5 Biggest Assumptions That Went Bust

Middle East dictators will remain strongAfter all, oil continues to be important in the global scheme of things. This, coupled with the revival of authoritarianism in Russia, suggested that people were willing to trade a bit of political freedom for economic good.

BustedZine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled to Saudi Arabia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt lost power and faced criminal charges, and the flashiest of them all ­— Muammar Gaddafi — was killed by National Transitional Council forces. Other countries saw smaller changes. Algeria lifted emergency Sudan’s Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir said his rule would end in 2015 and Syria released some political prisoners and lifted emergency.

Google will thrash Facebook When Google Plus launched everyone seemed to be talking about Circles. Cartoons on Facebook walls showed anthropomorphic icons of Google knocking down Facebook tech columns seemed incapable of talking about anything else.

BustedNow, they seem to be incapable of anything but carrying obits for Google Plus.

Osama bin Laden is hiding in caves Image: Faisal Mahmood/ ReutersIt was an assumption reinforced by cartoons, speeches, images on television and perhaps even the fact that Saddam Hussein was pulled out of a hole by US forces.