Daily News Channel
— Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran’s main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting “freedom, freedom” and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country’s leadership over the crackdown on election protests. Outside, police and pro-government Basiji militiamen fired tear gas and charged thousands of protesters who chanted “death to the dictator” and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign
With $42.2 million, the biggest opening gross thus far in 2009, "Friday the 13th" easily won the record-breaking Presidents Day weekend box office race, beating out Valentine’s Day favorites "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "He’s Just Not That Into You," as well as solid holdovers "Taken" and "Coraline." (All totals listed here are according to early three-day estimates from Media by Numbers; rough figures for the four-day holiday weekend will be out tomorrow.) That $42.2 million sum is the top first-weekend figure for any movie in the nearly 30-year-old “Friday the 13th” series — including the 2003 mashup, Freddy vs. Jason, which premiered with $36.4 million. In fact, the original “Friday the 13th” movie, from 1980, grossed just $39.7 million during its entire run, not adjusted for inflation.