Word: statuses
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...Pluto Is No Planet Astronomers say eight is enough A celestial outlier and easy target, Pluto was demoted to dwarf- planet status last week by the International Astronomical Union. Pluto backers are already petitioning for its reinstatement...
...they must scream about that. What frustrates you most? In the U.K. we have been in court arguing that we shouldn't use evidence obtained through torture, that people should not be locked up without trial. American colleagues have been fighting identical battles. Those cases were won, but the status quo remains the same. But how do we balance the protection of human rights with the need to curb terrorism? There is every mechanism already available to the state to properly detect and detain and investigate. What is not just unacceptable, but plain wrong, is to say that a person...
...more popular reference to Iranians' loose relationship with the truth is the Islamic and especially Shi'ite principle of taqiyya, the practice of hiding one's religious faith under life threatening circumstances. Taqiyya evolved during the early centuries of Islam, when Shi'ite Muslims faced persecution for their minority status at the hands of majority Sunnis. The concept is not, as sometimes described, carte blanche for telling lies or promoting one's interests, but rather a moral pass to tell one very specific lie (?I am not a Shi'ite') expressly to avoid being killed. From this ancient practice that...
...broad spectrum of Iran's political factions, including reformists, backs a nuclear program as a way of ensuring the country's regional status. Former President Mohammad Khatami might have made the point more softly, but consensus existed long before the arrival of firebrand Ahmadinejad, who makes the case in louder, more menacing tones. There's certainly disagreement over how much Iran should risk in running this course, and what incentives it should settle for in suspending it altogether. But there is a core belief here that without a nuclear program, Iran will be blocked from consolidating its growing influence...
...region was incommensurate with its geostrategic location, educated population, oil resources, and proud national history. The fall of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein created new spheres of Iranian influence, in fact a whole new regional dynamic that has neatly granted Iran a short-cut to great power status it could not have dreamed of otherwise. The system establishment views its nuclear program as a way to entrench those ambitions, and ensure its own survival...