The Syrian President’s Speech: Surprise! There’s No Surprise

It’s not as if President Bashar al-Assad didn’t have time to go through a few revisions of his much anticipated, much delayed speech before he finally delivered it to Syria’s pliant parliamentarians on Wednesday. It fell well short of the expectations of many, but the MPs gushed over their 45-year-old leader, rising to their feet several times to cheer and chant “with our souls and with our blood we will sacrifice for you Bashar!” and “God, Syria, Bashar — only!” At least a dozen stood to shout their support during his speech, or spout sycophantic poetry — though some of the TV shots seemed to have been set up to capture these ostensibly spontaneous events before they happened.

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China passes $1 trillion in Treasuries

China passes $1 trillion in Treasuries It turns out China does personal more Treasury bonds than the government’s official figures are actually allowing on. China held $1.sixteen trillion of U.S. federal government bonds at the end of 2010, Treasury stated Monday in its preliminary revision of data on foreign portfolio holdings. That’s up $268 billion […]

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