And Imad Khadduri posts a picture of some typical black humour

This move attracted sharp criticisms online.

The failure of that effort should come as no surprise, owing to its deeply flawed foundations.

But most of us are likely to recoil at the methods they used in their work as intellectuals caricature, deception, and even fabrication.

Then there is the long tradition of the court jester with license to criticize the despot by sweetening his barbs with jokes.

Central authorities seemed to sense an immediate need to quell criticism of its controversial population control efforts.

The sweet but tangy flavor made my nose wrinkle, and the drippy pulp reminded me of the innards of a human heart or at least how I imagined they look.

Across the Middle East, anger is high. This anger, however, cannot fall into random diatribes against Germans, or Germany.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad may be gaining support across the Muslim world for his fervent criticism of the United States, but inside Iran, he is losing strength.

As an adult, I now live in the land of gazpacho, La Tomatina and pa amb tomàquet, and have grown to love the sweet but tangy flavor and even the drippy pulp.

The only freedom Russians have left is to devise bitter jokes that tap the country s rich historical stores of political pathology. If they could export them, they would be as rich as Germans.

MOSCOW Owing to the harsh economic situation, it was decided to cut off the light at the end of the tunnel as a temporary measure. That is but one of the jokes making the rounds in Russia these days, as the country faces its most severe crisis in a decade.

MOSCOW Owing to the harsh economic situation, it was decided to cut off the light at the end of the tunnel as a temporary measure. That is but one of the jokes making the rounds in Russia these days, as the country faces its most severe crisis in a decade.

Worse, there is serious acrimony between Russia and the rest on many matters, including a new, alternative security architecture, which Russian President Dmitri Medvedev imagines could be placed under the OSCE s umbrella.

One only has to recall the vitriol visited upon Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the last presidential campaign for his now infamous sermon in which he said that, with the attacks, the chickens of US foreign policy had come home to roost.

For much of its early history to say nothing of the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction the country was as closely divided as it is today, and bitter campaign rhetoric reflected the closeness of the competition.