Word: backgrounder
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...With that background, the world - and the U.S. in particular - was never going to forget Somalia easily. As the only officially Christian country in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has long been wary of Somalia's Islamic militias, which it describes as a "regional menace." (While it is officially Christian, Ethiopia has a population that is about half Muslim.) It shares that anti-Islamist position with the U.S., particularly since August 1998 when simultaneous suicide bombings destroyed the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing more than 200 people. The ringleaders were tracked to Somalia, and an Islamist...
...Baozhong, the farmer whose arm was crippled by a previous beating, told me of Liang's suicide, I heard someone screaming at him in the background. It was his wife, and she was telling him to get off the phone. Talking to me would only bring more trouble. Already, Yu had been jailed once and not been given the land usually apportioned to Qixia families when they have a child. Money was tight. But Yu kept talking. "I tell you, English-language journalist," he said, "I cannot accept what they have done to us. Even if if takes 10 years...
...First, the background: As usual, the elections pits Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khaleda Zia, widow of assassinated President Ziaur Rahman, against the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh's first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. These have alternated in government every five years since military rule ended in 1991, with the BNP forming the most recent government. Bangladesh's constitution, however, requires that the incumbent party steps down a few months before an election and hands the reins to a neutral caretaker government to run the country and oversee the electoral commission, until the next government...
...good reason: There is no shortage of factors that the admissions committee examines in determining who gets in. Most important are indicators of a student’s academic success and potential. In addition, the admissions committee considers the many ways in which a student’s experiences, backgrounds, and skills will allow that student to contribute to the Harvard community. And so-called legacy applicants—that is, students with a close relative who attended Harvard—continue to receive a small boost in the admissions process. Despite its many benefits, this practice...
...streaming across her body sits atop the whole construction, and a painting of a blue night sky with a brightly shining north star lines the back of the manger. Another large nativity scene sits in front of the statehouse at Boston Common. With the golden dome in the background, Christmas lights at the top of the manger illuminate a troubling scene: as a kind gentleman resting on a nearby bench pointed out, “the babe is missing.” It might be the work of vandals, or the baby Jesus might appear on the 25th. Either...