She wondered who could have helped Rafsanjani with his gold from Ceausescu’s corrupt deals and terrorist partnerships with Gaddafi, Arafat, Ali Bhutto, and North Korea’s Kim Jung Il. A billion dollars of gold from Romania, such a poor country, while the people lived for twenty-four years under a ruthless dictatorship with little food, little heat, little light, no rights, no freedom, no life. Marina wished she knew what had happened to that gold, deposited in Tehran.
It has been more than a decade since the first US drone strike in Pakistan, and can we say that we are safer for it? In recent years, the drone campaign has expanded from Yemen to Pakistan, Somalia, eastern Turkey and the southern Philippines. Has the violence in these regions lessened and hatred of America abated? The answer is a resounding no. The near daily attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and other areas where the war on terror is being played out, and countless lives lost — feeding into high-levels of anti-Americanism — are the clearest signals that the drone has failed.
Saturday's pro-government rally followed a night of violent clashes with protestors in and around Gezi Park, the site of the near three-week long protests that have since spread nationwide. Police used tear gas to drive protestors from the area surrounding the park. Reports put the number of injured at 150, six of them seriously. Five casualties have so far been reported since the unrest began 18 days ago, with thousands injured. Reporter Sean David Hobbs is a long-time resident of Istanbul who has been following the protests since they first began.
When Disney began promoting the film, there were some who thought it would have a horror edge to it and that idea was only emboldened when Raimi was announced as the director. While Raimi’s unique touch is visible in various parts of the film, I wouldn’t say it goes far enough to truly separate it from all the Marvel movies. At this point in the Marvel cycle, there should be more chances being taken, not just with the plot but with the whole tone and dialogue of the movies.
The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party representing the Unionist community, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, is refusing to enter the assembly because of the standoff over the part of the Brexit Agreement known as the Northern Ireland protocol. This has left Northern Ireland subject to some European Union trade regulations, to avoid the reintroduction of a hard border between the North, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU.
