Erdogan's new Turkey finds forgiveness for some, teargas for others
Two recent incidents of police violence in Istanbul highlight the worrying turn being taken by the New Turkey that religious conservative and authoritarian President Recep Tayyiip Erdogan declared in 2014 .
In one, police launched an assault on an unsanctioned PRIDE rally in central Istanbul with tear gas and water cannons.
In another, police used the same tactics to break up a gathering of people protesting against a thuggish attack on fans of the group Radiohead by assailants who were quickly released after being detained.
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Hollywood's white privilege on display in new Rumi biopic
In a supposed bid to “challenge the stereotypical portrayal of Muslim characters in western cinema,” the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “Gladiator” has said he wants to adapt the life of the world’s best-selling poet, Jalal al-Din Mohammad Balkhi, better known as Rumi, for the big screen.
Only a few months after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Franzoni and producer Stephen Joel Brown, want to hand the roles of Rumi and Shams-e Tabrizi — Rumi’s Iranian-born spiritual instructor — to Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr., respectively.
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Algeria blocks Facebook, Twitter to prevent exam fraud
Algeria temporarily blocked access to social networks on Sunday to prevent cheating after leaked papers forced hundred of thousands of students to resit high school final exams.
Facebook and Twitter have been blocked since late Saturday and are to remain inaccessible to millions of Algerians until after the last test on Thursday, a telecom source told AFP.
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