoke.

And we also know from the statistics that infants in homes where there are smokers are up to four times more likely to succumb to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - more commonly called cot death.

Researchers in Australia believe they can explain how exposure to tobacco smoke impacts on the brains of babies.

Sydney  - Two Australians recently returned from a trip to Mexico are in a Queensland hospital with symptoms similar to the deadly swine flu, officials said Monday.

"We do have two cases overnight of people checking into hospital whose symptoms are being tested," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told reporters in Brisbane. "Clearly, this is a very serious disease, and we are taking it very seriously."

In Sydney, two people checked into hospital to have flu-like symptoms checked after returning from Mexico.

Melbourne, Apr 26 : A Queensland state school spent 1200 dollars teaching its teachers how to laugh.

While other schools are following suit and have paid for laughter `consultants', eighty-two staff members from Maleny State High School took part in a two-hour "laughter therapy" session last Monday.

Opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg has on April 24 accused the State Government of wasting "scarce" funds and teachers' time.

Melbourne, April 25: Australian teenage girls are skolling straight vodka in a new form of the spin-the-bottle game to get drunk quickly.

Girls, as young as 15, are also trying to be at par with men as they take part in the straight drinking, that landed almost 1700 kids in NSW hospitals for alcohol poisoning last year.

Sydney - Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying 54 illegal immigrants Saturday near Ashmore Reef off the north coast. It was the eighth refugee boat to arrive so far this year, one more than the tally for the whole of 2008.

The 54 asylum seekers and two crew members were stopped 900 kilometres from Darwin and taken aboard the patrol boat HMAS Albany, They are being transported to Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island for processing.

On Wednesday 32 Sri Lankan migrants arrived off the west coast.