The decision reversed the former Bosnian Serb president's acquittal last year on one of the two genocide charges he faces, but it does not amount to a conviction.

Presiding Judge Theodor Meron said appeals judges believe that prosecution evidence presented at Karadzic's trial "could indicate that Karadzic possessed genocidal intent" during a campaign in 1992 aimed at driving Muslims and Croats out of towns and villages claimed by Serbs as their territory.

The decision will draw out Karadzic's trial on charges including orchestrating Europe's worst massacre since World War II, the 1995 murder by Serb forces of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica.

The ruling in The Hague came on the day survivors gathered in Srebrenica to mark the 18th anniversary of the massacre by reburying 409 recently identified sets of remains exhumed from mass graves.

Karadzic's trial began in 2009, and prosecutors rested their case last year. Karadzic, who is defending himself in The Hague, called for acquittal on all 11 charges at the end of the prosecution case, saying there was insufficient evidence to convict him.

Judges rejected his request in all but the genocide charge covering the killings and mistreatment of non-Serbs in 1992 the charge which has now been reinstated.

Karadzic also had argued that reinstating the charge would "disrupt the ongoing trial ... and would represent an irresponsible use of public funds," Meron said.

The 68-year-old former Bosnian Serb leader showed no emotion as Meron ordered him to stand in court and told him the charge had been reinstated.

Peter Robinson, an American lawyer helping Karadzic with his defense, said his client was disappointed by the five-judge panel's decision, "but he is taking on board their comments about the crimes and his intent and we are determined to go on and put on a strong case in the defense phase."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Twitter photo and phone tip from a resident helped animal keepers track down a red panda in a Washington neighborhood after it went missing from the Smithsonian's National Zoo.

The male named Rusty was captured Monday in a tree near a home in the Adams Morgan neighborhood Monday afternoon, said National Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson. It had traveled across the leafy Rock Creek Park, perhaps crossing a road or under a creek bridge to reach a residential area nearly of a mile from the zoo.

Senior curator Brandie Smith said animal keepers surrounded the area where he was found and called Rusty's name to calm him before capturing him in a net.

"We just had to approach him carefully," she said. "We are surprised by the distance he was able to cover."

The animal was taken to the zoo's animal hospital for a checkup and will remain there for several days.

How Rusty escaped is still a mystery, though. Zoo officials began reviewing security footage Monday morning to see if there is any evidence of how he escaped or whether he may have been taken by a human and then set loose. No security cameras are pointed directly at the red panda exhibit, though, and the zoo plans to add more cameras.

Curators have cut back several long tree limbs that may have aided the skilled climber with the escape.

"There is no obvious point that Rusty could have gotten out of the enclosure," Smith said, adding that it had held red pandas for years. "We all know that young males like to test boundaries."

Unlike giant pandas, red pandas are not members of the bear family. Red pandas are slightly bigger than a domestic cat and look similar to a raccoon. They are listed as vulnerable in the wild and native to China. Scientists believe about 10,000 of the animals remain.

Rusty arrived at the zoo in April from a zoo in Lincoln, Neb., and was in quarantine for several weeks until he went on exhibit in early June. He will turn 1 year old in July.

Red pandas are highly territorial, so zoo officials did not believe he would have traveled far. Rusty, it seems, wanted to explore his new city.

Animal keepers discovered he was missing Monday morning and started searching at 8 a.m. The zoo began sending out messages about his disappearance Monday morning on Twitter and Facebook in case someone saw him.

A spokeswoman said the zoo was "incredibly grateful" to Ashley Foughty who lives nearby, saw Rusty, tweeted a picture and called the zoo. She apparently had to leave town on a trip Monday, so zoo officials couldn't thank her in person.

Zoo Director Dennis Kelly said officials will thoroughly review the incident and said it's rare for any animal to escape.

"We will not let this happen again," he said. "Before we put Rusty back, we'll go back over this exhibit with a fine tooth comb."

Animal escapes are very rare among accredited zoos, said Steve Feldman of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. They have primary and secondary containment systems for animals. The most frequent escape is when a bird flies away.

National Zoo officials could not recall another such escape in Washington in recent decades. In 1983, a teenager was bitten by one of two viper snakes he was suspected of stealing from the zoo's reptile house. The boy carried away the snakes in a plastic garbage bag on a city bus after hiding in the zoo after it closed, officials said.

The female red panda, Shama, remained on view in the leafy exhibit Monday, despite the hoopla over her mate.

___

Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd missed already modest expectations for its quarterly earnings guidance on Friday, deepening worries that its smartphone business may have peaked, as growth in sales of its blockbuster Galaxy phones begins to wane and new rivals emerge to eat away at its market share.

The Galaxy S, powered by Google's free Android platform, propelled the South Korean firm into the top rank of smartphone makers in 2012, overtaking Apple Inc whose iPhone had set an industry standard five years earlier.

Now investors fear Samsung may also follow in the footsteps of Apple and other once-mighty players that are struggling with shrinking margins, in an industry where companies live and die by their ability to stay ahead of the innovation curve.

"Is Samsung's smartphone story now over? Not quite yet. It's growth is indeed slowing due largely to disappointing sales of the S4," said Jung Sang-jin, a fund manager at Dongbu Asset Management, which owns Samsung shares.

"Yet I think Samsung has some exciting stuff up its sleeves. The problem is no one is sure whether these products can really wow investors and consumers."

The disappointing earnings estimate by Samsung, which has had a track record of beating even the most bullish forecasts, sent its shares down more than 3 percent on Friday.

They have dropped 17 percent since early June, hit by a series of brokerage downgrades. The share price reflects concerns about Samsung's handset margins, with its mobile business generating 70 percent of the tech giant's total profit.

The fall in the share price equates to a drop in market value of 39 trillion won ($34.2 billion), or worth the combined market capitalisation of Sony Corp and LG Electronics Inc.

"One of the biggest risks for Samsung Electronics going forward is that 70 percent of total operating profit comes from mobile business. Diversification is key. Samsung needs to engage in active business transition until end-2014," said Jeff Kim, an analyst at Hyundai Securities.

ALL TIME HIGH AGAIN IN H2?

To be sure, Samsung's 9.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) operating profit forecast, up 47 percent from a year ago, is a record and it is expected to report higher earnings in the current and fourth quarters as sales of its latest Galaxy S4 phone pick up and new products hit the stores. Prices of memory chips, another industry which Samsung holds the lead, are also expected to remain strong.

"Samsung's got diversified businesses. When one business lags, it's got others outperforming and propping up the overall profit," Jung at Dongbu said.

"The component business is widely expected to pick up the slack in the second half when smartphones slow, but now worries are also mounting that the component business' recovery could be short-lived."

The guidance, released ahead of full quarterly results due on July 26, was worse than an average forecast of 10.16 trillion won in a poll of 43 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"I think Samsung spent more on marketing expenses than expected because of the launch of Galaxy S4 smartphone, which led the company's results to miss the market consensus," HMC Investment Securities analyst Nho Geun-Chang said.

Samsung spent more on marketing than R&D in 2012 for the first time in at least three years, and the S4 was launched in March with a Broadway-style show in New York.

The company also invested heavily in distribution channels including opening brand shops in 1,400 Best Buy stores in the United States.

But the glitz and glamour has failed to arrest a slide in handset sales growth, and shipments are seen rising only 4 percent to 8 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter.

Handset margins are also being squeezed, as consumers in countries like China - the world's biggest smartphone market - opt for stripped-down cheaper devices.

NEXT BIG THING

Competition is getting intense with Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp making ground in the popular mid- to low-end market.

Nokia Oyj, once the handset king, unveiled two back-to-basics 3G phones this week. They allow access to popular applications such as Facebook and Twitter, and sell for just $68.

"There's still a big uncertainty about how Samsung will respond to the low-end market," said Brian Park, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities, referring to its plans to launch a device based on the open-source Tizen operating system.

Wearable gadgets will also be crucial to the company's hopes of riding a new wave of extraordinary profit growth.

Apple has applied for a trademark for "iWatch" in Japan, signaling the iPhone-maker may be moving ahead with plans for a watch-like device as the industry turn its attention to wearable computers.

Samsung has also filed a trademark for "Samsung Gear" in the Untied States for its range of wearable devices.

"The (expected launch of) wearable devices won't be able to replace Samsung's smartphone business, but it's more likely to complement its earnings at best," said Byun Han-joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities. ($1 = 1139.2000 Korean won)

(Additional reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Stephen Coates)

By Karolos Grohmann

May 17 (Reuters) - International Boxing Federation (AIBA) President C.K. Wu has decided to run for the post of the president of the International Olympic Committee as the race for one of the world's top sports jobs heats up, a source said.

"Dr Wu handed over a letter this morning to Dr (Jacques) Rogge, informing him about his candidacy. He will announce it officially next Thursday," a source told Reuters.

The Taiwanese is the third IOC member, behind Germany's Thomas Bach and Singaporean Ng Ser Miang, both IOC vice presidents, to decide to run for the post with the election set for Sept. 10 at the IOC session in Buenos Aires.

Rogge, who succeeded Juan Antonio Samaranch in 2001, sees his two-term presidency come to a mandatory end in September.

There are several more potential candidates with Puerto Rican Richard Carrion, head of the finance commission, Swiss sports administrator Denis Oswald and former Olympic pole vault champion Sergei Bubka, seen as possible contenders. The deadline for candidacies is June 10.

Wu took over troubled AIBA in 2006, managing to restore its Olympic credibility after a string of changes to rules and judging following controversies at the Athens 2004 Olympics that led to an IOC ban on funds for the federation.

The England-educated 66-year-old architect, who is a member of the powerful IOC Executive Board since last year and has been an IOC member for 25 years, was urged earlier this week by his own federation to make a bid for the presidency.

He oversaw a hugely successful boxing tournament at the London 2012 Games where women boxers made a glittering Olympic debut.

He was also in charge of designing the Samaranch Memorial in Tianjin, China, which houses the late IOC president's private collections, and was officially inaugurated by Rogge late last month. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Alison Wildey)

LONDON (Reuters) - Andy Murray is getting a taste for grand slam titles and believes crushing Novak Djokovic to end Britain's interminable wait for a men's champion at Wimbledon will be a springboard to take his career to the next level.

The 26-year-old became a national hero on Sunday when a 6-4 7-5 6-4 victory on a baking Center Court meant the nation could finally stop talking about Fred Perry who won his third Wimbledon title in 1936.

Murray's stunning performance was hailed by everyone from politicians, movie stars and fellow sportsmen, as well as the millions who watched his landmark victory, but the Scot will not be milking the plaudits for long.

After attending the Wimbledon ball on Sunday he was planning to celebrate with his sizeable entourage, including coach Ivan Lendl on Monday, then, after a week of rest and relaxation it will be back to the grind.

"I know what it feels like to lose in finals, in a Wimbledon final, but now I know what it feels like to win and that's certainly a lot better and it's worth putting in the hard work for," Murray told Reuters on Monday at the All England Club.

"I didn't know last year that it was worth it because I had never won a grand slam before until the U.S. Open last year.

"After that you realize the hours you put in training, preparing and working on the practice court, it's all worth it.

"So I hope this is a springboard for me and I will use it for my advantage."

Murray, who now holds two of the grand slams and Olympic gold, was already a member of the exclusive All England Club but when he walked in on Monday after "a few hours sleep" he did so with Wimbledon champion as a new title.

It is quite an upgrade and the realization of what he achieved the on a momentous Sunday for British sport was slowly sinking in, but only after watching a few TV replays.

"The last game was something that stands out but I had to watch it a few times to remember what actually happened because when I came off the court I had no recollection of that game," a relaxed Murray said.

"I had no recollection of the last few points in it at all. It was just a crazy way to finish the game and I didn't think it would have happened for me any other way.

"For everyone watching it needed to be like that to make it more special."

Murray had the whole country on edge as Djokovic saved three championship points in a row before Murray kept his nerve to engineer a fourth which he converted to spark wild celebrations.

His reaction to victory was a dazed walkabout on Center Court before climbing into the stands to hug his support group, girlfriend and mother Judy.

Last year's Olympic gold was memorable but Murray said winning Wimbledon was the pinnacle.

"I think it's number one, it's different from the Olympics," he said. "I think winning Olympic gold within sport is a huge thing but winning Wimbledon within tennis is the pinnacle and I don't think I will ever top that."

Murray beat Djokovic in the Olympic semi-finals and said that result had fuelled his belief that he could be the Serbian world number one again on the biggest day of his career.

"I spoke with Ivan the night before and we spoke about tactics and I watched my match against Novak in the Olympics semi-final from last year," Murray, whose decision to hire Lendl as coach 18 months ago has proved an inspired one.

HEAD BOY

From a player with all the shots to win majors, Lendl has tweaked Murray's mind to that of a champion too.

"We spoke again on the morning of the match and he basically said go out and work for every single point, that's your court, your fans are going to be behind you, just bring the title home, and I managed to do it."

With Murray and Djokovic both aged 26 and at the peak of their powers their rivalry looks set to dominate men's tennis, especially with Roger Federer showing signs of a slow decline and doubts over the durability of Rafa Nadal's knees.

Others like Juan Martin del Potro and Tomas Berdych are also threats but Murray is predicting plenty of exhausting battles ahead with old junior sparring partner Djokovic.

"I've known him since I was 12 and when we finish playing I'm sure we'll get on really well with each other but right now it's hard to be best of friends because these matches are so tough physically and mentally," Murray said.

"The matches we play are brutal and so physically challenging. It's nice we've know each other since we were kids and our parents have seen us kind of grow up together but it's hard playing against him."

Djokovic remains the world number one, for now, despite only having the Australian Open currently under his belt.

"It's tough," Murray said when asked if knocking Djokovic off his perch was a priority.

"Right now I hold two slams, the Olympic gold and the final of another slam and I'm still nowhere near number one in the world. The goal for me is to try and win the grand slams, win those tournaments and not worry too much about the ranking."

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Justin Palmer)

The 23rd-seeded German, a Wimbledon semifinalist two years ago, overcame a 3-0 deficit in the third set to beat Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 2-6, 9-7 Thursday and advance to her first Grand Slam final.

On Saturday, she will face Marion Bartoli, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Kirsten Flipkens in the other semifinal.

"It's another challenge, and I'm looking forward to it," said Lisicki, who beat defending champion Serena Williams in the fourth round.

The men's semifinals are set for Friday, with top-seeded Novak Djokovic playing Juan Martin del Potro and 2012 finalist Andy Murray up against the surprising 24th-seeded Jerzy Janowicz.

Saturday's final will be the second at Wimbledon in the 45-year Open era between two women who have never won a Grand Slam title. Although Bartoli has the edge in experience after reaching the 2007 final at the All England Club, Lisicki may have the bigger advantage with a 3-1 record against the Frenchwoman, including a quarterfinal win at Wimbledon in 2011 in their last meeting.

Lisicki started off Thursday playing aggressive tennis on Centre Court, and it yielded immediate results. She won 22 of her 30 points on serve and broke Radwanska once.

But soon after, Lisicki's serve deserted her, and so did her lead.

Lisicki lost all four of her service games in the second set, with the lowlight coming in the final game. Leading 30-0, Lisicki lost four straight points, including two double-faults.

"She made some really good points. I made a few errors too many," said Lisicki, the first German to reach the Wimbledon final since Graf in 1999. "But I regained my focus and game in the third set, and that's the main part."

Graf may have played a small role in the comeback. The seven-time Wimbledon champion sent Lisicki a text message before the match to wish her luck.

"She told me to go for it, and I'm just so happy," Lisicki said. "I was just fighting for every single point out there. Fought my heart out there."

Besides Graf, Lisicki also named a few others who have helped inspire her to come back from a serious left ankle injury in 2010, including ski great Hermann Maier and NFL quarterback Drew Brees.

"I read his book while I was injured," Lisicki said of Maier, an Austrian who won several Olympic and world championship medals. "Almost losing his leg and then to come back and be the world champion in his sport, I think was an unbelievable story.

"Also Drew Brees. ... He has torn everything there was in the shoulder, and he still came back and was one of the best."

Bartoli needed no such motivation, making quick work of Flipkens with her two-handed backhands and forehands mixing with little hops between points, as is her custom.

"I played great. I executed very well. I hit lobs, passing shots, winners, returns, everything worked out perfectly," said Bartoli, who won in 62 minutes. "When I fell on the grass after match point, it was just so emotional. I dreamed about that moment, about returning to the Wimbledon final."

The last time she made it this far, it didn't turn out so well. She lost to Venus Williams 6-4, 6-1.

But this time is different, or at least Bartoli believes it will be.

"God, I think I'm serving better," Bartoli said. "I mean, I do just everything a bit better than what I was doing six years ago. I think if I would play myself now, with my game six years ago compared with my game today, I would probably be beating myself quite easily because I'm just doing everything better."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is likely to begin shrinking the size of its debt purchase program, intended to prop up economic growth and support the labor market, by September of this year, according to the majority of economists at large Wall Street firms.

Economists at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan specifically cited the government's announcement earlier on Friday of stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs growth for June as a factor in bringing forward their expected timing of the Fed slowing.

Goldman and J.P. Morgan are two of 21 U.S. primary dealers - the large financial firms that do business directly with the Fed - that were polled by Reuters on Friday.

Of 17 dealers who answered a question on the expected timing of a reduction in purchases, 11 called for September, while three said October, two said December and one said it would happen in the first quarter of 2014.

In a similar poll conducted June 19, seven of 17 dealers called for a slowing in September. One dealer in the previous poll had called for the slowing this month, while three said October, one said November while four said December, with one still forecasting the first quarter of 2014.

Friday's poll was conducted after the government said U.S. employers added 195,000 new jobs to their payrolls last month, and revised its count for April and May to show 70,000 more jobs created than previously reported. Economists had been looking for 165,000 new jobs in June.

"With solid job gains through the first half of the year, the recovery appears to be overcoming the worst of the fiscal headwinds now at peak force. Fed officials are likely to keep tentative plans to start scaling back (quantitative easing), probably in September, barring a major upset," said Peter D'Antonio, economist at Citigroup in New York.

The Fed is currently buying $85 billion per month of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, and the median of forecasts from 13 dealers in Friday's poll was for buying to initially be scaled back by $20 billion per month. Forecasts ranged from a reduction of $10 billion per month to $28 billion per month.

The median forecast for an initial reduction of $20 billion per month was unchanged from the June 19 poll.

Of 16 primary dealers who answered a question on the timing of the end of the latest bond purchase program, 14 said it would happen on or before the middle of 2014, while two said September 2014. Those results were little changed from the June 19 poll.

Many analysts had been reeling in their forecasts for the timing of the beginning of the end of Fed purchases, after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said at a press conference on June 19 the economy is expanding strongly enough for the central bank to start slowing the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year.

Friday's payrolls data added to sentiment that the Fed could slow purchases sooner than originally expected.

"Coming into today, our call for a December first taper was already probably a little underwater, and after today's report we are moving to a call for a first reduction in asset purchases at the September (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting," J.P. Morgan economist Michael Feroli said in a note to clients.

The median of forecasts from 13 dealers called for the latest round of quantitative easing, known as QE3, to total $1.3 trillion of purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. That was up marginally from a median of $1.255 trillion from 12 dealers polled June 19.

Economists at 13 of 14 dealers forecast the Fed will increase interest rates from the current ultra-low level near zero in 2015, while one said it would happen in 2016.

(Additional reporting by Alison Griswold, Pam Niimi and Luciana Lopez; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif says el-Shater and his brother were arrested late Friday from an apartment in eastern Cairo on allegations of inciting violence against protesters in recent days.

El-Shater, a wealthy businessman, is the deputy of the Brotherhood's supreme leader, but has long been considered the group's most powerful decision-maker. He was the group's original candidate for the presidency but was disqualified for a past prison sentence. Mohammed Morsi ran in his place and became Egypt's first freely elected president.

Morsi was swept out of office this week by the military as millions held protests demanding his removal.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When the western television series "The Lone Ranger" first rode into U.S. homes in 1949, the masked man was the dashing, charming hero and the Native American Tonto his loyal sidekick.

When the movie opens in U.S. theaters on Wednesday, it will be Tonto who takes center stage. Played by Johnny Depp with the same offbeat charm as his Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, Tonto is the brains of the operation.

In an opening sequence - a breakneck fight scene on a runaway train - Tonto directs an escape from outlaws while a mask-less Lone Ranger, played by Armie Hammer, is the naive one, unsure at the outset that he was even in danger.

"It's a story we've all heard, but we've never heard it from the guy who was there," the film's director Gore Verbinski, 49, told Reuters.

For the new incarnation, Verbinski wanted to update the story by making Tonto more relevant than just a sidekick. Once the idea was hatched to make him the narrator, "it opened a lot of doors" in terms of storytelling, he said.

Through Tonto's eyes, audiences get an origin tale of how former lawman John Reid, the Lone Ranger, came to fight injustice in the Old West.

"This is not history told from your radio station, your movie studio or your network," Verbinski said. "It's told from Tonto and his memory - and his memory may be questionable."

To make Tonto's point of view authentic, a Native American consultant was used on the set, Verbinski said, adding that they also spoke with various tribes to get certain details correct.

No one embraced the Tonto-centric viewpoint more than Depp, who was told from an early age that he was part Native American.

Since production on the Disney film has wrapped, the actor has gone on to strengthen his ties to the community. Last year, Depp was named honorary member of the Comanche Nation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he also served as grand marshal at the Comanche Nation Fair in Oklahoma.

CORE ELEMENTS UNTOUCHED

At Depp's request, proceeds from the film's $1,000-per-ticket gala premiere last week at Southern California's Disneyland resort last week supported the American Indian College Fund.

Fans of the "The Lone Ranger" series, which first appeared on radio in 1933, can be assured that its core elements remain. Audiences will see a man in a white hat and mask who believes in justice, a horse named Silver and the trademark silver bullets.

Its famous theme, Rossini's "William Tell" overture, makes its way in to the film and Tonto continues to affectionately refer to the Lone Ranger as "kemo sabe."

The remake boasts the same team, including Depp, Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who brought Disney the mega-blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

The four "Pirates" films have earned some $3.7 billion in total at the global box office, according to Boxofficemojo.com.

Although there are hopes "The Lone Ranger" team can repeat past box office success, there was nothing cheap about its costs, which a person familiar with the production said was budgeted at $225 million. Other reports have pegged it closer to $250 million.

An entire Old West town was built in which to shoot the film, along with a 200-foot long train tunnel, two 250-ton trains and miles of track.

Building such ambitious sets was necessary to achieve the right "feel" for the film's biggest action scenes, Verbinski said, adding that he did not want to use cheaper computer-generated imagery or miniatures for such sequences.

"The movie is an epic tale and I didn't want it to feel overly lush and too pretty," he said. "We all know what trains and horses look like, so I wanted to shoot trains and horses and do it the old-fashioned way."

(This story has been refiled to drop extraneous "the" in the first paragraph)

(Editing by Ron Grover, Eric Kelsey and Bill Trott)

Sagan held off John Degenkolb of Germany to capture his first stage victory in this year's Tour, taking a big lead in his bid to defend the green jersey as top sprinter. Italy's Daniele Bennati finished the stage in third.

"I have to say my team did all the work today, they did an incredible job," Sagan said through a translator. "They showed that they are perfectly capable."

Sagan leads Germany's Andre Greipel in the sprinters' race and is way ahead of archrival Mark Cavendish the 2011 green jersey winner who was dropped on the day's toughest climb.

"The idea was to get a few points today, and I admit I got a few more than I thought I would," Sagan said.

Cavendish wilted on the ascent up Col de la Croix de Mounis.

"Half the peloton were dropped on that climb," Cavendish said. "It was not a good day for us. It was really difficult."

He rolled in more than 40 minutes behind Sagan, who is also an able climber and projected by five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault to become an overall contender providing he sheds some of his sprinter's bulk and trims down.

Impey began the day as the first South African to wear the yellow jersey, but he will likely relinquish it after Saturday's first of two difficult days of climbing in the high mountains of the Pyrenees.

"I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not used to being in this situation," Impey said. "A lot of the radio stations and Internet sites had put out a thing today to show support for me. It was called 'Impey's Yellow Friday' where a lot of people today actually wore something yellow for me.

"That was a great response from South Africa," he added. "Then there was a song they were playing on the radio. It's 'Impi' by Johnny Clegg."

He leads Norwegian sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen by three seconds overall and his Orica Greenedge teammate Simon Gerrans by five.

None is considered a serious Tour challenger, but Impey was desperate to keep the jersey a little longer.

"An opportunity like this doesn't come often. We knew today was probably our last chance," he said. "There was a moment on the second climb when the pressure was on but we handled it well."

The average speed picked up considerably in the fourth hour, jumping up to nearly 30 mph in temperatures again above 90 degrees for the 128-mile trek from Montpellier to Albi.

In fact, there has hardly been a drop of rain so far perhaps unsurprising given that the race started on the picturesque island of Corsica before jumping over to Nice on the French riviera, and then down to Marseille and Montpellier.

Veteran American rider Christian Vande Velde pulled out after being caught up in an early crash one of several that have marred a nervy start to the 100th edition of the showcase race.

There have been several multirider crashes in what has been a nervy Tour.

On the first stage, there was a big crash close to the end after Tour organizers caused anxiety in the peloton by changing the designated finish line because a team bus was stuck on the line.

The fifth stage featured two separate crashes, the second right on the finish line, and the sixth claimed Cavendish among the fallen.

Early into stage 7, German veteran Jens Voigt got into an early breakaway. But any dreams the 41-year-old Voigt had of becoming the oldest stage winner since Pino Cerami in 1963 melted in the sun.

Race favorites like Chris Froome and Alberto Contador are likely to attack Saturday up the famed Col de Pailheres, which winds upward for 9 tortuous miles at a gradient of eight percent.

"I'm definitely looking forward to the Pyrenees. I think it will help the race to settle down a lot," Froome said. "It's been quite a stressful first week."