Police Fire Tear Gas During Iran Prayers

— 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

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Iran warns opposition ahead of key sermon

Former president and one of Iran’s most powerful clerics, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has started delivering the Friday sermon at Tehran University, witnesses told CNN. Rafsanjani, who backs reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi, the opposition candidate who challenged hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed June 12 elections, planned to offer a solution to the ongoing crisis in the latter part of his sermon, witnesses said.

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Man must choose between selling kidney or child

Mohammed Iqbal said he has been told by his landlord to pay up on debts and is left with a choice facing others in this impoverished corner of Pakistan: Sell your children or a kidney. For the 50-year-old Iqbal, there is only one option. Despite a law passed in late 2007 banning transplants for money, he has decided to sell his kidney and has already been for pre-operation tests

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Resignation a possibility, interim Honduran leader says

Provisional Honduran President Roberto Micheletti told reporters Wednesday that he would be willing to step down as long as ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya ceases his claims to the presidency. The provisional president said that if it became “extremely necessary” for him to step down in order to maintain peace in the country, he would, as long as Zelaya was not restored to power, Micheletti’s son, Aldo Micheletti, confirmed to CNN en Español. Meanwhile, Zelaya said his followers plan to take action inside the country this weekend, ratcheting up pressure on the provisional government that has ruled for more than two weeks.

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Money pours back into China; GDP rises

China moved closer to its goal of 8 percent annual growth, as the nation recorded a record jump in foreign currency reserves. China’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record $2.13 trillion at the end of June, according to the People’s Bank of China. The world’s largest holder of foreign cash — mostly U.S

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Google vs. Microsoft: What you need to know

In less than a week, Google announced an operating system to compete with Windows, while Microsoft announced that Office 10 will include free, online versions of its four most popular software programs — a shot at Google’s suite of web-based office applications. And not more than a month and a half ago, Microsoft unveiled its new search engine Bing, which it hopes will steal market share from Google and finally make it real money online. From the news of it, it’s a full-blown tech battle, complete with behind-the-scenes machinations to sic government regulators on each other

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