as the city of Ferdowsi, the Iranian poet of Shahnameh, which is considered to be the national epic of Iran. The city is the hometown of some of the most significant Iranian literary figures and artists such as Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, the famous contemporary poet, and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, the traditional Iranian singer and composer. Ferdowsi and Akhavan Sales are both buried in Tus, an ancient city that is considered to be the main origin of the current city of Mashhad.Landmark Sierra Leone election sees high turnout

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Voting was largely peaceful Saturday in landmark national elections in Sierra Leone, a decade after the West African country emerged from a brutal civil war.

There were glitches at voting centres in the capital, Freetown, where the polls were supposed to open at 7 a.m. local time but some didn't start handing out ballots until 10 a.m.

The delays frustrated people who had lined up outside overnight to be among the first to mark their choices, the CBC's Kimberly Gale.

Soldiers stand guard at a polling station in the Wilberforce neighborhood of Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Saturday. At some polling places, people lined up overnight to vote and then jostled in the daytime heat to cast their ballots. (Tommy Trenchard/Associated Press)

"I've been at polling