SFGATE; Google Inc. offered consumers another reason to ditch their traditional landlines Wednesday by unveiling a service that lets them make free phone calls through its popular e-mail program.

The Mountain View search giant is allowing U.S. users to place free calls domestically and to Canada through its Web-based Gmail service, using their computer’s built-in speaker and microphone, or a headset.

It’s the latest in a series of additions to Gmail that are increasingly transforming the service into an all-in-one communications tool where people can manage contacts, e-mail, chats, video conferencing and now phone calls. READ MORE:

ESPN Soccernet: Lyon’s purchase of France international midfielder Yoann Gourcuff from rivals Bordeaux is a seismic shock for the domestic game in France. The €22 million deal smashes the record for the most expensive transaction between French clubs, set ten years ago by Shabani Nonda’s transfer from Rennes to Monaco (for the equivalent of €20 million). READ MORE

Gourcuff is n°29 on the OL team.

(Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy’s summer break ends with a thud this week as France’s soaring debts force the French leader to slash costs in a country where the word austerity is taboo.

Labor unions are planning a big strike over pension reform, his government has a month to prepare a deficit-shrinking budget and opinion polls offer him cold comfort as 2012 elections loom larger in French political life.

Under pressure to convince financial markets that France is serious about debt control while it crawls out of recession, the difficulty that the French president faces is that what pleases investors may deeply displease voters.

Sarkozy, who will hold a first post-vacation cabinet meeting on Wednesday, is unlikely to make any concessions on the plan to raise the legal retirement age to 62 from 60, analysts say.

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SI: Last month, France won the Under-19 European Championships on home soil by beating Spain 2-1 in the final. It was the nation’s first youth title since 2005, when a side that contained Yoann Gourcuff, Abou Diaby and Hugo Lloris won the same tournament in Northern Ireland.

As that trio figured in France’s ill-fated World Cup campaign this summer, hopes are high that the current crop of youngsters, known as the "1991 generation," after the year of their birth, will go onto great things. Below is a list of the most promising French youngsters under 21, all of whom face important challenges in the coming season.

1. Yann M’Vila (Midfielder, Rennes, 20)

2. Gael Kakuta (Winger, Chelsea, 19)

3. Gueida Fofana (Midfielder, Le Havre, 19)

4. Yannis Tafer (Striker, Lyon, 19)

5. Mamadou Sakho (Defender, Paris Saint-Germain, 20)

6. Antoine Griezmann (Winger, Real Sociedad, 19)

7. Emmanuel Riviere (Striker, Saint-Etienne, 20)

8. Henri Saivet (Attacking midfielder, Bordeaux, 19)

9. Chris Mavinga (Defender, Liverpool, 19)

10. Gilles Sunu (Striker, Arsenal, 19)

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Carrefour is getting ready to unveil two new hypermarkets, as part of its plans to revive its struggling operations across Europe, with CEO Lars Olofsson calling the current concept “a thing of the past”. The retail giant will open the hypermarkets tomorrow (24 August) in Lyon, with Olofsson noting that “some departments will go, some will merge and we will introduce some new ones”.

Olofsson said the changes had to be made at the hypermarkets, noting “The concept of having everything under one roof in a bazaar-like spirit is a thing of the past”. He added that the new-look hypermarkets will focus on areas in which Carrefour is competitive in prices, such as textiles, home decor and groceries.

Carrefour plans to invest nearly E1bn over the next three years on revamping its European hypermarkets, which represent half of its sales. Olofsson noted that despite the troubles, Carrefour has increased its market share in France by 1% to 24% this year.

The Indepedenet UK: A previously unknown monkey species has been discovered in the Colombian jungle.

The small, cat-sized animal – officially named Callicebus caquetensis – is the fourth species of titi monkey now known to live in the South American country’s southern forests.

Scientists found the primate during an expedition in the forests of Caqueta, a region close to the border with Peru and Ecuador, which had been off-limits to scientists because of the risks posed by armed insurgents and drug smugglers. The forests have been a sanctuary for guerrilla groups since the 1970s, the last time a scientific expedition in the area had noted the presence of an unusual species of titi monkey. "This discovery is extremely exciting because we had heard about this animal, but for a long time we could not confirm if it was different from other titis," said Professor Thomas Defler, a researcher with Conservation International based in Washington DC. "We now know that this is a unique species, and it shows the rich diversity of life that is still be to discovered in the Amazon."

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For more pictures go to the atioal Geographic Website.

CBC.caLove it or loathe it, there’s no denying Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love is a pop-culture phenomenon.

In the four years since it was first published, Gilbert’s entertaining account of her painful divorce and ensuing spiritual journey has spent more than 155 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold an estimated four million copies in paperback. The book inspires such fervour that some devotees embark on pricey Bali theme tours in an effort to recreate Gilbert’s soul-searching experience.

NYTIMES TOKYO — Japan has long boasted of having many of the world’s oldest people — testament, many here say, to a society with a superior diet and a commitment to its elderly that is unrivaled in the West. Related

That was before the police found the body of a man thought to be one of Japan’s oldest, at 111 years, mummified in his bed, dead for more than three decades. His daughter, now 81, hid his death to continue collecting his monthly pension payments, the police said.

Alarmed, local governments began sending teams to check on other elderly residents. What they found so far has been anything but encouraging.

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