Word: centralization
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...rule. All are Westernized, middle-class professionals, with a penchant for whisky and a preference for quoting Martin Amis over the Koran. Oscillating between Baghdad and London in the years 1998 and 2005, the play skillfully dramatizes the tug between two locations and two states of mind in the central character of Salim, a bisexual doctor who has just penned a controversial novel entitled Masturbating Angels, partially in rebellion against his Iraqi heritage. Though initially in favor of the invasion, Salim returns to Iraq with his friends for a wedding to find the country slowly descending into chaos, virtually unrecognizable...
...RODENTS 2 billion Number of field mice that have swarmed central China after the worst floods in 50 years drove them out of lowland fields 80? Amount that Guangzhou entrepreneurs were reported by local media to be paying for a kilogram of live mice, to be served at banquets...
...city that knows it is a constant target for terror, the huge burst of white steam, a towering column of almost biblical ferocity, was enough to kindle several moments of panic. An underground pipe explosion near Grand Central Terminal during rush hour Wednesday evening spooked commuters and tourists alike in New York City. "The whole ground was shaking," one young woman heading away from the scene said into her cell phone. "It just came from nowhere," said another, "and then everyone was yelling, 'get out of here...
...word. Italy's top court ruled on Tuesday that "though representative of obscene concepts [and] of a sexual nature," that world-renowned 10-letter word is merely a "vulgar manifestation of irritation." The ruling overturned a verbal abuse conviction of a 60-year-old local politician in the central town of Aquila who had directed the expression at a political rival during a 1999 city council meeting...
...Today's fissures in central authority might seem tiny by comparison, but they are significant nonetheless. In the boomtowns of Shanghai and Guangzhou, municipal meetings are often conducted in local dialects, as opposed to the national language, Mandarin. Trade rivalries between provinces have resulted in absurd internal tariffs that foreign manufacturers must pay when transporting their products out of China. And even though Beijing executed the country's former top food and drug regulator for graft last week, the international scandal over tainted Chinese products speaks more to the central government's inability to monitor what's going...