Melbourne, Apr 7 : Want to chat up a man? Well, then give jumbled cues and small talks a miss, for the way to a man''s heart is direct, no-nonsense conversation.

According to The Daily Mail, sober lines like "Fancy dinner?" or "Can I give you my number?" avoid confusion and guarantee success when landing a man, a study found.

As per Bucknell University researchers, men have a tough time figuring out hints, even if they are accompanied by flirty body language.

Sydney

Sydney  - An Australian woman who set at least 21 forest fires on Adelaide's outskirts on the hottest days of 2007 was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in prison.

Helen White, 45, is one of few women convicted of setting fire to forests.

In February, forest fires outside Melbourne killed 173 people, destroyed more than 1,800 houses and left 7,500 people homeless.

Unlike those fires, some of which were also caused by arson, the blazes caused by White caused little damage.

Sydney  - Swimmer Nick D'Arcy was Tuesday kicked off the Australian team for July's world championships in Rome following his conviction for assaulting former Commonwealth Games champion Simon Cowley.

Last year's assault left Cowley with a broken nose, eye socket, jaw and cheekbone, and metal plates in his jaw and skull.

The case came to court last month and D'Arcy was given a 14-month suspended sentence.

The incident forced D'Arcy's exclusion from the Beijing Olympics and his conviction is likely to end his career.

Sydney  - The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3 per cent in hopes of breathing life into the somnolent economy.

It was the fifth cut in six months in the rate the central bank charges banks for borrowing.

The further easing of monetary policy came on the heels of figures showing a further fall in inflation. The bank said it now sees recession as a worse threat than inflation.

Sydney - The Australian government on Tuesday scrapped a tender process and announced it would form a new company to build a national high-speed fibre-optic broadband network.

The company would be a public-private partnership with Canberra selling its majority stake when the 43-billion-Australian-dollar (30-billion-US-dollar) project is completed.

"It's the most ambitious, far-reaching and long-term nation-building infrastructure project ever undertaken by an Australian government," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.