London, Sept.22 : The Queen could be dropped as Australia’s head of state within three years under plans drawn up by the man tipped to be the country’s next prime minister.

Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd is surging ahead in the polls and is expected to deliver a humiliating defeat to the government of Prime Minister John Howard at an election due within weeks.

A staunch republican, Rudd wants Australia to cut its constitutional ties with Britain, replacing the Queen with an elected president, reports The Telegraph.

Sept 22: Parents need to make sure that their kids get a good night's sleep, for a new study by researchers from the University of Queens land in Brisbane suggests that children who don't get enough of sleep are more likely to become obese when they grow up.

The scientists have found that lack of sleep prevented the body from producing sufficient quantities of a hormone that repressed appetite.

Washington, Sept 21 : Isla Fisher has signed on to star in "Confessions of a Shopaholic".

The Touchstone comedy will be directed by P.J. Hogan, and is based on the novels by Sophie Kinsella.

Kinsella is the pen name for Madeleine Wickham - a U.K.-based financial journalist.

Scripting the movie will be Tim Firth, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

The plot revolves around a compulsive shopper in Manhattan, played by Fisher, up to her neck in debt who ironically becomes a financial advice columnist.

Melbourne, Sept 18: Lou Ferrigno, who played the lead in the Incredible Hulk television series and movies, will be returning to the new movie.

According to Moviehole.net, Variety via Superhero Hype report that the part however will be a cameo.

The sequel to the 2003 movie will be directed by Louis Leterrier who directed Transporter 2, which opened at the top of the box office earlier this year, as well as the critically-acclaimed Unleashed, starring Jet Li, Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins.

Sydney, Sept. 3 : A new report by consumer group Choice dismisses effectiveness of tri-weekly exercise sessions, stretching before training to warm muscles and reduce injury, and "no pain, no gain" mantra as mere misconceptions.

The group says that these are nothing more than common exercising myths propagated by eager fitness instructors or lax health groups, who have not got all the facts.

Australian research workers have discovered that fatty diets damage eggs in the female internal reproductive organ (ovary) and forbids them from turning healthy fertilized eggs, a finding answers the problem why obese women are often infertile.