Victoria Azarenka had some sympathy for Serena Williams after banishing memories of her own first-round struggles at the French Open by breezing into round three.

Cyber-anarchist group Anonymous are threatening another attack on Formula One during next week's Canadian Grand Prix in support of protesting Quebec students.

German, Italian and Spanish foreign ministries announced today that Syrian ambassadors are being expelled - following similar moves by Britain, France, Australia and Canada after a massacre in which the United Nations says families were shot at close range in their homes.

Ryder Hesjedal became the first Canadian winner of the Giro d’Italia today in the closest race for 38 years.

Having lost over 12 minutes in the Giro d’Italia yesterday, Roman Kreuziger redeemed himself with a shock win at Alpe di Pampeago this afternoon.

Jenson Button set the pace on an inconclusive first day of practice for the Monaco Grand Prix yesterday, as rain during the afternoon session rendered lap times academic and frustrated attempts to find the elusive sweet spot on Pirelli's tyres. However, a shadow loomed as politics threatened to disrupt the Canadian Grand Prix next month.

This Sunday, exasperated farmers and citizens will travel to a field near Harpenden to uproot a crop of genetically modified wheat. They have been denounced in purple prose by pro-GM commentators, as science haters, "Nazi book burners" and vandals. But what else can concerned citizens do when the company conducting the GM wheat trial, Rothamsted Research, presses on recklessly with an open field experiment that has the potential to contaminate neighbouring farmers' crops and trigger unpredictable impacts on other species?

The cities of Doha and Baku have been cut from the list of candidates to stage the 2020 Olympic Games.

Canadian researchers have found traces of GM pesticide in 93 per cent of baby foetuses

Notebook

Interviews with Hollywood’s top stars can be staid affairs. Reined in by a host of publicists and PRs, very rarely do they let slip anything of great interest. But now Canadian journalists at the Cannes Film Festival have been told they must pay for the privilege.

Dr Margaret Chan, who has steered the World Health Organization through crises over bird flu and the respiratory SARS bug, has won a second five-year term as its director-general.

The problem of fake goods from China has spread beyond the dodgy Gucci and Rolex shops of Manhattan and into the bloodstream of the American military, according to a new report.

Britain is used to having a lone Scot flying the flag in men's singles tournaments around the world. That man is usually Andy Murray, but in the qualifying tournament for the French Open yesterday it was Jamie Baker who was the last man left standing after the opening matches in Paris.