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(11/06/08 4:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>PARIS – Barack Obama’s election as America’s first black president unleashed a renewed love for the United States after years of dwindling goodwill, and many said Wednesday that U.S. voters had blazed a trail that minorities elsewhere could follow.People across Africa stayed up all night or woke before dawn to watch U.S. history being made, while the president of Kenya — where Obama’s father was born – declared a public holiday.In Indonesia, where Obama lived as a child, hundreds of students at his former elementary school erupted in cheers when he was declared winner and poured into the courtyard where they hugged each other, danced in the rain and chanted “Obama! Obama!”“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, said in a letter of congratulations to Obama.Many expressed amazement and satisfaction that the United States could overcome centuries of racial strife and elect an African-American as president.“This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten,” Rama Yade, France’s black junior minister for human rights, told French radio. “America is re-becoming a New World.“On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes,” she said.Yet celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces global challenges as momentous as the hopes his campaign inspired — wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a global economy in turmoil.The huge weight of responsibilities on Obama’s shoulders was also a concern for some. French former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Obama’s biggest challenge would be managing a punishing agenda of various crises in the United States and the world. “He will need to fight on every front,” he said.Some Iraqis, who have suffered through five years of a war ignited by the United States and its allies, said they would believe positive change when they saw it.“Obama’s victory will do nothing for the Iraqi issue nor for the Palestinian issue,” said Muneer Jamal, a Baghdad resident. “I think all the promises Obama made during the campaign will remain mere promises.”In Pakistan, a country vital to the U.S.-led war on the al-Qaida terrorist network and neighbor to Afghanistan, many hoped Obama would bring some respite from rising militant violence that many blame on Bush.Still, Mohammed Arshad, a 28-year-old schoolteacher in the capital, Islamabad, doubted Obama’s ability to change U.S. foreign policy dramatically.“It is true that Bush gave America a very bad name. He has become a symbol of hate. But I don’t think the change of face will suddenly make any big difference,” he said.Obama’s victory was greeted with cheers across Latin America, a region that has shifted sharply to the left during the Bush years. From Mexico to Chile, leaders expressed hope for warmer relations based on mutual respect — a quality many felt has been missing from U.S. foreign policy.Venezuela and Bolivia, which booted out the U.S. ambassadors after accusing the Bush administration of meddling in their internal politics, said they were ready to reestablish diplomatic relations, and Brazil’s president was among several leaders urging Obama to be more flexible toward Cuba.On the streets of Rio de Janeiro, people expressed a mixture of joy, disbelief, and hope for the future.“It’s the beginning of a different era,” police officer Emmanuel Miranda said. “The United States is a country to dream about, and for us black Brazilians, it is even easier to do so now.”Many around the world found Obama’s international roots — his father was Kenyan, and he lived four years in Indonesia as a child — compelling.“What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had,” said Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck’s in Bangkok. “He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president.”
(12/07/06 3:40am)
PARIS -- France's foreign minister said Wednesday that Iran will face U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt its nuclear program, but major world powers remain divided over exactly how far punishment should go.\nFrench Foriegn Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on RTL radio that the measures would fall under a part of the U.N. Charter -- Article 41 of Chapter 7 -- that authorizes the Security Council to impose nonmilitary sanctions, such as severing or limiting diplomatic and economic relations, transportation and communications links.\n"The question is about the scope of sanctions, but there will be sanctions," Douste-Blazy said.\nAt closed-door talks in Paris Tuesday, France and five other major powers, including the U.S., failed to reach an accord on a U.N. resolution to punish Iran, although the French Foreign Ministry said there was "substantive progress" and that "we are now close to a conclusion of this process."\nThe Security Council has been at odds over how to deal with Iran's defiance of an Aug. 31 U.N. deadline to halt uranium enrichment. Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that U.N. sanctions will not force his country to abandon its nuclear program, which he insisted is for peaceful purposes. Western powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons.\n"Nuclear technology is a right for all the countries," Iran's Minister of Foriegn Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki told AP Television News on a visit to The Hague, Netherlands. "We are against any limitation to realize this right for the countries...for peaceful purposes.\nThe Europeans and Americans want tough sanctions; Russia and China have pushed for dialogue, despite the failure of an EU effort to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table.\nA top European diplomat said Wednesday that the five permanent Security Council members -- the U.S., China, France, Russia and Britain -- along with Germany remained split on key questions of visa bans and asset freezes for Iranians linked to nuclear development.\nDouste-Blazy, however, played down the differences, saying the talks confirmed major powers' desire to act in concert.\n"We agreed on one thing: There will be a resolution at the U.N. Security Council in a unified manner, including China and Russia," he said.\nAfter months of diplomatic wrangling, the U.S. and France had hoped the talks would produce a resolution to impose sanctions on Iran for defying U.N. demands to stop uranium enrichment. The process can produce material for atomic warheads as well as electricity.\nRussia made some concessions in its resistance to wide-ranging sanctions -- agreeing to a measure prohibiting financial transfers to "problematic" Iranians linked to nuclear or ballistic programs, a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.\nRussia still opposes the broader asset freeze that the European players proposed in a draft U.N. resolution presented in October, the diplomat said.\nAnd the question of travel bans for those involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs remains "blocked," the diplomat said. The Europeans and Americans support the bans; Russia opposes them.\nThe working-draft of the U.N. resolution would order all countries to ban the supply of materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs. Russia has said it supports such measures.\nThe Russians also remain resistant to a measure expanding the powers of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Iran's nuclear program, considering that a "provocation" to Iran, the diplomat said.\nThe draft resolution, which the U.S. and the Europeans want adopted by the end of the year, would exempt a nuclear power plant being built by the Russians in Iran, but not the nuclear fuel needed for the reactor. Russia wants to remove any mention of the Bushehr reactor.
(11/09/05 4:48am)
PARIS -- The French government declared a state of emergency Tuesday after nearly two weeks of rioting, and the prime minister said the nation faced a "moment of truth."\nThe extraordinary security measures, to begin Wednesday and valid for 12 days, clear the way for curfews to try to halt the country's worst civil unrest since the student uprisings of 1968.\nPrime Minister Dominique de Villepin, tacitly acknowledging that France has failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals, reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs where the rioting began. He said France must make a priority of working against the discrimination that feeds the frustration of youths made to feel they do not belong in France.\n"The effectiveness of our integration model is in question," the prime minister told parliament. He called the riots "a warning" and "an appeal."\nDespite his conciliatory tone, Villepin said riot police faced "determined individuals, structured gangs, organized criminality," and that restoring order "will take time." Rioters have been using mobile phone text messages and the Internet to organize arson attacks, said police, who arrested two teenage bloggers accused of inciting other youths to riot.\n"We must be lucid: The Republic is at a moment of truth," Villepin said.\nLawmakers at the impassioned parliamentary debate also spoke frankly about France's failings. But criticism of the government extended well beyond the country's borders.\nImages of French teenagers from north and west African immigrant families pelting riot police with stones and gasoline bombs -- reminiscent of Palestinian youths attacking Israeli patrols -- have struck chords in the Muslim world.\nThe Egyptian daily Al-Massaie referred to the riots as "the intefadeh of the poor." Arabic satellite networks have given lead coverage to the mayhem, with regular live reports. Newspapers have followed the story on inside pages, calling it a "nightmare" and a "war of the suburbs."\nArson attacks, rioting and other unrest have spread from the suburbs to hundreds of cities and towns -- though acts of violence were down somewhat Monday night from the previous evening.\nIn the first reports of violence Tuesday night, a clash broke out between youths who threw gasoline bombs and police who retaliated with tear gas, LCI television said.\nThe 50-year-old state-of-emergency law that President Jacques Chirac invoked was originally drawn up to quell unrest in Algeria during its war of independence from France. It was last used in December 1984 by the Socialist government of President Francois Mitterrand against rioting in the French Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia.\nThat Chirac took such steps was a measure both of the gravity of the crisis and of his sorely tested government's determination to restore control.\n"France is wounded. It does not recognize itself in these devastated streets and neighborhoods, in this outburst of hatred and of violence that vandalizes and kills," Villepin said. "The return to order is the absolute priority."\nUnder the emergency laws, police -- with 8,000 officers deployed and 1,500 reservists called up as reinforcements -- could be empowered in areas where curfews are imposed to put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles, confiscate weapons and close public spaces where gangs gather, Villepin said.\nThe Interior Ministry said local officials were deciding whether curfew measures were needed in their areas. The Justice Ministry said curfew violators could face up to two months imprisonment and a $4,400 fine. Minors face one month imprisonment.\nThe northern French city of Amiens and the central city of Orleans said they planned curfews for minors under age 16, who must be accompanied by adults at night. Amiens also planned to forbid the sale of gasoline in cans to minors.\nThe widespread violence has already led France to begin fast-track trials, with 106 adults and 33 minors so far sentenced to prison or detention centers.\nThe violence started Oct. 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb angry over the accidental electrocutions of two teenagers, of Mauritanian and Tunisian descent, while hiding from police in a power substation.\nIt has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths, many of them French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories like Algeria. France's suburbs have long been neglected, and their youth complain of a lack of jobs and widespread discrimination.\nIn his speech to parliament, Villepin said jobseekers with foreign-sounding names do not get equal consideration as those with traditional French-sounding names when presenting resumes.\nThe French system, said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a lawmaker from Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of northeast Paris where the unrest started, is "running out of steam."\nThe main opposition Socialists, through their parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault, said they did not oppose the use of curfews but also warned they should not be used to hide suburban "misery" or become "a new mark of segregation."\nCommunist Party leader Marie-George Buffet warned that the decree could enflame rioters. \n"It could be taken anew as a sort of challenge to carry out more violence," she said.\nFrench historians say the rioting is more widespread and destructive in material terms than the May riots of 1968, when university students erected barricades in Paris' Latin Quarter and across France, throwing paving stones at police. That unrest, a turning point in modern France, led to a general strike by 10 million workers and forced President Gen. Charles De Gaulle to dissolve parliament and fire Premier Georges Pompidou.
(07/25/05 2:22am)
PARIS -- Lance Armstrong closed out his amazing career with a seventh consecutive Tour de France victory Sunday -- and did it a little earlier than expected.\nBecause of wet conditions, race organizers stopped the clock as Armstrong and the main pack entered Paris. Although riders were still racing, with eight laps of the Champs-Elysees to complete, organizers said that \nArmstrong had officially won.\nThe stage started as it has done for the past six years -- with Armstrong wearing the race leader's yellow jersey. It ended the same way, too -- with him celebrating, this time by a comfortable margin of more than 4 1/2 minutes.\nOne hand on his handlebars, the other holding a flute of champagne, Armstrong toasted his teammates as he pedaled into Paris to collect his crown. He held up seven fingers -- one for each win -- and a piece of paper with the number '7' on it.\nWhen it was over, Armstrong saluted the race he's made his own.\n"Vive le Tour, forever," he said.\nThe 33-year-old Texan choked up on the victory podium as he stood next to his twin 3-year-old daughters -- dressed in bright yellow dresses, appropriately -- and his son. His rock star girlfriend Sheryl Crow, wearing a yellow halter top, cried during the ceremony.\n"This is the way he wanted to finish his career, so it's very emotional," she said.\nLooking gaunt, his cheeks hollow after riding 2,232.7 miles across France and its mountains for three weeks, Armstrong still could smile at the end. He said President Bush called to congratulate him.\nArmstrong's new record of seven wins confirmed him as one of the greatest cyclists ever, and capped a career where he came back from cancer to dominate cycling's most prestigious and taxing race.\nStanding on the podium, against the backdrop of the Arc de Triomphe, Armstrong managed a rare feat in sports -- going out on the top of his game. He previously said that his decision was final and that he was walking away with "absolutely no regrets."\nArmstrong mentioned Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi as personal inspirations.\n"Those are guys that you look up to you, guys that have been at the top of their game for a long time," he said.\nAs for his accomplishments, he said, "I can't be in charge of dictating what it says or how you remember it."\n"In five, 10, 15, 20 years, we'll see what the legacy is. But I think we did come along and revolutionize the cycling part, the training part, the equipment part. We're fanatics."\nAlexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan eventually won the final stage, with Armstrong finishing safely in the pack to win the Tour by more than 4 minutes, 40 seconds over Ivan Basso of Italy. The 1997 Tour winner, Jan Ullrich, was third, 6:21 back.\n"It's up to you guys," Armstrong said, forecasting the Tour future.\nArmstrong's sixth win last year already set a record, putting Armstrong ahead of four other riders -- Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, Belgian Eddy Merckx and Spaniard Miguel Indurain -- who all won five Tours.\nAlong the way, he brought unprecedented attention to the sport, and won over many who had dismissed it.\n"Finally, the last thing I'll say for the people who don't believe in cycling -- the cynics, the skeptics -- I'm sorry for you," Armstrong said. "I'm sorry you can't dream big and I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. But this is one hell of a race, this is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe."\nArmstrong's last ride as a professional -- the closing 89.8-mile 21st stage into Paris from Corbeil-Essonnes south of the capital -- was not without incident.\nThree of his teammates slipped and crashed on the rain-slicked pavement coming around a bend just before they crossed the River Seine. Armstrong, right behind them, braked and skidded into the fallen riders.\nArmstrong used his right foot to steady himself, and was able to stay on the bike.\nHis teammates, wearing special shirts with a band of yellow on right shoulder, recovered and led him up the Champs-Elysees at the front of the pack.\nOrganizers then announced that they had stopped the clock because of the slippery conditions with more than 10 miles to go.\nVinokourov surged ahead of the main pack to win the last stage. He had been touted as one of Armstrong's main rivals at the start of the Tour on July 2, but like others was overwhelmed by him.\nArmstrong's departure begins a new era for the 102-year-old Tour, with no clear successor. His riding and his inspiring defeat of cancer attracted new fans -- especially in the United States -- to the race, as much a part of French summers as sun cream, forest fires and traffic jams down to the Cote d'Azur.\nMillions turned out each year, cheering, picnicking and sipping wine by the side of the road, to watch him flash past in the race leader's yellow jersey, the famed "maillot jaune."\nCancer survivors, autograph hunters and enamored admirers pushed, shoved, and yelled "Lance! Lance!" outside his bus in the mornings for a smile, a signature, or a word from the champion.\nHe had bodyguards to keep the crowds at bay -- ruffling feathers of cycling purists who sniffed at his "American" ways.\nSome spectators would shout obscenities or "dope!" To some, his comeback from cancer and his uphill bursts of speed that left rivals gasping in the Alps and Pyrenees were too good to be true.\nArmstrong insisted that he simply trained, worked and prepared harder than anyone. He was drug-tested hundreds of times, in and out of competition, but never found to have committed any infractions.\nArmstrong came into this Tour saying he had a dual objective -- winning the race and the hearts of French fans. He was more relaxed, forthcoming and talkative than last year, when the pressure to be the first six-time winner was on.\nSome fans hung the Stars and Stripes on barriers that lined the Champs-Elysees on Sunday. Around France, some also urged Armstrong to go for an eighth win next year -- holding up placards and daubing their appeals in paint on the road.\nArmstrong, however, wanted to go out on top -- and not let advancing age get the better of him.\n"At some point you turn 34, or you turn 35, the others make a big step up, and when your age catches up, you take a big step down," he said Saturday after he won the final time trial. "So next could be the year if I continued that I lose that five minutes. We are never going to know"
(07/28/03 1:43am)
PARIS -- Sipping champagne to celebrate, Lance Armstrong won his hardest but sweetest Tour de France title Sunday, a record-tying fifth straight victory that places him alongside the greatest cyclists ever.\nThe 31-year-old Texan and Spanish great Miguel Indurain are now the only two riders to win the sport's most grueling and prestigious race five times in a row, a record Armstrong plans to break next year.\nSavoring his feat on a largely processional final stage past distinguished Paris landmarks, Armstrong sipped from a flute of champagne and toasted his achievement with a "Cheers!" as he rode, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey that he had so ardently coveted.\n"It's a dream, really a dream," Armstrong said in French after climbing the podium while "The Star-Spangled Banner" rang over the Champs-Elysees. "I love cycling, I love my job and I will be back for a sixth."\nThe indefatigable Armstrong overcame illness, crashes, dehydration, team and equipment problems and uncharacteristic bad days during the 23-day, 2,125-mile clockwise slog around France to win by his smallest margin, 61 seconds over five-time runner-up Jan Ullrich of Germany.\nArmstrong shared the podium with Ullrich and third-place finisher Alexandre Vinokourov, holding their hands above his head in a fitting tribute to the two men who battled him to the end.\nArmstrong's victory hardly resembled the previous four, when he demoralized rivals by dominating in lung-burning mountain ascents and super-speedy time trials. He had never before won by less than 6 minutes, even in 1999, three years after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy for testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain.\nA perfectionist, Armstrong said the closeness of the victory was already motivating him to come roaring back in 2004.\n"The other years I won by 6, 7 minutes. I think it makes it more exciting and sets up an attempt for number six," said Armstrong, the leader of the U.S. Postal Service team. "Before the Tour started I was very confident about winning. But before next year's Tour, I won't be so confident."\nHe said this victory had humbled him.\n"It makes me appreciate this victory and the other victories more because you realize the best form and the best conditioning are not a given," said Armstrong, who favors the Tour above all other races and prepares meticulously for it.\nThe intense rivalry between Armstrong and Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner, turned the race into a gripping drama, unlike his previous four victories when Armstrong was virtually assured of winning days before the finish on the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees.\nBut this year, he only sewed up his win in a rain-soaked time trial Saturday when he managed to stay upright on a slippery road while Ullrich skidded and crashed.\nSo action-packed was this Tour that Armstrong was prepared for the unexpected, even Sunday, on the largely processional final stage.\n"If a plane landed in the race I wouldn't be surprised," he said before setting off from the Paris suburb of Ville d'Avray on the 92.4-mile ride through streets packed with cheering spectators, many waving American flags.\nFrance's Jean-Patrick Nazon wept after winning the stage in a fierce final sprint. Australian Baden Cooke was second, earning enough points to win the green jersey as the Tour's best overall sprinter. For a record-tying sixth time, Richard Virenque of France won the pink polka-dot jersey as the Tour's best mountain rider.\nBut it is the yellow jersey that counts the most, and Armstrong proudly wore it every day since July 13, a week into the race.\nHe got a congratulatory phone call from Postmaster General John Potter shortly after crossing the finish line.\n"We think that Lance really, and the team, showed courage and determination like never before," said Anita Bizzotto, a senior vice president of the U.S. Postal Service. "We're extremely proud of him."\nBesides Armstrong and Indurain, just three other riders have won the Tour five times, but not consecutively. They are Belgium's Eddy Merckx, and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault. If Armstrong doesn't win a record sixth title, the question of who is the best will long be debated.\n"Armstrong's courageous, a fighter. Somebody who perseveres until the end," said Hinault, whose wins came in 1978-1979, 1981-1982 and 1985.\n"You have to do like him to beat him. He's certainly a star, but I don't know if he's a superstar. It's a new generation of riders. They have radios, they work more closely in teams. It's a different era," he said.\nIndurain said he still views Merckx as the greatest.\n"He competed in virtually every cycling competition, whereas Armstrong really only focuses on the Tour," Indurain said.\nThe Spaniard, who held the Tour in an iron grip from 1991-1995, said Armstrong would be hard-pressed to win six.\n"Of course it's possible. But every year it gets more difficult, and he'll face some tough rivals," he said.\nUllrich, returning from two knee operations and a ban for taking amphetamines, entered the race saying he didn't expect to win. But when it became evident Armstrong wasn't at his best, the German and other key rivals pressured the Texan as never before, attacking him relentlessly on grueling mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees.\nUllrich was most impressive in a time trial July 18, when he sliced a whopping 96 seconds off Armstrong, who had never before been beaten by the German in a race against the clock on the Tour.\nArmstrong wilted in scorching heat that day in the south of France, hanging onto second place but losing about 11 pounds. His performance prompted speculation that at 31, he was too old to win again.\nBut Armstrong stormed back three days later on a mist-shrouded 8.3-mile ascent to the Pyrenean ski station of Luz-Ardiden, one of the Tour's hardest climbs. Armstrong recovered from a fall, caused by a spectator's outstretched bag that caught his handlebars, to roar past Ullrich, who sportingly waited for him to get back on his bike. Other than a victory in the team time trial, it was Armstrong's only stage win of this Tour and marked a turning point. From then on, Ullrich was chasing Armstrong's lead.\n"At the start of the climb, I knew that that was where I needed to win the Tour," Armstrong said. "At the finish I was confident that that was enough."\nArmstrong said that in previous years, his preparations for the following Tour began almost immediately after his victory celebrations. Not this year.\n"This Tour took a lot out of me," he said. "I need to step back from cycling and from the races and relax a little bit and focus on 2004 in due time"
(07/24/03 1:53am)
BAYONNE, France -- Riding with the pain of a broken collarbone, veteran American racer Tyler Hamilton won his first ever stage in the Tour de France on Wednesday after a brave solo breakaway effort.\nLance Armstrong retained his 67-second overall lead, with four days of racing left. He finished 24th in Wednesday's stage, 1 minute 55 seconds behind Hamilton.\nHamilton applauded himself as he crossed the line at the end of the 16th stage, a 122.5-mile trek from Pau to Bayonne and the last punishing day in the mountains.\n"It was incredible, incredibly difficult," Hamilton said. "I knew I had to give it everything. I really can't believe it."\nArmstrong leads Jan Ullrich, his German archrival who won the Tour in 1997. After Wednesday's stage, Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan was third overall, 2 minutes and 45 seconds behind Armstrong. Hamilton was 6 minutes, 35 seconds behind Armstrong but closed in on fourth-placed Haimar Zubeldia, at 5:16 and fifth-placed Iban Mayo of Spain, at 5:25.\nWith the win, Hamilton was propelled one notch in the overall standings to sixth and now has a good shot at finishing in the top five when the race ends Sunday in Paris. He said winning the 16th stage made up for the disappointment of two weeks of pain.\n"To win a stage of the Tour de France is fantastic. It's beyond my wildest dreams," Hamilton said. "After today, I'll forget about the disappointment."\nHamilton broke his collarbone in a crash on the second day of the three-week race but continued riding. Armstrong gave him a hug at the finish Wednesday.\n"I think this is the biggest day of the Tour," Armstrong said. "Incredible."\nHamilton was long Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service teammate but now races against him as the star rider for Team CSC.\nDuring Wednesday's stage, Hamilton broke away and raced alone at the front for much of the race, finishing in 4 hours, 59 minutes and 41 seconds. Afterward, he said his collarbone, which was broken in two places, is still sore but better than it was.\n"The first week was just brutal, both on and off the bike I was suffering," he said. "It's probably been my most difficult race ever."\nHamilton was viewed as one of a handful of cyclists capable of denying Armstrong a record-tying fifth-straight Tour victory before he was injured in the crash involving 35 riders.\nArmstrong had been having a troubled Tour until Monday, when he rebounded in the 15th stage with a dominant win in the mountains after two weeks of problems.\nHe and Ullrich will battle for the Tour title in a time trial Saturday, the day before the finish in the Champs-Elysees.\nUllrich beat Armstrong in the last time trial, taking 96 seconds out of the 31-year-old Texan's overall lead. If the 29-year-old German does so again Saturday, he has a good chance of winning overall.\nArmstrong was dehydrated during that event last Friday and, while finishing second, was far from his best. If he holds Ullrich off in Saturday's race against the clock, his slim lead will probably be enough to give him his fifth successive Tour win, tying the record of Spanish racer Miguel Indurain.\nThe other remaining three stages are relatively flat and favor specialist sprinters, which Ullrich and Armstrong are not. Because it's easier for riders to stay together on the flat, such stages do not offer Armstrong nor Ullrich easy chances to gain time on each other.
(07/14/03 1:19am)
L'ALPE D'HUEZ, France - Lance Armstrong took the overall leader's yellow jersey for the first time in the Tour de France after finishing third in the second mountain stage of the race Sunday.\nIban Mayo of Spain dominated a battle with Armstrong and other chasing riders on the legendary L'Alpe d'Huez climb, powering up the 8.5-mile ascent and its 21 hairpin bends to win the eighth stage.\nArmstrong, having a difficult day, didn't respond when Mayo attacked and finished 2 minutes, 12 seconds behind the Spaniard.\nThe 31-year-old Texan, who is going for a record-tying fifth straight Tour victory, stayed close enough to seize the overall lead.\n"I didn't have the greatest sensations or the greatest legs today, no bluffing," he said.\nWith Mayo racing ahead, Armstrong was left to battle moves by Spain's Joseba Beloki and American Tyler Hamilton, riding with a broken collarbone, the result of a crash on the second day.\nBeloki, the Tour runner-up last year, is second overall to Armstrong, 40 seconds back. Mayo trails by 70 seconds.\nArmstrong and Beloki struggled for position moving up the mountain to the delight of tens of thousands of cheering fans who lined the narrow, twisting route to the ski resort.\n"If you'd asked me a month ago: 'Are you going to suffer like that on L'Alpe d'Huez?' I would have said, 'No way!'" Armstrong said.\n"I decided to just let Mayo go and limit my losses and cover Beloki because he's close on the classification, and that worked out OK."\nArmstrong, trying to match Miguel Indurain's record of five straight titles, was fighting a stomach flu entering the Tour. Armstrong said he's feeling better, but acknowledged that he doesn't feel as strong as in years past, when he won from 1999-2002.\n"Let's hope that things get better and not worse," he said.\nThe 135-mile stage from Sallanches included the monstrous Col du Galibier, which towers 8,728 feet.\nArmstrong said he could tell going up the climb that he was not having a great day.\n"It was a really hard stage from the start," Armstrong said. "The whole pack attacked."\nWhile Mayo is one of Armstrong's main challengers, the four-time champion played down the victory, saying he didn't regard the Spaniard as a threat to him overall -- yet.\n"The attack by Beloki was very strong. The attack by Mayo wasn't too serious because he was a bit behind in the standings," Armstrong said.\nMayo expects Armstrong to watch him more closely.\n"He will try and control me more and won't let me go," he said. "The Tour is very long with some difficult stages, so I will take it day by day."\nArmstrong blamed U.S. Postal Service teammate Manuel Beltran for some of his difficulties on the last climb.\nBeltran, a newcomer to the U.S. Postal squad, powered into the climb at top speed, hoping to help Armstrong shake off his rivals. But Armstrong said the Spaniard went too fast.\n"A fast tempo is a good thing, but that was supersonic," he said. "It won't happen again."\nJan Ullrich, the 1997 champion, was left behind, however, on the dizzying climb.\n"It was important to get distance from Jan Ullrich. That's the good news of the day," said Armstrong, who still considers Ullrich a threat.\n"I still think he's one of the most dangerous riders in the race," said Armstrong. "Jan typically gets better as the Tour goes on, and this Tour has a long way to go and I won't forget that"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
PARIS -- A man described as an emotionally disturbed neo-Nazi allegedly tried to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday, pulling a rifle from a guitar case and firing off a shot before being wrestled to the ground during a Bastille Day parade.\nThere were no reported injuries. It was not immediately clear how close the shot came to Chirac, who was passing about 130 to 160 feet away in an open-top jeep near Paris' Arch of Triumph as he reviewed troops in a military parade to celebrate France's national holiday.\nAs the gunman pulled a .22-caliber rifle out of a brown guitar case, the crowd along the tree-lined edge of the Champs-Elysees began shouting, apparently alerting police who rushed in and tackled him.\n"He was very determined," a witness identified only as Mohammed told France Info radio. "When he got it out, we grabbed his hands so the gun went upward."\nThe assailant was not identified, but Paris police said he was 25 years old and a member of "neo-Nazi and hooligan" groups. Police later transferred the man, who reportedly had a history of emotional problems, to a psychiatric facility, the radio station said.\n"It was an assassination attempt," said a government minister, Patrick Devedjian. "He admitted he wanted to kill the president." Devedjian, who is under the interior minister, said the gunman tried to shoot himself while being overcome.\nThe man's motives for attacking Chirac were not immediately known. Chirac crushed his far-right opponent, National Front leader Jean- Marie Le Pen, in the second round of France's presidential election in May, winning 82 percent of the vote and a second term.\nDevedjian said the gunman was from "the extreme, extreme right, even further right than the National Front."\nLe Pen denied any connection to the gunman and condemned "all assassination attempts aimed at the representative of the state."\n"I was sure that if a madman one day fired at the president, then it would be said in one way or another that he was from the extreme right," Le Pen said.\nThe attempt on Chirac comes as several European countries are facing a resurgence in support for far-right groups. Such movements have won votes by playing on fears of immigration, crime and economic stagnation.\nPim Fortuyn, the popular leader of the Netherlands' right-wing movement, was shot to death on May 6 in Amsterdam. Dutch police arrested a 32-year-old environment and animal rights activist on suspicion of assassinating him.\nFrance was shocked by Le Pen's strong showing in the first round of the presidential elections, when he knocked former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin out of the race.\nBernadette Chirac, the president's wife, also said "yes, clearly," when asked if the gunman was trying to kill her husband.\nDespite the attack, the Bastille Day parade, a colorful pageant with troops, armored vehicles and aircraft roaring overhead, continued uninterrupted.\nThe man was arrested at the top of the Champs-Elysees where it empties into Place Charles de Gaulle, site of the famous Arch of Triumph. He managed to reach the flag-bedecked Champs-Elysees despite heavy security. Police lined the avenue and mingled with crowds along the route.\nLater, Chirac hosted an annual Bastille Day garden party for thousands of invited guests on the palace grounds.\nHe made no reference to the assassination attempt in a brief appearance. After saluting the bravery of New York firefighters, who were invited guests, he dove into the crowd with a smile to shake hands.