Thursday, September 10, 2009 CARAVACA DE LA CRUZ, Spain: American Tyler Farrar won the 11th stage of the Tour of Spain in a mass sprint finish on Wednesday, as controversial Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde retained the leader's golden jersey.The Garmin rider edged Belgian Philippe Gilbert and Italy's Marco Marcato to the line after a 200-kilometre ride from Murcia to Caravaca de la Cruz in southeastern Spain, which included a first category hill climb.All three were among a group of 49 riders, including Valverde, to record the same time.The stage was marked by a breakaway after around 65 kilometres by Frenchman David Moncoutie, Spain's Amets Txurruka and Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland.The three built up a lead of more than eight minutes but were caught by the peleton around 50 kilometres before the finish.Frenchman Remy di Gregorio also launched a late and short-lived attack.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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