Adelaide, Australia  - Cycling legend Lance Armstrong was back in the saddle Tuesday in his first stage race since the last of his seven Tour de France victories in 2005.

The 37-year-old Texan is out of retirement and at the head of the Astana Team in Australia's six-day Tour Down Under in the south-coast city of Adelaide.

The gods smiled on the cycling god with the temperature a balmy 25 degrees and most of the 133 riders in the 140-kilometre stage taking things easy on the first day of the opening tour of the 2009 professional road racing season.

Melbourne  - Andy Roddick says he's impressed with new ATP boss Adam Helfant, after meeting his fellow American at the Australian Open.

"I actually was lucky enough to have dinner with him the other night. I was pretty impressed," said Roddick. "He didn't come in with kind of this braggadocio attitude of what he's done, whatever. He kind of came in and he had his notepad and his pen, and he asked questions, and he wrote down notes. He didn't come in like a know-it- all."

Melbourne  - Even ice-calm Roger Federer admits that his stress levels have eased in recent months as he slipped from tennis' top ranking.

Still ranked second, the Swiss star said that he feels an eerie calm as he pursues a fourth title in six years at the Australian Open.

"Maybe I'm a bit more relaxed," he said after passing the first round against Italy's Andreas Seppi. "When you're number one you put your head down, you try to win as many tournaments as possible."

Sydney  - Two sailors from Myanmar rescued by an Australian coastal patrol boat claim they had drifted for 25 days in a polystyrene box without food and water, news reports said Tuesday.

Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said the men were on a 12-metre Thai fishing boat with 18 others that it sank in rough seas December 23.

London, January 19 : The global financial crisis has not even spared multibillionaires, as Australia’s third richest man James Packer deciding to put up his 50million-dollar yacht up for sale, postpone delivery of a 60million-dollar private jet, and leave a swimming pool complex at his family property half-built.

The 41-year-old, who once happened to be the country’s richest man, had inherited a fortune from his media tycoon father Kerry Packer.

However, a Sydney Sunday Telegraph report suggests that the value of his assets have more than halved in the past year, from 6 billion dollars to less than 3 billion, and consequently, he is dismantling his playboy lifestyle.

Melbourne, Jan 19 : Aussie actress Portia de Rossi has admitted that marrying her long time partner Ellen DeGeneres has cemented their togetherness.

The ‘Ally McBeal’ star tied the knot with talk show host and comedienne DeGeneres in August 2008.

"Marriage is a different way of being together," News. com. au quoted her as telling People while promoting her new show ‘Better Off Ted’.

"There''s a peace to (being married) and a sense of togetherness that we just didn''t have before. And I didn''t even realise it would change as much as it has, but it''s so lovely.