Buenos Aires  - An autopsy showed Wednesday that the French motorcyclist who was found dead while competing in the Dakar Rally had suffered a heart attack.

Pascal Terry had been found dead during the race in Argentina, the organizers said earlier Wednesday. The body of 49-year-old Pascal Terry was found about 15 metres from his bike around 300 metres from the route used during Sunday's second stage.

The Yamaha rider had gone missing during the stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut.

Buenos Aires - A French motorcyclist competing in the Dakar Rally has been found dead during the race in Argentina, it was reported Wednesday.

La Nacion newspaper quoted rally organizers as saying the body of 49-year-old Pascal Terry was found about 15 metres from the route used during Sunday's second stage.

The Yamaha rider had gone missing during the stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut.

Police are investigating the death, the report said.

Buenos Aires  - Spaniard Carlos Sainz edged Qatari driver Nasser al-Attiyah by six seconds to win the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally on Tuesday.

Sainz, driving a Volkswagen Race Touareg, fought an exciting duel with BMW X3 driver al-Attiyah on the ascent to the 1,314-metre-high Col Calderon during the
484-kilometre stage from Jacobacci to Neuquen in Argentina.

Buenos Aires  - Qatari driver Nasseer al-Attiyah claimed the first stage of motorsport's Dakar Rally on Saturday, ahead of Spaniard Carlos Sainz, one of the pre-race favourites.

Al-Attiyah in a BMW X3 of the German X-Raid team finished the 371-kilometre stretch from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa de la Pampa with a time of 2:36.15 hours.

He enjoyed a lead of 2 minutes 17 seconds over Sainz in a Volkswagen Touareg. VW also had South African driver Giniel de Villiers third, 2:40 back, and Mark Miller of the United States fourth, 4:21 behind al-Attiyah.

Buenos Aires  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will most likely find that 2008 has been generally a good year for him. For one thing, December found him with a record popularity rating.

Some 70 per cent of Brazilians thought that the leftist Lula - who took office on January 1, 2003 as the first president of working- class origin in Brazilian history - was doing an "excellent" or a "good" job, the highest rating of any president since Brazil's democratization in 1985.

Buenos Aires  - There is probably no such thing as a good year for a person who is being held hostage in the jungle, sick, in chains or barefooted among other terrible conditions.

And yet 2008 has seen great developments in the Colombian conflict, even as some 700 hostages remain held by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The current year featured unilateral releases by the rebels and crucial rescues, including that of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the most high-profile hostage held by FARC.

It also saw key developments and changes within FARC as an armed organization, including the death of its founder and second-in- command, that may yet bear fruit in the years to come.