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'Return To Homs,' New Syria Documentary, Gives Gut-Wrenching Glimpse Into Besieged City. The first images that came out of the Syrian city of Homs right after the start of the protests in the spring of 2011 were pictures and movies of chanting men, of citizens dancing in the city’s squares while calling for freedom and democracy. “Homs the audacious,” they sang, lauding their hometown. Then came the footage of shells and the photos of civilians in body bags, of tanks and soldiers and barely armed opposition fighters, of a besieged, restive city that more closely resembled a moon crater than the bustling center it once was. The flow of images eventually slowed down as the conflict persisted and the city and its inhabitants became largely cut off from the world.

After so many months with barely any news emerging from the town, a new, harrowing documentary by Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki once again gives the world a gut-wrenching glimpse into life in the isolated city. An activist told the Los Angeles Times last week that only “ the lucky ones still have bulgur wheat.” The Debate Behind U.S. Intervention in World War II - Susan Dunn. 73 years ago, President Roosevelt was mulling a third term, and Charles Lindbergh was praising German air strength. A new book looks at the dramatic months leading up to the election of 1940. "DEAR FRISKY," President Roosevelt wrote in May 1940 to Roger Merriman, his history professor at Harvard and the master of Eliot House.

"I like your word 'shrimps.' There are too many of them in all the Colleges and Universities -- male and female. I think the best thing for the moment is to call them shrimps publicly and privately. Most of them will eventually get in line if things should become worse. " To designate young isolationists, who deluded themselves into believing that America could remain aloof, secure, and distant from the wars raging in Europe, Roosevelt liked the amusing term "shrimps"-- crustaceans possessing a nerve cord but no brain. Earlier that evening, the president had distractedly prepared drinks for a small group of friends in his study. Friendship with Nazi Germany? Orthodox Christians and Catholics: One lung or two. The Middle East, explained in one (sort of terrifying) chart.

What could be simpler than the Middle East? A well-known Egyptian blogger who writes under the pseudonym The Big Pharaoh put together this chart laying out the region's rivalries and alliances. He's kindly granted me permission to post it, so that Americans might better understand the region. The joke is that it's not a joke; this is actually pretty accurate. Spend a few minutes staring at this and you will either have a seizure or actually comprehend the Middle East. Egypt is represented by the "MB" (Muslim Brotherhood) and "Sisi" for military leader Gen. There are rivals who share mutual enemies, allies who back opposite sides of the same conflict, conflicting interests and very strange bedfellows. It's all kind of a scramble. The chart is a spin-off of the most amazing letter to the editor ever written, which appeared in Thursday's Financial Times.

Sir, Iran is backing Assad. More from WorldViews on understanding the Middle East: The Cyprus bail-out: Unfair, short-sighted and self-defeating. Israel, Palestine and America: Spell it out, Barack. Obama Arrives in Israel for Two-Day Trip. Among Cardinals, Deep Divisions Over Next Pope. Snowden's Contingency: 'Dead Man's Switch' Borrows From Cold War, WikiLeaks | Threat Level.

Photo: Courtesy of the Guardian The strategy employed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to discourage a CIA hit job has been likened to a tactic employed by the U.S. and Russian governments during the Cold War. Snowden, a former systems administrator for the National Security Agency in Hawaii, took thousands of documents from the agency’s networks before fleeing to Hong Kong in late May, where he passed them to Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.

The journalists have handled them with great caution. But Snowden also reportedly passed encrypted copies of his cache to a number of third parties who have a non-journalistic mission: If Snowden should suffer a mysterious, fatal accident, these parties will find themselves in possession of the decryption key, and they can publish the documents to the world.

“As an information strategy, what Snowden is doing is similar to that, but it doesn’t have the same kind of implication,” Prados says. North Korea news, all the latest and breaking North Korean news. Islam Peace Debate. Revenge Porn Is Bad. Criminalizing It Is Worse | Wired Opinion. Image: Jan Stromme/Getty “Free speech is important, but…” Oh no. Here we go again. This time, the issue is the criminalization of revenge porn. Much of the media narrative characterizes revenge porn as a new, runaway technological scourge too disruptive to fall under any existing law, but that is simply untrue. A number of legal remedies against both vengeful exes and website operators already exist: civil tort actions, DMCA takedowns, criminal statutes against extortion, and even a federal law that could give the FBI authority to go after the sites. Discussions of internet law seem like an endless cycle of “but what about the women/children?”

Pitted against “but what about my free speech?” First Amendment issues are hardly the most compelling reason why we should reject the push to criminalize revenge porn. Although First Amendment issues are certainly present with respect to revenge porn, it’s hardly the most compelling reason why we should reject the push to criminalize it. Nathan Verhelst Chooses Euthanasia After Failed Gender Reassignment Surgeries. A 44-year-old man in Belgium chose to end his life via euthanasia on Monday after a series of failed gender reassignment surgeries.

“I was the girl no one wanted,” Nathan Verhelst told the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, mere hours before his death. Verhelst, who was born female, told the paper’s reporters he grew up in an unloving family, feeling like a boy trapped in a girl’s body. He finally started hormone therapy in 2009 and underwent several reassignment surgeries in 2012. While doctors did not publicly share the specifics of the surgeries, Verhelst told Het Laatste Nieuws that after the procedures, he felt like a monster. “I was ready to celebrate my new birth. Verhelst applied for euthanasia several months ago and finally died on Monday in a Brussels hospital. Evelien Delbeke, a visiting professor at the University of Antwerp, told The Huffington Post that individuals approved for the procedure must meet strict criteria. “I want to emphasize ‘dignified,’” she added. Chinua Achebe, Nigerian Writer, Dies at 82.

Thailand Rating Raised by Fitch on Yingluck Stability. Thailand’s credit rating was restored to BBB+ by Fitch Ratings four years after political turmoil prompted a cut, signaling confidence in Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s ability to maintain social stability. The long-term foreign currency-denominated debt was raised one step by Fitch to three levels above junk on March 8, bringing the rating back in line with rankings by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service.

The outlook is stable. Yingluck has sought to avert political tensions since taking power in 2011 by shelving measures that would bring back Thaksin Shinawatra, her brother who was ousted as prime minister in a coup seven years ago. The upgrade comes as her government prepares a bill to spend 2 trillion baht ($67 billion) by 2020 on high-speed trains and mass-transit networks. Yingluck last year raised minimum wages and unveiled incentives for car buyers and rice farmers to boost domestic demand and counter falling exports.