Politicians understandably want to deflect attention from their own misguided policies.

His operation in Syria is partly designed to divert attention from his dismemberment of Ukraine.

Apparently, the first lady dressed for misdirection

We have been used as scapegoats to shift the focus away from the country s economic and political problems.

Over the last 10 years, Macedonia's ruling party has stirred homophobic sentiments as a way to divert public attention from political and economic failures.

By doing so he drowned out the concerns about low growth and high unemployment that were threatening his re election prospects.

Of course, Netanyahu is intentionally exaggerating the Iranian threat to deflect attention from Israel s real problems especially its enduring conflict with Palestine.

On the one hand, what better way to distract the world's attention from Russia's actions in Ukraine then to stake a claim on another celestial body?

Or if not, is it possible that someone just started this fake craze to divert the attention of many?

Though nationalist sentiment directed against external foes tends to divert attention temporarily from internal turmoil, the country s serious domestic problems need to be addressed.

It means not allowing newspapers and TV to be hijacked by spurious passions and staged theatrics designed to divert attention from everything else.

Indeed, many regard Netanyahu s Iran obsession as nothing more than a successful ploy to divert attention from the Palestinian issue.

Are you trying to distract me?

I was trying to distract her.

I'll try to distract them.

Historians have interpreted this as an attempt by Oppenheimer to please his colleagues in the government and perhaps to divert attention from his own previous left wing ties and those of his brother.

May I bother you for a moment?

Apparently he wanted to distract her.

Don't let her distract you.

Don't let her distract you.

But this should not make us lose sight of other challenges. One of the most important is the fate of Ukraine, and the need to strengthen liberty and democracy there.

This is doubtless an attempt to deflect attention from Fujimori's own crimes perpetuated from 1990 to 2000, before he fled to Japan.

In this vein, Facebook user Zhanara Akhmet wrote that the long planned alphabet switch might have been sped up in order to divert attention from another unpopular government initiative.

The rocket attacks against Israeli territory are a transparent attempt to divert attention and rally the masses around Hamas as the true champions of the Palestinian cause.

If Obama fails, the next administration will be sorely tempted to create some diversion from troubles at home at great peril to the world.

The fires of the Middle East must not be allowed to distract the world s attention from the threat posed by North Korea s nuclear ambitions, which it demonstrated by its recent test of a long range missile.

They think that the piñata is a distraction from the goal of earned legalization.

But focusing on enlargement of the Security Council risks diverting attention from the rest of the Panel s analyses and 101 recommendations for reform, many of which do not require amending the Charter.

Although the numbers were never as rosy as market enthusiasts seemed to think, they did divert attention away from the shaky foundations of the newfound prosperity.

Without the support of the only other maker of large modern jets, experts say its call for a new industry standard is unlikely to fly, but could distract from a wave of 777X sales.

Experts within the system don't track the source of the problem or talk about the truth they use taxpayers' money and try to shift people's attention.

Preval needed a distraction

I tried to distract him, but it was in vain.

Tom tried to distract the police so Mary could escape.

And, because sex scandals are always interesting to read about certainly compared to yet another undeclared war, or a bailout that created jobs costing an estimated 850,000 each they will always be useful diversions. Citizens attention can be channeled away from, say, major corporate theft and government malfeasance toward narratives involving two hapless individuals (and their wives and children, who are usually suffering quite enough without the media s heavy breathing).

Citizens attention can be channeled away from, say, major corporate theft and government malfeasance toward narratives involving two hapless individuals (and their wives and children, who are usually suffering quite enough without the media s heavy breathing).

A sudden noise abstracted their attention from the game.

Thus, anything that may distract China from its focus on peace, stability, and development has been strongly resisted.

In these difficult economic times, Switzerland serves as a handy scapegoat, enabling financially challenged states to discharge their frustrations and divert their citizens attention from shortcomings in their own complicated and inefficient tax systems.

But it's not. It's a projection which our clever brains create in order to cheat ourselves from the reality of death.

On the contrary, it might merely divert attention from other issues of no less moment for those struggling to lift themselves out of poverty.

Like the Nixon Connolly team, the Bush administration is responding to America's massive budget and trade deficits by letting the dollar fall and hard while it also tries to distract attention from its responsibility by pointing an accusing finger at China as the cause for both US joblessness and deflationary pressures.

Before the Sochi Winter Games kicked off less than two weeks ago, yours truly told US News World Report that unrest in Ukraine might divert the attention of Russian Internet users from the Olympics.

But Putin was addressing Russians, too, knowing full well the need to distract them from their country s increasingly obvious economic woes.

Vishal Dadlani ( Vishal) Don t be fooled or distracted by the death of Kasab.