IRAN ELECTION: KHAMENEI SIGNALS
BEIRUT - SUPREME Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's uncompromising demand for a halt to street protests over Iran's disputed presidential election puts him in the forefront of a power struggle that could turn bloody.
In a rare Friday prayer sermon, Khamenei, 69, essentially read the riot act to anyone questioning the integrity of last week's election that gave hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a big margin over moderate challenger Mirhossein Mousavi.
NEW YORK - A "DISTRESSING SLOW" US housing recovery, with inflation-adjusted home values expected to decline over the next five years, makes it unlikely that housing wealth will drive consumer spending in the next decade, a Reuters/University of Michigan survey found.
Consumers are apt to maintain their renewed emphasis on savings and paring debt, Richard Curtin, director of the survey, said in a June home price update on Friday.
NEW YORK - WARREN Buffett is again raising money for charity by auctioning a chance to dine with him, though it remains to be seen if the global recession keeps the winning bid below last year's record US$2.11 million (S$3.07 million).
The world's second-richest person is auctioning lunch for a 10th straight year to benefit the Glide Foundation, a nonprofit in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that offers housing, job training, health and child care, and meals for the poor.
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK - APPLE'S latest iPhone hit stores on on Friday with new features and faster speeds, drawing some fans, but not the crowds that had swarmed the previous iPhone launches.
At the company's flagship New York store in Midtown Manhattan, hundreds of shoppers lined up before the 7 am opening to buy the iPhone 3GS, but the line was shorter than for the first iPhone in 2007 and for last year's 3G model.
