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MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A swimmer was bitten Saturday by a juvenile great white shark that grew agitated trying to free itself from a hook a fisherman had thrown into the water off Southern California's Manhattan Beach Pier, officials said.

The man, who was with a group of long-distance swimmers when he swam into the fishing line, was bitten on a side of his rib cage around 9:30 a.m., said Rick Flores, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman. The man's injuries were not life-threatening and he was taken to a hospital conscious and breathing on his own, Flores said.

Witnesses said the approximately 7-foot shark was thrashing around in the water for more than 30 minutes before biting the swimmer about 300 yards off the beach.

Eric Martin told KABC-TV that the shark's mouth opened and closed as if it was trying to shake the hook.

"We think the swimmer just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Martin said.

The fisherman cut the line, and a surfer put the injured swimmer on his board, taking him ashore with the help of Los Angeles County lifeguards. Paramedics began treating the man.

The victim's identity was not released. Flores described him as a middle-aged man.

The shark remained in the area for the next 20 minutes and then disappeared into the murky water, Flores said. The beaches remained open, but a mile-long stretch was temporarily off-limits to swimmers. Police also prohibited fishing from the pier until Tuesday as a precaution.

Shark sightings are on the rise at some Southern California beaches, especially in the waters off Manhattan Beach, which is a popular spot for surfers and paddle boarders. The beach also attracted large crowds on the holiday weekend.

"There's a sighting almost on a daily basis out here," Flores said.

Marine biologists say many of the sharks are juveniles learning to feed and fend for themselves.

Capt. Tracy Lizotte, a Los Angeles County lifeguard at the beach, told the Los Angeles Times that sharks usually avoid people and said the animal accidentally bit the swimmer because it had gotten agitated.

Shark attacks are rare. Since 1950, there have been 101 great white shark attacks on humans off California — 13 of them resulted in deaths, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

It's illegal to fish for great white sharks. It wasn't immediately clear whether the department was investigating the accident. A call to a department spokeswoman wasn't immediately returned.

HARROGATE, England (AP) — Marcel Kittel of Germany won the first stage of the Tour de France in a crash-marred bunch sprint in front of royalty in the English countryside on Saturday.

After sprint rival Mark Cavendish fell in a late crash, Kittel won the 190.5-kilometer (118-mile) run along rocky, grassy hills from Leeds to Harrogate. The German raised his arms skyward and cried after he edged Peter Sagan of Slovakia in second, and Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania in third.

With fewer than 400 meters to go, and the speedsters rushing ahead, Cavendish veered slightly to his left and bumped Australia's Simon Gerrans. The two came crashing down alone, with Cavendish landing hard on his right shoulder.

After lying briefly on the ground, Cavendish got up gingerly and cruised over the finish line — cradling his right arm.

Many British fans were hoping for a win by Cavendish, a native of the Isle of Man, whose mother is from Harrogate. Prime Minister David Cameron, Princes William and Harry, and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, were among throngs of British fans who lined the route, a testament to the cycling craze in the U.K.

England hosts the first three stages of this 101st Tour before riders enter France on Tuesday. In all, the 198 riders are to cover 3,664 kilometers (2,277 miles) of road before the July 27 finish in Paris.

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's popular beach towns began returning to the business of recreation Saturday, after Arthur lashed the state's coast with forceful winds and heavy rain and then churned northward without leaving a trail of significant damage.

Arthur was downgraded to a tropical storm early Saturday, but the storm's near-hurricane strength winds slammed into Canada's maritime provinces, causing 113,000 customers of Nova Scotia Power to lose electricity. The utility in New Brunswick reported 86,000 outages. The storm has caused flight cancellations and delays at the region's largest airport in Halifax.

New England was largely spared from damage spawned by the storm, but some 19,000 people in Maine and 1,600 in Vermont were without power after high winds and heavy rains pounded the region. There were reports of localized flooding in coastal areas of Massachusetts and the Nova Star Ferry suspended service Friday and Saturday morning because of dangerous seas. No injuries or deaths have been reported.

The hurricane's effects in North Carolina were mostly confined to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, and some vacationers were already back on beaches to the north and south on Friday. But the ocean churned by Arthur remained dangerous Saturday with the risk of rip currents able to wash the strongest swimmer to sea. That didn't stop thousands of people from enjoying the sun and sand and leaving lifeguards to remind beach-goers of the danger.

"We're going to try to keep people out of the water and keep them safe," said David Elder, lifeguard supervisor for the town of Kill Devil Hills. "However, if conditions abate, I'd be glad to drop" the no-swimming warning. More than 600 of the 700 lifeguard rescues by Elder's department last year were required because of rip currents, he said.

The only road onto Hatteras Island was reopened to all traffic on Saturday afternoon, hours after permanent residents were first allowed to return. The island had been closed to visitors since early Thursday. With many weeklong cottage rentals running Saturday to Saturday, local businesses were hoping to salvage the second half of the holiday weekend.

A small section of fragile North Carolina Highway 12 buckled after being submerged by churning waters during the Category 2 hurricane. Officials also tested the two-mile-long Bonner Bridge onto the island to ensure it was safe for traffic. The road also suffered extensive flooding in some areas and officials warned drivers to watch for pockets of sand on the highway.

Farther south, Ocracoke Island's electricity distribution system was badly damaged by Arthur, leading officials to order residents to quit using air conditioners and water heaters so that generator-supplied power could provide refrigeration and other necessities during a cycle of planned outages. A nightly curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. was declared until power was fully restored. Vacationers were being coaxed to leave with the offer of free ferry rides out.

Parts of Rodanthe and Salvo were flooded on Friday across nearly the entire width of Hatteras Island from the ocean to the sound. Trailers toppled in campgrounds where they were left, pictures from a Coast Guard helicopter that flew over the island showed.

Josh Fiscus was still cleaning up the mess at his Salvo home Saturday.

"We had about two feet of water here in my garage," he said.

Jackson Whitley, 14, was back to another day of picking up wind-blown debris and fallen tree limbs from around his family's Buxton home much as he did Friday. Apart from the lack of normal summertime crowds, he said streets were pretty much back to normal.

Linda Savage, 65, said she and a neighbor collected a small refrigerator and a trash can with lid intact left behind by flood waters about three feet deep. The flooding rose almost to the front door of her Salvo home without seeping inside, but Arthur's winds of almost 100 mph caused other damage.

"I lost a tremendous amount of shingles from my roof," Savage said.

She planned to shop for groceries Saturday, and hoped the cable television and Internet would be restored soon.

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Emery Dalesio can be reached at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio.

More than half of 16-year-olds in the United States have tried alcohol. While many of them learn to drink responsibly, some go on to binge on alcohol, putting themselves at risk for trouble as adults. Researchers still aren't sure why that is.

But it may be possible to predict with about 70 percent accuracy which teens will become binge drinkers, based on their genetics, brain function, personality traits and history, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.

And as prediction tools get better, the researchers say, we'll be better able to warn and help those who are most at risk.

"It's sort of a deep mystery — why do some people become addicted and others don't," says Hugh Garavan, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont and the study's senior author.

To try to answer that question, the researchers took brain scans of about 700 14-year-olds from all over Europe. They also analyzed these high-schoolers' personality traits, life experiences and genetics, as well as their drinking habits. Two years later, the researchers followed up.

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