An Australian brewer Tuesday offered a free beer to every adult in the country if Australia beat England in the upcoming Ashes cricket Tests.VB pledged to"shout the nation" if Australia win back the coveted trophy in the five-Test series, starting November 25.
"This summer, when the final wicket falls and the Aussies lift the urn triumphantly, Australia`s best cold beer pledges to `shout the nation`," the company said."That`s one ice-cold VB for every eligible person of drinking age, and one huge celebration of the rightful return of the Ashes."
Anyone over 18 can use a coupon printed in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide local newspapers on December 8 and 9 to claim their free 375 millilitre (13 fluid ounce) can or bottle of beer. Australia have slipped below England in the Test rankings and are battling a raft of injuries and poor form ahead of the series. However, England have not won a series in Australia in 24 years.
The series is known for its light-hearted stunts. Last month, Australia beamed a picture of captain Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke onto London`s Big Ben with the message, "Don`t forget to pack the urn".
Pope Benedict XVI is due to officially recognise Australia's first saint, Mary MacKillop, a Melbourne-born nun who worked with needy children.Thousands of Australians have arrived in Rome to witness the canonisation of MacKillop, who died in 1909.She clashed with senior clergy and was briefly excommunicated, in part for exposing a sex-abusing priest.Five other people are to be canonised, among them Brother Andre, a Canadian monk credited with healing powers.
After excommunicating Mary MacKillop in 1871, the Church later exonerated her and she was eventually put on the road to sainthood by Pope John Paul II, who beatified her in 1995.For anyone to become a saint, the Church has to officially recognise their intermediary role in two miracles.Pope John Paul II recognised the first, and last year Pope Benedict ruled a person had been cured of cancer after praying for the nun's assistance.Because of her role in exposing clerical abuse, some have called for MacKillop to made a patron saint of abused children.In recent years, there has been a wave of cases around the world in which Church authorities failed to deal properly with priests accused of child abuse, sometimes just moving them to newparishes where more children were put at risk.'Extraordinary Australian woman'Hundreds of nuns from the order MacKillop helped found, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, have travelled to the Vaticanto witness her canonisation.
Four steps to sainthood
The process, which cannot begin until at least five years after the candidate's death, involves scrutinisingevidence of their holiness, work and signs that people are drawn to prayer through their example:
First stage: individual is declared a 'servant of God'
Second stage: individual is called 'venerable'
Third stage (requires a miracle attributed to candidate's intercession): beatification, when individual is declared blessed
Fourth stage (requires a further authenticated miracle): candidate is canonised as a saint for veneration by Church
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd will also be among the spectators.
He described MacKillop as "an extraordinary Australian woman".She has become a kind of religious celebrity in Australia, where there is great anticipation about her canonisation, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Rome.She has been the subject of a musical, has stamps and pop songs in her honour and her image has been projected onto Sydney's Harbour Bridge.Thousands of people have attended a Mass in Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral to mark her passage to sainthood.And all week, pilgrims have been converging on the chapel and museum at the site in North Sydney where she died, says the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney.Candidates from Canada, Poland, Italy and Spain are also being officially recognised as saints at the Vatican ceremony.
TV show Australia's Next Top Model has announced the wrong winner during the live final of its sixth series.
Kelsey Martinovich had been crowned champion by public vote and was making an acceptance speech when presenter Sarah Murdoch interrupted her.
Shaking her head and listening to her earpiece, Murdoch said: "I'm feeling sick about this. I'm so sorry, this was a complete accident."
She then announced the real winner was 18-year-old Amanda Ware.
"This is what happens when you have live TV, folks," she said. "This is insane, insane, insane."
Martinovich, who had been under the impression she was a winner for about a minute, appeared to take the news well, saying, "It's OK, it's an honest mistake," as Murdoch asked: "How could this happen?"
( Host Sarah Murdoch appeared to be distressed by the mix-up)
She attempted to explain the gaffe, saying: "The lead kept changing. It was literally down to a couple of votes. It kept going back and forwards... and we ended up with Amanda as a winner."
The two contestants embraced, before Ware gave a shocked "Thanks" to her supporters and walked the catwalk for the final time.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Martinovich was awarded AUS$25,000 (£15,162) by way of apology.
Ware won an eight-page spread in women's magazine Harpers Bazaar, a contract with Priscilla's modelling agency, an AUS$25,000 Levi's campaign, an AUS$20,000 (£12,130) cash prize, a new car and a trip to New York. Spin-offs
(Amanda Ware had found herself in the "bottom two" contestants in the show's penultimate week)
The show, shown in Australia on Tuesday evening, was broadcast with a live studio audience on the Fox8 pay TV channel, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Sarah Murdoch, a fashion model and TV presenter, is married to Rupert's son Lachlan.
She replaced Jodhi Meares as host of Australia's Next Top Model last year, after Meares blundered her way through the show's 2007 final, and pulled out of the 2008 broadcast with just 48 hours' notice.
Meares later told Grazia magazine she had never agreed to present a live show, adding: "I don't aspire to handle crowds of that level."
The hugely popular Next Top Model shows, created by supermodel Tyra Banks in the US, pit aspiring models against each other.
Each week, they compete for judges in a variety of photo shoots to stay in the competition, with the eventual winner receiving a cash prize and modelling contract.
There are several dozen spin-offs, including series in the UK, Brazil, China, Finland and Israel.
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