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Haussler wins as Armstrong stays third

Lance Armstrong lost key Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer but stayed in third place in the Tour de France as Heinrich Haussler of Germany won the 13th stage run off in appalling conditions on Friday. Leipheimer pulled out before the start of the 200 kilometer run from Vittel to Colmar, his right wrist in plaster after a late crash on the previous stage. The American is a close friend of Armstrong and was not without hope of overall victory himself as he sat only 39 seconds behind the leader in fourth place before his withdrawal.

The State of Homelessness in the U.S.

The 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Community Planning and Development 168 pages The Gist: There are few economic indicators as grim as homelessness. In its fourth annual report on the state of homelessness in the U.S., the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that some 1.6 million people stayed at homeless shelters from October 2007 to September 2008

Obama: G-8 has shown Iran ‘door’ to diplomatic engagement

President Obama argued Friday that the Group of Eight nations had sent a clear message to Iran: The world will not "wait indefinitely" and allow the country to build nuclear weapons. “The international community has said, ‘Here’s a door you can walk through that allows you to lessen tensions and more fully join the international community,’ ” Obama told reporters at a news conference at the end of the G-8 summit in Italy. “If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G-8 to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries, that are going to say, ‘We need to take further steps.’ ” Obama met with some fellow leaders to push for a threat of potential new sanctions against Iran, but the G-8 did not issue such a threat.

Can Language Skills Ward Off Alzheimer’s Disease?

Adding to the deep body of research associating mental acuity with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a study published online on July 8 by the journal Neurology suggests that people who possess sophisticated linguistic skills early in life may be protected from developing dementia in old age — even when their brains show the physical signs, like lesions and plaques, of memory disorders.

The Pope on Capitalism: Encyclical ‘Charity in Truth’

Ever wondered what God makes of the current global economic crisis? We’ll never know, of course, but the man the Roman Catholic Church deems the Almighty’s “pastor in chief” has finally weighed in with his own take: Pope Benedict XVI offers neither stock tips nor bailout plans in Caritas in Veritate , but the long-awaited third encyclical of his papacy is a wide-ranging commentary on the sources of our economic woes and a holy blueprint for recovery based on something greater than the once mighty dollar.

‘Green’ revolution under way in rural China

In the northwest of China’s mountainous Yunnan province, among the world’s most biodiverse areas, a green revolution is under way among rural residents. In Meiquan Village near Lashi Lake, Zhang Chengui says he has been able to maximize profits by spending more time growing crops since installing a biogas digester-greenhouse, solar water heater, energy-efficient stove and rain-collecting cistern. He installed them with loans from the bank and grants from The Nature Conservancy, becoming in 2003 the first in his village to adopt alternative energy.

Medvedev expects ‘reasonable solution’ to U.S. nuclear standoff

On the eve of a two-day summit with U.S. President Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says both countries are "moderately optimistic" about "resetting" their relations. In an interview with Italian media RAI and Corriere della Sera, Medvedev said relations “have begun to revive” after a period of significant deterioration during the administration of President George W.

Toxic plane air sickens flight attendant, suit says

The last time Terry Williams can remember being headache-free was in December. A chronic migraine has plagued her ever since.

Is a China Stock Bubble Forming?

When outlandish stock market events of 2009 are tallied up, the initial public offering in Hong Kong of Chinese herbal shampoo maker Bawang International will be a standout. Within 10 minutes of the June 22 opening of the subscription period for shares, one local brokerage, Bright Smart Securities, was swamped with the equivalent of $129 million in orders

Report: China extends deadline on filtering software

China on Tuesday announced it would indefinitely postpone a mandate requiring all personal computers sold in the country to be accompanied by a controversial content-filtering application, state media reported. The announcement came one day before a government-set deadline that would have required the software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, to come with all PCs, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The Chinese government has said the software is chiefly a way for parents to protect children from pornography.