Friday, September 04, 2009 VINAROS, Spain: Germany's Andre Greipel took the golden jersey as overall leader of the Tour of Spain after recording his second consecutive stage win here on Thursday.The Team Columbia rider came from behind with just metres to go to beat Belgium's Tom Boonen and Italy's Daniele Bennati in a sprint at the end of the 174-kilometre race from Tarragona to Vinaros in northeastern Spain.The stage was held amid scorching temperatures that reached 38 C (100 F), a contrast to the rain on Tuesday when Greipel won the treacherous 225-kilometre fourth stage between Venlo in the Netherlands and Liege in Belgium.The 27-year-old takes over as Tour leader from Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, who had led since the time trial on first day on Saturday.In the overall classification he leads Boonen by six seconds and Bennati by 17, with Cancellara 27 seconds back in fifth place.It was his 17th victory of the season but the first time he has led a major Tour.Thursday's fifth stage was the first this year to be held in Spain after opening in the Netherlands. It was also the first to include hill climbs.It was marked by an attack in the first kilometre by Spain's Julien Sanchez Pimienta.He was soon joined by five other riders, and the six then built up a lead of several minutes. They were caught by the peloton with less than 20 kilometres to go.Frenchman Philippe Gilbert also launched a late breakaway on the final hill climb of La Ermita, but was reeled in a few minutes later.Friday's 176-kilometre sixth stage starts and finishes in the eastern town of Xativa and includes two third-category hill climbs.
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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