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Around the world, cities like Rio de Janeiro are using new technologies to solve their problems. And while there's great promise in many of these "smart" city programs, urban planner Anthony Townsend is wary of putting so much power in the hands of tech companies.

Justin Lee grew up in a Southern Baptist family. At age 18, he came out to his family and church, who had trouble accepting him as a gay man. Lee later started the Gay Christian Network to encourage a dialogue between gay Christians, their families and their churches. His new book is Torn.

Novelist Anne Enright manages to turn her narrator's troubled, life-changing affair into an extended metaphor for Ireland's spectacular recent boom and bust. The Forgotten Waltz is about the uncontrollable forces that drive us into mayhem, bursting both our familial and economic bubbles.

Armistead Maupin's famous series Tales of the City winds down with one last story about Anna Madrigal, the transgender landlady of 28 Barbary Lane. Maupin tells NPR the series originally grew out of his attempts to write a nonfiction piece about the heterosexual pickup scene at his local Safeway.

The chief minister of India's most populous state came from humble origins, but Mayawati, as she is known, has not been shy about displaying her wealth. Recently, the show of opulence at a political rally — where she accepted a garland made entirely of money — seems to have gone too far, even by her standards.

Afghanistan holds its first parliamentary election in decades. Ten people were killed in the hours leading to the balloting. Results aren't expected for a week or more.

As local elected officials continue to face pressure to pass resolutions calling for an end to the fighting in Gaza, some aren't sure how or whether to take a stand at all.

Ian Roberts has competed in some of the most high-profile races in the world. But his biggest competition to date was a determined fifth-grader in jean shorts and Nike tennis shoes.

Jacy Sheldon scored 22 points to lead No. 2 Ohio State to a 15th straight win and the Big Ten regular-season title, 67-51 over Michigan.

Tom Stafford commanded the first Apollo mission to dock with a Soviet craft in space. He also served as commander of Apollo 10 - the dress rehearsal before NASA's first landing on the moon in 1969.