Sydney - The Australian Labor Party on Sunday looked certain to lose office in Western Australia after a state election upset that has rattled Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's federal government.

Labor had a monopoly on power at both the state and federal level before a big swing against it in Saturday's poll, the most likely outcome of which is for the Liberal and National parties to cobble together a unity state government that would see Labor's Alan Carpenter replaced by Liberal leader Colin Barnett.

Sydney  - Australia's opposition Liberal Party was Saturday set to form the state government in the resource-rich state of Western Australia.

A swing of 6 per cent against the ruling Labor Party exceeded poll predictions of a 4-per-cent swing to the opposition and looked set to deliver a shock victory to the Liberals.

Labour currently forms government at the federal level and in all the states and territories. The last victory for Labor was at the general election in November when Kevin Rudd defeated the Liberal government led by John Howard.

Sydney  - Australian hikers on the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea were mistaken in thinking they had stumbled upon the body of a World War II pilot, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) said Thursday.

What they actually found last week was not a corpse in a parachute harness caught in a tree but a mossy branch with an uncanny resemblance to a human form.

The Kokoda Track is a popular hiking trail for Australians and Japanese visiting the locations where their forces clashed in 1942. Beginning 50 kilometres east of Port Moresby, the PNG capital, the Kokoda Track runs for 96 kilometres through the rainforest of the Owen Stanley Range.

Sydney - Australia has its first shopping centre with a ban on hooded clothing, news reports said Thursday.

Tweed City Shopping Centre in the east coast town of Tweed Heads announced that hoodies, such as hooded sweatshirts, would be banned after sunset on Thursdays on a trial basis.

Tweed City manager Michael Tree said the move was about curbing shoplifting rather than enforcing a dress code.

"We haven't been walking around targeting people," he said. "It was all about disguising your appearance to the security cameras."

Sydney - Watch the pick-up points at Australian airports and women are behind the steering wheel when they arrive but usually relegated to the passenger seat when they leave.

Driving is still considered a man's job - if a man's available to do it.

"Australian men don't like to be a passenger when their partner is driving, and most don't believe women are good drivers," motoring journalist Stephen Corby said.

Even pedigree dogs are happy to wolf down meat left over at the abattoir. But cats are often fed the fishmonger's best.

"Our pets seem to be eating better than their owners," said Giovanni Turchini, a researcher at Melbourne's Deakin University.

"These gourmet pet foods contain a significant amount of fish that may be suitable for direct human consumption. We don't have enough fish to feed the world."

Turchini would like to see pampered felines weaned off restaurant-quality grub and introduced to the by-products of the fish filleting industry.

Dogs thrive on leftover meat and it follows that cats could get used to offal.