Sanchez wins stage as Nocentini keeps yellow

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.

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Search for Air France ‘black boxes’ enters new phase

The search for the data and voice recorders from the Air France plane that crashed more than a month ago off Brazil’s coast is entering a new phase, according to France’s accident investigation agency. All 228 people aboard the plane were killed in the June 1 crash. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, commonly known as black boxes, stop giving out acoustic broadcasts after 30 days

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Obama at G-8: Full recovery ‘still a ways off’

President Obama said Friday that leaders of the industrialized nations have agreed to continue fueling economic growth while strengthening regulatory measures but they also realize that full recovery is "still a ways off." Obama listed some of the achievements of the Group of Eight summit this week in Italy as the conference neared the end, and he stressed the need for collective action. In addition, the G8 nations agreed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, set goals for reducing carbon monoxide emissions and invest $20 billion in food security

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Hushovd snatches sixth stage, Armstrong in hunt

Thor Hushovd led a mass sprint finish win the sixth stage of the Tour de France in wet conditions on Thursday, while overall leader Fabian Cancellara remained a second ahead of comeback king Lance Armstrong. The Norwegian headed off last year’s green jersey winner Oscar Freire and another Spaniard in Jose Joaquin Rojas to give his Cervelo team its first stage win in cycling’s premier event, and his sixth. The top 43 riders were all classified with a time of four hours, 21 minutes and 33 seconds, including Cancellara in 10th and seven-time champion Armstrong in 27th.

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Armstrong just fails to take yellow jersey

Lance Armstrong has failed by under a second to take the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, after the American’s Astana team powered to victory in the 39km fourth stage team time-trial around Montpellier. Seven-times winner Armstrong began the day 40 seconds behind race leader Fabian Cancellara in third position on general classification — and his Astana team duly beat Cancellara’s Saxon Bank team by that very margin, with the Garmin team splitting them in second position. The result means Swiss Cancellara keeps hold of the race lead by the slenderest of margins, with 2007 champion and Armstrong’s team-mate Alberto Contador in third place, 19 seconds behind the leading two.

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Study: A Fairer Way to Cut Global CO2 Emissions

At the end of the year, governments from around the world will meet in Copenhagen hopefully to hammer out a new treaty — the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 — to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. Their lack of time aside, diplomats face a very large, very immovable hurdle on the way to a new Kyoto. Developed countries like the U.S., which refused to ratify the original treaty, are responsible for most of the CO2 in the atmosphere — and more than a century of industrialization has helped make them rich — which would indicate that they should shoulder the lion’s share of future emissions reductions.

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Cavendish wins again as Armstrong moves up

Mark Cavendish has won the third stage of the Tour de France to cement his reputation as the fastest man in cycling, following a devastating spell of riding by his Team Columbia colleagues. Cavendish, who is now becoming unbeatable in sprint finishes, once again showed his rivals a clean pair of heels, beating Norwegian Thor Hushovd to the line at the end of a dramatic 196km stage from Marseille to La Grand Motte.

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