Word: towardness
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...triumvirate Iranians blame for the disputed election result and ensuing violence - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Supreme Leader Ali Khameni and their henchmen, the Basij militia - Iranians have added an unlikely candidate: state media. The wrath of many Iranians toward the state's all-powerful organ of propaganda, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), known in Iran as seda va sima, has been mounting over the past two weeks. It reached a fever pitch this weekend, as state television ignored the killing of "Neda," an Iranian woman protester shot on a Tehran street who has rapidly emerged as an iconic symbol...
...building outrage toward state television can also be traced to the demand last week by Mohammad Reza Shajjarian, Iran's beloved and foremost classical musician, that state TV and radio cease broadcasting his songs. Shajjarian's anthems helped galvanize the Islamic revolution of 1979 and retain today their evocative and emotional pull. "I emphatically asked IRIB not to broadcast my voice, because this is the voice of the dirt and dust and will always remain so," he said in an interview with the BBC, referring to the denigrating term "dirt and dust" with which Ahmadinejad has labeled the protesters...
...current level of antipathy toward IRIB, however, is unprecedented and proving worrisome to even staunch allies of Supreme Leader Khamenei. Ali Larijani, the current Speaker of parliament who formerly headed IRIB, recently said that "the IRIB should not act in a way that provokes people." Such rare criticism, especially from a key political figure who backed Ahamdinejad's electoral win on cue from Khamenei, suggests the delicate fissures within the regime's backing for the President...
...major irritant, especially for the hundreds of Chinese firms active there, which make up the largest group of foreign investors. Those investors now actually have an ally in Kim Jong Il, who has quietly reversed his earlier decision and started upgrading the country's dilapidated communications infrastructure. Toward the end of last year Orascom Telecom, the Middle East's largest wireless firm, was awarded a contract to install a national cell system. The 25-year contract, in a joint venture with the North Korean state telecom entity, calls for a $400 million investment, which Orascom doubled down on by also...
...Those export controls, of course, are just a symptom of the growing international tensions between Pyongyang and the West. Whether it's the country's recent nuclear tests and heated rhetoric directed toward its southern neighbor or the standoff over its jailing of two U.S. reporters, the unstable relations make it more difficult for Kim to deliver on his IT promises...