Washington, Aug. 30 : Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain''s decision to choose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate for the November 4 presidential poll, has been described by the New York Times as a bold choice, but one that carries enormous political risks.

On Friday, McCain picked Palin, a 40-something candidate with two years in statewide office and no significant foreign policy experience.

Washington/St Paul, Minnesota - St Paul, Minnesota, is the official site of the Republican Party's National Convention from Monday to Thursday, but the event is really a Twin Cities endeavour.

St Paul, the state capital, is separated by the Mississippi River from Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. But the Twin Cities form an inseparable urban region.

In the northern-central state of Minnesota, which borders Canada, the Twin Cities have mild summers and long winters.

Washington - US stocks retreated Friday, led by slower consumer spending and lower-than-expected earnings from computer maker Dell.

As incomes dropped an unexpected 0.7 per cent in July, the US Commerce Department said growth in personal spending slowed to 0.2 per cent.

Dell, the second-biggest personal-computer maker, posted its biggest drop in earnings since 2000, and attributed it to "continued conservatism" among US consumers, which was also spreading to parts of Western Europe and Asia.

Washington, Aug. 29 : Responding to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, the Republicans described it as a “misleading” one, given his "meagre" record.

Republican presidential aspirant John McCain, who had earlier congratulated Obama on his historic achievement of becoming the first African American US presidential nominee of a major party, said the Democrat was still not ready to be president.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said: "Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meagre record of Barack Obama.”

Washington, Aug 29 : Reese Witherspoon has spoken against domestic violence during her recent visit to Brazil.

The Legally Blonde star is touring the South American country as part of her duties as she is the global ambassador of Speak Out Against Domestic Violence campaign.

The initiative was launched by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Avon cosmetics company in 2004.

And Witherspoon is hoping her involvement will help stamp out the abuse of women - insisting she herself has been close to people who were the victims of domestic violence.

Washington, August 29 : An Indian-origin scientist in the U. S. has devised a way to create six-dimensional images that respond to changes in light and the viewer''s direction, by adapting the basic technology used in cheap 3-D postcards and novelty items for the purpose.

"We are the first ones to build a display that changes with lighting. We''ve finally found a way to build the most realistic display," Discovery News quoted Ramesh Raskar, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as saying.