Ayatollah: Western ‘lies’ depict Iranians as ‘rioters’

Iran’s supreme leader blamed enemies and outsiders on Monday for the turmoil that followed last month’s presidential elections, according to an Iranian news agency. To a gathering in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Western governments of having “clearly meddled in the internal affairs of Iran” and the American and European media of depicting Iranians “as rioters,” according to Fars News Agency.

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New iPhone 3GS heats up smartphone wars

When Apple starts selling what it bills as the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet on Friday, the company’s latest entry will only heat up the already sizzling smartphone landscape. Fans, techies and ordinary consumers eager to purchase the new iPhone 3GS may be preparing to stand in line at Apple stores around the United States and seven other countries. But they have more choices than ever when it comes to phones that act like mini-computers.

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Stay Overnight in a Turkish Mansion

“Make yourself at home” may be a refrain heard in guesthouses the world over, but it takes on new meaning when it comes from one of your host country’s wealthiest families — and when your temporary “home” is their mansion. The Buyukkusoglu family, who made their fortune in the automotive industry, converted their 48,400-sq-ft modern manor house in Bodrum, Turkey, on the edge of the Aegean Sea into a 12-suite hotel, and in 2007 opened it to paying guests as the Casa Dell’Arte, www.casadellartebodrum.com.

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YouTube, Sony Pictures in talks over feature films

YouTube is in talks to acquire licensing rights to full-length content from Sony Pictures, home of such films as "The International" and "Spider-Man," sources familiar with the negotiations told CNET News. Details about what a final agreement could look like are sparse, but any partnership between the two powerhouses would likely benefit both. Representatives from both companies declined to comment

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Arsonists start new bushfires in Australia

New fires blamed on arsonists hit Australia Wednesday as the toll from deadly blazes was likely to rise on the macabre discovery that charred remains initially identified as single bodies were in fact couples fused together by the heat. The latest fires broke out Tuesday night, even as emergency workers were struggling with the aftermath of bushfires that have so far killed 181 people and burned huge tracts of the countryside in southeastern Australia. John Brumby, the premier of the hard-hit state of Victoria, said many of 20 fires burning Wednesday were suspected to have been started by arsonists — an act described earlier by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as “mass murder.” “There seems little doubt these were deliberately lit — a number of them last night,” Brumby said on national television

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