Porsche retains Le Mans lead

Porsche retains Le Mans lead

Le Mans (France) (AFP) - Porsche held the lead with six hours of the 83rd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours Race still to run on Sunday, with the race so far involving a tight duel between it and Audi. The two carmakers had swapped the lead during the gruelling endurance event, which was halted four times, but come 0730 GMT, Nick Tandy was sitting in first position. In second place was ex-Formula One driver Mark Webber, also in a Porsche. Overnight, the Australian had slipped back when he received a one-minute, stop and go penalty for overtaking under yellow flags during the third appearance of the safety car, but managed to make up that time in the early hours of racing. Porsche is in search of its first victory in 18 years, whereas Audi are the dominant force having won 13 of the past 15 races. More than 250,000 spectators are expected to take in the marathon race, which extends for 13,629 kilometres (8,469 miles) and concludes at 1300GMT on Sunday Join the conversation about this story »

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Kurds close in on IS-held Syria border town

Beirut (AFP) - Kurdish forces closed in on a strategic jihadist-held border town in northern Syria on Sunday, prompting an exodus of fearful civilians from surrounding villages.  Backed by allied rebels and air strikes by a US-led coalition, Kurdish militia pressed their offensive on Tal Abyad, used by the Islamic State group as a gateway from neighbouring Turkey.  Late Saturday, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) advanced to within five kilometres (three miles) of Tal Abyad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.  The militia also seized at least 20 villages southwest of the border town, the Britain-based monitoring group added. "They are on the eastern outskirts of Tal Abyad, but the southwestern front is much more difficult because it's more populated," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.  A Kurdish activist who visits the front line daily said the area's mixed population of Kurds and Arabs was seeking refuge wherever it could. "Tal Abyad is almost completely surrounded," Arin Shekhmos told AFP. An AFP correspondent on the Turkish side of the border reported that thousands of would-be refugees were queueing behind the barbed wire seeking asylum. Another Kurdish activist in the symbolic battleground town of Kobane further west, liberated from IS by the Kurds earlier this year, said authorities there had set up a camp for the displaced. "We are waiting for the whole border area to be liberated -- from northeastern Syria all the way to Kobane," Ebdi told AFP.  Tal Abyad lies on a mostly Sunni Arab part of the border between mainly Kurdish Kobane and Syria's most populous ethnic Kurdish region -- Hasakeh province -- in the northeast. Both Ebdi and the Observatory said the Kurds had already occupied the nearby town of Suluk, denying IS access to Tal Abyad from the east. "IS has completely withdrawn from Suluk. The Kurds are combing through it now and clearing the mines and booby-trapped vehicles there," Abdel Rahman said. He told AFP that US-led air strikes had been key in forcing the jihadists to withdraw. On Saturday, the coalition said it had struck three IS tactical units near Kobane and had destroyed one of the group's fighting positions.  To the west in Aleppo province, coalition raids killed at least 12 IS fighters as they fought a rebel alliance for control of a supply route from Turkey, Abdel Rahman said. Northern Syria is the most complex battleground in the country's more than four-year civil war, with IS fighting Kurdish militia, Syrian government forces and a rebel alliance including rival jihadists of Al-Qaeda. Join the conversation about this story »

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Lions, tigers and bears escape from Tbilisi zoo after flood

Tbilisi (AFP) - Tigers, lions, jaguars, bears and wolves escaped Sunday from flooded zoo enclosures in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the mayor's office said. Some of the animals were captured by police while others were shot dead, the mayor's office told local Rustavi 2 television. Join the conversation about this story »

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Billionaires are demanding that waterfalls be installed in their superyachts — and they have a really good reason for it

The ultimate rite of passage for any billionaire is to get a superyacht — a floating palace in which the megarich can live in luxury on the sea. These boats have cutting-edge technology, including fixed-pitch propellers combined with a Rolls-Royce central booster jet that lets them travel at the speed of a car. The interiors put five-star hotels to shame, too. But when you have the level of fortune that rivals a small country's gross domestic product, you can customise your boat with whatever you want. Prices for the smallest yachts, without extra customisation, start at €66 million (£48 million, $74 million). The megarich — people with budgets way beyond that — are able to afford some of the craziest customisations. Sara Gioanola, a manager at the Dutch superyacht builder Heesen Yachts told Business Insider that clients were demanding to have one new feature in particular on their boats: waterfalls. Here is a shot of a waterfall placed in one of Heesen Yachts' largest boats — the Project Kometa. The boat is 70 metres long and can achieve a top speed of almost 30 knots (about 34 mph). The waterfalls aren't just for aesthetic purposes. They serve a couple of other cool functions as well. "The big trend at the moment is that clients want bigger platforms to fit more guests and, at the same time, be closer to the water and the surrounding environment," said Gioanola. "They are wanting infinity pools, which are pools that give a visual effect of the water extending into the horizon, as well as waterfalls. The waterfalls look beautiful but they can also create a water banner, depending on the amount of water gushing, to enable a privacy shield." It's tough for the paparazzi to get their shots if you're standing behind a wall of falling water. That's a real concern if your guests are film stars, politicians or royalty. Waterfalls' second purpose is entertainment: "They can also be used to project movies onto it," Gioanola says. If you turn up the flow on this indoor waterfall, it becomes a screen: Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million

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