Could Brangelina have used IVF to conceive their newly-born twins, Knox and Vivienne?

Us Weekly says that Hollywood’s golden couple did indeed use the technology to, “avoid the stress of trying to get pregnant.”

The fact that Jolie had twins is being used to support the argument she used IVF, as multiples are often a side effect.

"Well, sandals with socks are certainly up there. Generally speaking, it's footwear trends. I mean, the Croc—it looks like a plastic hoof. How can you take that seriously? I know it's comfortable; I understand that. But if you want to dress to feel as though you never got out of bed, don't get out of bed." Tim Gunn on the worst fashion trend, in Time.

Thirty years ago today Louise Brown created history when she was the first baby born via IVF. Three million babies around the world have followed in Brown’s footsteps, being born through continually-improving IVF technology.

Brown is now a mother-of-one herself and plans to celebrate her birthday with a low-key meal with her family and friends. Yet, for fertility experts Brown’s birthday is no low-key event: It marks the first successful case of the technology which has changed the lives of women around the world.

Modern IVF technology has evolved significantly over the three decades since it was first used successfully. Each year 10, 000 Australian babies are born using IVF. The director of IVF Australia Michael Chapman has said, "The technology has been significantly refined to a point where our success rate has doubled in the past 10 years and I see it hitting 50 per cent within another five."

Professor Chapman predicts that in the next five years IVF will evolve to a point where the genetic make-up of eggs can be screened to assure their success, and within the next 30, he says that babies could be conceived with artificial sperm and grown in man-made wombs.

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, and New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, are pledging $US375 million into a global effort to cut smoking.

The billionaire philanthropists, who are said to have a combined worth exceeding $70 billion, said the money would help efforts in developing countries where tobacco use is highest.

The $US250 million from Mr Bloomberg and $US125 million from Mr Gates will support projects that raise tobacco taxes, help smokers quit, ban tobacco advertising and protect non-smokers from exposure to smoke. It will also assist in efforts to track tobacco use and better educate people on tobacco control strategies.

"Bill and I want to highlight the enormity of this problem and catalyse a global movement of governments and civil society to stop the tobacco epidemic," Mr Bloomberg said.

"Tobacco-caused diseases have emerged as one of the greatest health challenges facing developing countries," explained Mr Gates.

"The good news is, we know what it takes to save millions of lives, and where efforts exist, they are working."

There are currently more than 1 billion smokers worldwide.

Ethan Hawke has become a dad for the third time. His wife, Ryan Shawhuges – ie, the woman who was the nanny for his two previous children while he was still married to Uma Thurman – gave birth to a daughter, Clementine Jane Hawke, late last week.

The couple tied the knot in June and are said to be “thrilled” with their new addition.

Meanwhile, Thurman – who divorced Hawke in 2004 – is still happily engaged to Elle MacPherson’s ex, Arpad “Arki” Busson.

It never ceases to amaze how much money celebrities earn in a year …

Forbes magazine has just confirmed the amounts as mind-boggling, thanks to their new list naming the highest paid Hollywood actors (according to their earnings for the past year).

Topping the list of celebs making the most moola are:

Will Smith ($82.43 million)
Johnny Depp ($74.18 million)
Eddie Murphy ($56.67 million)

Cameron Diaz was the only woman to be featured among the top earners, coming in with a cool $51.51 million, just ahead of Leonardo DiCaprio ($46.36 million).

John and Anne Darwin – the English couple behind the elaborate “dead canoeist” insurance scam – have each been sentenced to six years behind bars.

While John admitted faking his own death to police, Anne was found guilty of fraudulently claiming $512,000 in life insurance and helping her husband stage his disappearance.

The couple had lied to their two sons, friends, family and police since the “accident” happened back in 2002, but the story unravelled when John walked into a police station last December claiming to have amnesia.

Sentencing the pair as they stood alongside each other, Justice Alan Wilkie said the couple's sons, Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, had been the real victims of their swindle.

"Although the sums involved are not as high as some reported cases, the duration of the offending, its multi-faceted nature and in particular the grief inflicted over the years to those who in truth were the real victims, your own sons, whose lives you crushed, make this a case which merits a particularly severe sentence," he said.

An autopsy will be carried out this morning on a baby found dead in a shopping bag at a rural Victorian bus stop yesterday.

It is believe the body of a baby lay in the bag for at least 10 hours before a local man discovered it, dressed in a jump suit and wrapped in a blanket, in a bus shelter at Grahamvale, near Shepparton.

Homicide detectives are investigating whether the baby was abandoned at the bus stop and consequently died of hyperthermia or if its panicked parents dumped the body there after it had died of natural causes. Police revealed that a witness saw the bag at the bus stop on Wednesday morning and they were now trying to determine exactly when it was left there. The baby's sex will not be revealed until a post-mortem examination is carried out.

"One...the baby was abandoned and died of hypothermia, that it was a SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) death and the parents didn't know what to do, or it's a homicide," said Victoria Police spokeswoman Senior Constable Julie-Anne Newman of the scenarios being investigated.

"It's too early to say at this stage."

Homicide Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles said the baby may have been as young as a week old and was found by a man putting out his bins on a rural property near the bus shelter.

Iddles has since urged the parents of the baby to come forward.