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Colombo, Aug 30: Australian batsman Ricky Ponting has a simple piece of advice to his teammates preparing to bat in the first Test against Sri Lanka - get your starts right and you'll be fine.

Ponting reckons that if batsmen can get through their first 20 deliveries they can succeed in the island nation.

Washington, Aug 30 : Consumer spending in the US rose 0.8 percent in July, the biggest increase in two years, the Commerce Department said Monday.

July's gain helps offset the bad news in June, when spending dropped 0.1 percent, the first decline since 2009.

Consumer spending has a strong impact on the US economy since it represents almost 70 percent of gross domestic product, which grew only 1 percent in the second quarter.

Washington, August 30 : Not getting a proper night's sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure in older men by 80 pc compared to those who got longer, less interrupted sleep, according to a new research.

Slow wave sleep (SWS), one of the deeper stages of sleep, is characterized by non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) from which it''s difficult to awaken. It''s represented by relatively slow, synchronized brain waves called delta activity on an electroencephalogram.

Shillong, Aug 30 : Irom Sharmila, fasting for the last 11 years for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), must "reach out to people across the country" like anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare to make her cause known, says former union home secretary G. K. Pillai.

AFSPA enables security forces to shoot at sight and arrest anybody without a warrant if an area is declared disturbed. Sharmila is currently in an isolated room of Manipur's Jawarharlal Nehru Hospital.

Washington, Aug 30 : A long lost uncle of President Barack Obama, arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, is being held without bail though he told police he planned to arrange bail through the White House.

Onyango Obama, 67, was arrested Aug 24 in Framingham, 32 km west of Boston, after police said he made a rolling stop through a stop sign and nearly caused a cruiser to strike his sport utility vehicle, various media reports said.

Washington, Aug 30 - More than five million homes and businesses are still without power with upstate New York and Vermont flooded in the aftermath of hurricane Irene that claimed 38 lives in 11 states across the US East Coast.

With no commuter rail trains running to New York City from Connecticut, New Jersey and Westchester County on Monday morning, many residents of the suburbs faced a day stranded at home, tens of thousands of them without electricity, media reports said.