Demagaga

Embattled Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared popular internet microblogging service Twitter a troublemaker in his latest round of anti-freedom salvos launched since the beginning of the riots in Istanbul. He declared the information being spread on the service lies and labeled Twitter an enemy of modern governments: There is a trouble called Twitter. [...]

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Archaeologists have struggled for years to locate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the oft-described wonder of the ancient world that housed a tropical garden in the middle of the ancient desert metropolis of Babylon. Now, recent discoveries have shed light on why it is so difficult to find a landmark so prominent in ancient texts [...]

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Iran’s currency the rial has fallen 20% in value over the last two weeks in trade against the US dollar.   The devaluation indicates the Islamic Republic of Iran is increasingly struggling against international sanctions that have limited its ability to obtain foreign currency.   The sanctions placed on Iran are intended to reduce its [...]

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Silvan Shalom, Israel’s vice premier, said that if it appeared that the Syrian government was losing control of its chemical weapons stockpile in its struggle against rebels fighting against the government of Bashar al-Assad that Israel would launch military strikes on those bases.   Silvan Shalom was commenting on a report that leaked to the [...]

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The election to succeed outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is less than six months away but already speculation is heating up about who will succeed the controversial leader who has staked his legacy on Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear program.   Many of the potential contenders have one thing overwhelmingly in common – they are all [...]

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Protests still rage in Egypt during the second anniversary of similar actions that swept former longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power.   The rallies in the famed Tahrir Square have called for President Mohammed Morsi to step down from his post, with charges that he and the Muslim Brotherhood have betrayed the revolution and [...]

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Saudi Arabia’s powerful and omniprevalent Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice recently closed an educational exhibit featuring dinosaurs at a shopping mall in the oil capital of Dammam, prompting a backlash on Twitter that both mocked the ‘Hayaa’ as well as Saudi clerics.   Some have pointed to the ‘dinosaurs [...]

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s slim electoral victory means that the next coalition government in Israel’s Knesset will be less-inclined to cater to the interests of the far-right.   Even though he will remain in power, exit polls have revealed that his party has lost up to 25% of their seats in the Israeli parliament. With less of [...]

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Current CNPC holdings in Iraq include three fields in the south producing more than 1.4 million barrels of oil per day. The largest foreign players in Iraq’s emerging oil industry are China and Malaysia. China National Petroleum Corporation has sought to expand its presence by acquiring the West Qurna 1 Field which holds reserves estimated to be [...]

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Several bomb attacks across the nation of Iraq have claimed the lives of at least 17 Shia pilgrims, with the worst attack in the north of Baghdad in which 7 pilgrims were killed on their way to Samarra. Though no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet, it is believed to be the work of [...]

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