The Emergency Services Ministry says in a statement that 25 other people were injured in the Saturday crash. The severity of the injuries wasn't stated.

The accident occurred when the truck plowed into the side of the bus near Oznobishino, a settlement in the Moscow municipality about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the city center.

Russian news reports say the drivers of both vehicles are among the hospitalized.

The pain starts on Sunday on the horrid climb of Mont Ventoux. The barren white mountain rises from the sunbaked plains of Provence. The 181 brave souls who have survived the 2,325 kilometers (1,444 miles) ridden so far, out of 198 who started two weeks ago, will see the climb coming long before they hit it, so there will be plenty of time for apprehension, for butterflies in the stomach, to build.

The forecast is for uninterrupted sunshine, so the riders will find no relief from the weather either. As if the climb itself wasn't hard enough, they will already have ridden 221 kilometers (137 miles), setting off in the mid-morning, before even reaching the foot of the mountain in the late afternoon. So they will be tired for the ascension, too.

Sunday's stage - a grand total of 242.5 kilometers (150 miles), including the final climb - is the longest of this Tour and starts in the Rhone valley town of Givors.

''Ventoux is always scary,'' said Garmin-Sharp rider David Millar, a veteran of 12 Tours. ''It's going to be horrible for everyone.''

One of the big questions is whether yellow jersey-holder Chris Froome will zoom or go boom on the climb, perhaps extending his race lead if he has a good day or losing it if he has a disastrous one.

The Briton is an excellent climber. The steepness and length of the Ventoux ascent should suit him. But because the climb is so tough, even top riders can lose bags of time if they wilt. Ventoux has the hardest rating for Tour climbs. In around one hour of sustained physical effort, the Tour will go from an altitude of 300 meters to 1,900 meters (the equivalent of a vertical mile). The uphill goes on for 21 kilometers (13 miles) to an old weather station at the summit.

Froome is bracing for his main rivals, who need to make up lost time, to try to ride away from him. If they succeed, leaving him far behind, Froome's Tour could be ruined. But they will be equally wary of him. If they tire too early and Froome then powers away, they may never catch him again before Paris. It could be fascinating cat-and-mouse. Or Froome and his challengers, tired from recent exertions, could spend the ascent mainly eyeballing each other.

''A lot of people have reason to attack now. A lot of people spent energy in the last couple of days so it will be an interesting one,'' said Froome, the Tour runner-up last year.

Saturday's stage was a hilly 191-kilometer (119-mile) ride to the city of Lyon, France's gourmet capital. With the main Tour protagonists saving themselves for Sunday, a group of 18 lower-ranked riders broke away. They included Matteo Trentin, who perfectly timed his sprint finish to win his first Tour stage and the first for an Italian in the 100th race.

Rolling in more than seven minutes later with the bulk of the pack, Froome gave a few brief television interviews but skipped the usual daily news conference for the race leader so he could get to his hotel earlier and rest up for the Ventoux stage.

With 14 of 21 stages completed, Froome's closest rival is Bauke Mollema - a surprise because the Dutch rider has completed only one Tour, finishing 69th in 2011 and abandoning on Stage 11 last year. He is 2 minutes, 28 seconds off the lead.

Alberto Contador, the 2007 and '09 champion stripped of his 2010 win for a failed doping test, is 2:45 from Froome, placed third. Another danger for Froome on Ventoux could be Nairo Quintana, 5:18 back in eighth. The Colombian climber already jousted with Froome in the Pyrenees.

Contador said the first time he climbed Ventoux, admittedly not in top shape, ''my heart almost came out of my mouth.''

''The first part is a steep slope,'' he said. ''The second part is exposed to a lot of wind, mainly blowing toward you.

''If you have a bad day on this climb you can lose a lot of minutes.''

British rider Tom Simpson collapsed and died on Ventoux during the 1967 Tour. Ventoux is only the start of a brutal final week of uphills. From Sunday to next Saturday - the Tour will grind up 27 rated ascents, six of them with the hardest ''uncategorized'' rating given to Ventoux.

That amounts to 224 more kilometers (139 miles) of climbs.

Judging by the thousands of people who turned out on the roadside to cheer on Saturday, the atmosphere up Ventoux promises to be electric on Sunday, also Bastille Day.

''It's such a legendary mountain,'' said Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski, 4:44 from Froome in seventh. ''I'm a little bit scared about it.''

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Associated Press Writer Jamey Keaten and AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire contributed.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American actress Amanda Bynes, wearing a long blue wig and sweat pants, appeared briefly in court on Tuesday on charges of marijuana possession and throwing a bong out a window and a judge postponed her case until September.

Bynes, 27, made no comment during the hearing but has previously denied the charges of possession, reckless endangerment and attempted tampering with evidence.

All the charges against Bynes, who has made headlines in recent months for erratic behavior, odd posts on Twitter and legal problems, are misdemeanors.

In addition to setting a September 26 court date, Judge Diana Boyar set an August 26 deadline for filing motions to dismiss the charges.

Bynes, who wore a tank top, big sunglasses and false eyelashes in addition to the wig and sweat pants, was rushed out of the courthouse after her appearance.

"All we told her (the judge) was that there was no resolution yet and she gave us a new date," said Ross Kramer, one of Bynes' lawyers.

Kramer said Bynes' team would continue to work with the prosecutors to see if they can reach a resolution to the case.

Bynes was taken into custody in May after police were called to her high-rise apartment building after an employee reported someone smoking marijuana in the building's lobby.

Police said they were directed to Bynes' apartment and smelled marijuana after the actress invited them in. They also saw a bong, which is used for smoking marijuana.

Bynes was taken into custody after she grabbed the bong and threw it out of a window of the 36th-floor apartment, police said.

During a court appearance in May, Bynes' attorney accused police of entering the apartment illegally and said nothing was recovered during the search.

Bynes gained early stardom at the age of 13 when she had her own comedy show on the Nickelodeon television network. She also had a major role in the movie "What a Girl Wants" but has not appeared in a film since 2010 in "Easy A."

Bynes has faced violations for drunk driving and hit and run in the past year and is on probation in California for driving on a suspended license.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Mary Milliken and Bill Trott)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If businesses get an extra year to meet a new health care mandate, why not everybody else?

Republicans, seizing on the White House delay for employers, are demanding that the Obama administration give individual Americans an equal break. But the White House says that's just a thinly disguised gambit for dismantling the entire health care overhaul.

What to believe?

"If businesses can get relief from Obamacare, the rest of America ought to be able to get relief as well," declares House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

"A delay in the individual mandate is repeal by another name," responds White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri. She described it as a political attempt to sabotage health care for the uninsured.

The battle of the mandates is the latest clash in the long-running political fight over health care a fight that's far from over.

Under President Barack Obama's big overhaul, most people will be required to have insurance starting next Jan. 1, and larger businesses were supposed to offer affordable health care to their employees who average 30 hours of work a week.

Here are some questions and answers in the aftermath of the administration's sudden delay of the employer mandate:

Q: So what are the law's mandates?

A: One is for individuals and another for employers. The individual requirement takes effect in 2014; the employer mandate has been delayed until 2015.

Under the health care law, virtually all Americans must carry medical insurance, either through an employer or a government program, or by buying their own policies. Most people are unaffected because they already have coverage.

Q: If you don't have it, how do you get it?

Middle-class individuals and families with no access to job-based health insurance will be able to buy subsidized private coverage through new markets that open Oct. 1. Low-income people will be steered to an expanded version of Medicaid in states that accept it.

Those who remain uninsured will face fines that start small as little as $95 in 2014 but build up over time. There are exceptions for financial hardship and other circumstances.

Q: And what about businesses?

A: The employer mandate applies to companies with 50 or more workers. They could face fines for not providing coverage, and also if their plan is deemed unaffordable under the law.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 95 percent of employers with 50 or more workers already offer health benefits. Nonetheless, it's a big issue for small businesses that are growing, and for companies that employ lots of low-wage workers not currently offered health insurance.

Q: If the administration delays one mandate, why not the other?

A: Actually, the two mandates are in the law for different reasons and purposes. Delaying the individual requirement, which has survived a Supreme Court challenge, would have a much bigger impact.

It serves as a stiff nudge to get as many Americans as possible into the insurance pool. The premiums of healthy people are needed to offset the cost of covering people in poor health who currently can be excluded by insurers.

"It's what's going to keep the insurance markets from collapsing once we open the door to people with pre-existing conditions," said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia who supports the health overhaul. Starting Jan. 1, insurers are barred from turning away people in poor health.

The employer mandate was designed as a guard rail, to deter employers from dropping coverage and shifting workers to taxpayer-subsidized programs. It's expected to play only a supporting role in the expansion of coverage to millions of uninsured people.

Q: What's the impact of delaying the employer requirement?

A: The administration says it will give more time to work out the rules in a way that's fair to businesses. Reporting requirements that would allow the Internal Revenue Service to enforce the mandate turned out to be extremely complicated. Among the problems is that businesses have to keep track of employees' hours in a different way. Business groups were relieved to have another year.

However, the delay could also raise government costs and leave some workers uninsured.

Taxpayers would wind up paying more because some workers will get coverage through the new insurance marketplaces instead of through employers, and they'll be entitled to new tax credits to help with premiums.

Q: Why are Republicans objecting to a delay in a law they've been trying to repeal?

A: Democrats say the answer is clear: politics.

White House spokesman Jay Carney calls it "a nihilistic effort" to undermine the law, accusing Republicans of trying to take away benefits from millions of Americans "in the name of partisan political victory."

Republicans say they are calling attention to problems with the law that run counter to the administration's reassuring message that everything is on track.

"Clearly the rollout of Obamacare is in disarray," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the Ways and Means health subcommittee. The delay raises questions of whether the White House "is competent enough to administer its own massive health care law."

Q: How does Obama have the legal authority to delay a law just because rules aren't ready in time?

A: The Treasury Department which oversees the IRS says it is acting under long-settled authority to write the rules for carrying out laws passed by Congress. Additionally, a spokeswoman said the department has authority to grant "transitional relief" when major legislation is being introduced.

That may be so, critics say, but the delay is clearly not in keeping with the letter of the health care law.

"It is quite obvious, on its face, that this is not what Congress intended," said James Capretta, a health care expert with the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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Associated Press Writers Donna Cassata and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A dangerous, record-breaking heat wave in the western United States contributed to the death of a Nevada resident and sent scores of people to hospitals with heat-related illnesses.

The scorching heat, caused by a dome of hot air trapped by a high pressure ridge, pushed the mercury above 100 F (38 C) in parts of California, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and Utah and Texas.

Paramedics in Las Vegas, where searing temperatures reached an all-time high of 118 F (48 C) on Saturday, found an elderly man dead in his apartment, which had no air-conditioning.

The unidentified man had prior medical issues and "either the heat got to him or the medical condition was aggravated by the heat," Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

Scores of other people were treated for heat-related symptoms, including a man who pulled off a Nevada highway and called 911 to say he felt ill after driving for several hours without air-conditioning. He was hospitalized in serious condition with heat stroke, Szymanski said.

Cities and towns across the sun-scorched western United States opened air-conditioned "cooling centers" in community centers, homeless shelters and libraries, and warned residents to avoid prolonged exposure to the high temperatures.

"It's like when you open up the door to your oven and you get that blast of hot air. That's kind of what it feels like outside," said Charlotte Dewey, a weather service meteorologist in Phoenix, Arizona, where temperatures nudged 114 F (46 C) on Sunday.

"It's pretty dangerous, even for people who are very acclimated to the weather, to be outside and doing physical activity ... we advise everybody to avoid being outdoors," Dewey added.

In Los Angeles County, many people have been hospitalized or treated for dehydration, exhaustion and heat stroke, a fire department spokesman said.

There were fears that migrants attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico would die in the desert. More border agents were added on the American side, said Brent Cagen, a spokesman for the Tucson sector of the U.S. Border Patrol.

At least three people who attempted to illegally cross the border into Arizona were found dead this week, likely succumbing to the heat, Cagen said.

Firefighters worry about dry conditions, which have ignited several major brush fires across the region recently, and about more blazes ignited by wayward fireworks launched from backyards to commemorate the Fourth of July holiday.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami, Brad Poole in Tucson, Timothy Pratt in Las Vegas and Marty Graham in San Diego; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Stacey Joyce)

After the NBA's prized big man Howard chose to leave the Lakers in favor of the Houston Rockets last week, Los Angeles began the process of recouping by agreeing to a one-year deal with a new seven-footer.

The 31-year-old Kaman will ink a contract worth approximately $3.2 million, according to local reports, when free agents can officially sign on Wednesday.

"I am going to be going back to LA and it's to play for the Lakers! I am excited about this move and can't wait to play!" Kaman posted on his Twitter feed.

Entering his 11th season, Kaman has career averages of 11.8 points and eight rebounds and just completed a one-year campaign with the Dallas Mavericks.

He was an All Star in 2010 while playing for the Los Angeles Clippers.

(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles. Editing by Patrick Johnston)

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A Virginia lawyer has been sentenced to more than 4 years in prison for plotting to get more than $100 million in fraudulent loans from the Small Business Administration.

Forty-four-year-old old Seung E. Oh of Great Falls was also ordered to pay more than $3.5 million in restitution at sentencing Tuesday in federal court in Baltimore.

According to her plea agreement, Oh owned and operated a title company in Annandale, Va. Prosecutors say Oh and others used her settlement company and law firm to facilitate loan closings for deals that would otherwise fail to meet SBA standards.

The group said the six climbers, all women, hoped to affix an artwork to the top of the 310-metre tower known as the Shard.

Greenpeace says the climbers are from Britain, Canada, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium.

It says the Renzo Piano-designed 72-storey Shard had been chosen because it looms over the London offices of Royal Dutch Shell.

London's Metropolitan Police Force says officers are monitoring the situation.

The records, obtained by The Associated Press, also show that a vehicle wanted in a double killing in Boston a year before had been rented in Hernandez's name.

Together, the revelations provide the most damning evidence yet against the 23-year-old star athlete.

Hernandez has been charged in the June killing of Boston semi-pro athlete Odin Lloyd. The records say Hernandez associate Carlos Ortiz told Massachusetts investigators that another man, Ernest Wallace, said Hernandez shot Lloyd in an industrial park near Hernandez's home in North Attleborough.

The gun used in the killing has not been found.

The documents were filed in court by the Miramar, Fla., police department to justify a search of Wallace's mother's home in that city.

The records also show that police, while investigating Lloyd's killing, searched in Hernandez's hometown of Bristol, Conn., and found a vehicle wanted in connection with a July 2012 double homicide near a Boston nightclub.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in Lloyd's killing. His legal team did not return email messages Tuesday. Wallace faces an accessory to murder charge in the case and has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Hernandez, Wallace and Ortiz drove with Lloyd in a rented Nissan Altima to the industrial park where Lloyd was fatally shot.

Ortiz told police that during the drive, Hernandez told Lloyd that Lloyd had been "chilling" with people Hernandez had problems with, the documents say. But Ortiz told police the two men shook hands and the problem seemed smoothed over. However, the Altima soon stopped, and everyone but Ortiz got out to urinate, according to Ortiz's account.

The witness told police he then heard gunshots before Hernandez and Wallace got back into the car without Lloyd and the car sped away.

Ortiz said he couldn't see who fired the shots because it was dark. Back at Hernandez's home, Ortiz said, Wallace asked him to get a small gun out from under the driver's seat. Ortiz said he did and gave it to Hernandez once they were inside.

Ortiz said he then went to sleep. When he woke up in the afternoon, according to his account, the three men returned the Altima and rented a Chrysler 300 before returning to Hernandez's home. Ortiz and Wallace then went to an apartment in the area that Hernandez and other football players used. Wallace let Ortiz in before leaving for a long time, the documents say. The two then drove to Bristol. Ortiz told police Wallace said Hernandez shot Lloyd.

Hernandez, Wallace and Ortiz appear linked through Bristol. Wallace told Florida police he grew up with Hernandez's father. Ortiz's attorney, John Connors, said Tuesday his client, who's athletic and around the age of Hernandez's older brother, is from Bristol.

Meanwhile, eight search warrants were unsealed in Massachusetts after news organizations sought access to them. The warrants reveal the breadth of the investigation, with authorities scouring through everything from Hernandez's house to his phone to the contents of his team locker, which the Patriots emptied into a container after they released him.

A rifle, ammunition and video surveillance equipment were among the items police seized from Hernandez's home.

Records show Hernandez, who played tight end, became "argumentative" during his first encounter with police at his home about five hours after Lloyd's body was found by a jogger. Hernandez told police he had last seen Lloyd in Boston the day before. He asked, "What's with all the questions?" and locked the door behind him.

He then returned with his attorney's business card but didn't respond when police told him they were investigating a death, the records show.

"Mr. Hernandez slammed the door and relocked it behind him," the records read. "Mr. Hernandez did not ask officers whose death was being investigated. Mr. Hernandez's demeanor did not indicate any concern for the death of any person."

Hernandez came out later and agreed to be questioned at a police station.

The documents also say Hernandez called his girlfriend's cellphone and stopped her from speaking with police after they pulled her over and told her Lloyd was dead.

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Anderson reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Erika Niedowski in Attleboro and Jay Lindsay in Boston contributed to this report.