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...scene rarely witnessed by foreign eyes: a meeting of the great sheiks of Iraq's Anbar province, at the heavily guarded compound of the powerful chieftains of the al-Hais family, on the outskirts of the provincial capital. Some 300 tribal elders have gathered here, most of them in traditional garb, and much of the morning has been taken up with the elaborate Arab rituals of salutation. Every newcomer must greet every person already present with handshakes, hugs and kisses - on the cheek to show friendship, on the shoulder for respect. Then there are the endless cups...
...indeed, the sheiks are preparing for hostilities - of the democratic kind. With Iraq-wide provincial elections two months away, these Anbari chieftains have banded together under the banner of the Iraqi Tribal Front, and will field candidates in several provinces. So after the compound has filled up, the chanting turns distinctly political. "We are with Nouri al-Maliki on SOFA," they shout, referring to the status of forces agreement that the Iraqi Prime Minister has signed, amid considerable domestic opposition, with...
...Hais compound, the dancers withdraw, and it's time for the main event. A portable dais is hauled into a corner of the quadrangle, and a series of sheiks troop up to it and make brief speeches. Their political inexperience is revealed by their language, which is absurdly over the top. Opponents of the SOFA are denounced as "enemies of Iraq" and "antinationals." There are ad hominem attacks on some of the politicians opposed to the agreement. The IIP is not mentioned by name, but nobody here is in any doubt that most of the vitriol is aimed...
...intentional? To cut costs. Heparin suppliers substituted a chemical--oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, or OSCS--that is derived from animal cartilage and used only in dietary supplements, not in medicines. The compound's key advantages: it is, as a Baxter spokeswoman puts it, a "virtual mimic of heparin" in most tests and, according to a congressional investigator, costs only $20 per kg, vs. $2,000 for crude heparin. The suppliers, investigators believe, colluded to substitute OSCS in the crude heparin they passed along for the standard price and pocketed the $1,980 difference for each kilogram they sold...
...Didn’t!,” an original piano-driven song about the game. Its slightly amusing but ultimately embarrassing lyrics—like “Sucka tried to play me / But he never paid me / Never”—compound the obnoxious drinking-song chorus: “Oh no you didn’t!” “Mercenaries 2,” of course, makes no claim to be a serious and artistic venture like “Gears of War,” but this doesn’t change...