Daily News Channel
The driver of a fire truck died Thursday while racing to fight a raging forest fire in eastern Spain, the fifth fatality among firefighters this week, authorities said. The 44-year-old firefighter died while heading toward a fire in Teruel province, the regional Aragon government said on its Web site. Four firefighters died Tuesday while battling a forest fire in the eastern Catalonia region, not far from Teruel, CNN partner station CNN+ reported, citing local authorities
Spain’s Luis-Leon Sanchez won a sprint finish among a four-man breakaway group to claim stage eight of the Tour de France over the Pyrenees on Saturday. The Caisse d’Epargne rider timed his finish to perfection to cross the line just ahead of Frenchman Sandy Casar in a time of four hours 31 minutes and 50 seconds. Sanchez, Casar and two others — Mikel Astarloza and Vladimir Efimkin — had made a decisive break on the final climb, the Col d’Agnes, allowing the quartet to battle it out at the finish of the 176.5km hike from Andorra La Vella to St Girons.
The countdown to the 2010 World Cup, football’s biggest carnival, began in earnest this week with the passing of the one-year anniversary to the opening game of the event.
The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert level Monday in response to the outbreak of swine flu that originated in Mexico, as the global count of confirmed cases increased and governments initiated various steps to try to stem the spread.