Marseille coach Didier Deschamps has pledged to give his full cooperation to France coach Laurent Blanc’s efforts to rebuild the national team following its poor World Cup.

With France desperate to rebuild its image after its struggles in South Africa, Deschamps feels that Blanc will need all the help he can get.

Deschamps and Blanc have a closer relationship after having played together when France won the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championship two years later, and Deschamps expects that to help matters during Blanc’s tenure.

Survivors of a stampede at a free dance music festival in Germany in which 19 people were killed have blamed organizers for the deaths.

Witnesses criticized the decision to have just one entrance through a tunnel to the Love Parade, and said they had warned police about overcrowding.

The mayor of Duisburg, where the festival took place, said a security plan had been worked out beforehand.

Officials have launched an investigation into the disaster.

The worst-ever oil spill in the history of China is proving to be difficult to contain. An explosion last weekend at the Xingang oil terminal in the north-eastern port of Dalian, once named China’s most liveable city, released a major spillage of crude oil, which has closed fisheries and contaminated beaches along the nearby coast.

More than 800 vessels are working 14-hour days to clean the sea, many of them equipped with special oil-eating bacteria, grown by a Chinese company. The bacteria break down the toxic hydrocarbons in oil into less harmful compounds. They were used after the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989.

Dalian is usually popular in the summer for its beaches and good seafood but several beaches have been closed, and shellfish and abalone farms near the spill have been closed.

Eating less meat may be the key to keeping a healthy weight, say researchers.

A European study of almost 400,000 adults found that eating meat was linked with weight gain, even in people taking in the same number of calories.

The strongest association was found with processed meat, such as sausages and ham, the Imperial College, London team reported.

The study was carried out by researchers from Imperial College, London and a number of other universities in Europe who were all part of the continuing EPIC-PANACEA research project. All the studies in this group are funded by a variety of government, charitable and not-for-profit sources. The study was published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The results of tests on the strength of 91 banks across Europe have been given a mixed response by economists.

AIB and Bank of Ireland both passed the critical examination carried out to assess their ability to cope with future economic shocks.

The two banks were the only Irish financial institutions examined. Seven banks failed the test, including five Spanish savings banks and small regional banks in Germany and Greece.

Andy Schleck has won the most prestigious stage of this year’s Tour de France, but defending champion Alberto Contador finished a close second Thursday to virtually guarantee he’ll clinch the overall victory.

Contador stuck to his Luxembourg rival as the two climbed the legendary Col du Tourmalet in fog and drizzle. They completed the 108 miles from Pau to the Col du Tourmalet in 5 hours, 3 minutes, 29 seconds. Contador still leads Schleck in the overall standings by eight seconds.

Facebook on Wednesday confirmed that it now has 500 million users on its site. To celebrate, the social-networking site has launched an app known as "Facebook Stories," which will highlight stories about the impact Facebook has had on people’s lives.

As part of the announcement, the company launched a new "stories" app that lets people tell Facebook awesome things about Facebook. Most of the entries are maudlin at best, and it seems like about three-quarters of them are about (re)meeting the love of a life. Some users, though, are using the service in more interesting, or at least funnier, ways.

Scientists believe they have discovered the heaviest star ever found, and one of the brightest too.

The star, which resides more than 165,000 light-years away in the Tarantula Nebula, is far weightier than Earth’s sun and shines 10 million times brighter, experts say.

"Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age," said astrophysicist Paul Crowther, at the University of Sheffield in northern England.

R136a1, as the star is officially designated, "is already middle-aged and has undergone an intense weight loss program."

The star is the most massive of several giants identified by Crowther and his team in an article in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.