Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Israel demonstration against African migrants turns violent

  Violence broke out as several hundred people demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night against the sizeable community of African immigrants in the city, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. “Following the violence, we arrested five demonstrators,” Samri added. The media reported that people shouted xenophobic slogans, such as “blacks out,” and chided the “bleeding heart leftists” who defend immigrants.

• Opposing the New York Public Library - The Daily Beast

  Walk into a library in any city and you’ll witness a death match between old and new, a clash deeper than the cracks in the Carrara marble. The preservation of the past bolted to the promise of the future has made libraries ground zero of a vanishing world. The problem is that libraries have tried to accommodate the transition, and spent enormous sums of money doing so, carpetbombing their legacies into oblivion. Libraries across the country have erected architectural trophies and put themselves out of business. Public libraries, whose books have been relegated to wallpaper, have never looked better.

• After Protests, Iran Recalls Ambassador From Azerbaijan - NYTimes.com

  BAKU, Azerbaijan — Iran has recalled its ambassador from neighboring Azerbaijan, citing a religious insult, in the latest sign of escalating tensions between the countries. Iranian officials said the envoy, Mohammad B. Bahrami, was summoned to Tehran to discuss recent protests outside the Iranian Embassy in Baku, in which demonstrators were said to have insulted symbols of Islam. Mr. Bahrami left on Monday.

• BBC News - Kidnap of pilgrims in Syria raises tension in Lebanon

  The kidnapping of 13 Lebanese Shia pilgrims in Syria has sparked angry protests in Beirut, adding to fears that Lebanon is being dragged into the unrest afflicting its neighbour.

• West shifts stance on Iranian sanctions - FT.com

  Western powers are prepared to offer Iran an “oil carrot” that would allow it to continue supplying crude to Asian customers in exchange for guarantees it is not building an atomic bomb.

• Dumbing Down of Congress? :Sunlight foundation study finds that Congress speaks at a 10th grade level.

  A new study suggests that Congress's level of discourse has dropped roughly one grade level since 1995, a finding that has prompted many to draw obvious parallels between what's perceived to be the legislature's increasingly partisan polarization and a playground fight.

• Aramco’s Al-Othman Named Head of Saudi Investment Authority - Bloomberg

  Abdullatif A al-Othman, a former executive with Saudi Arabian Oil Co., was appointed head of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority by King Abdullah, according to a royal decree carried today by the official Saudi Press Agency.

• Saudis ban teen smoking - UPI.com

  Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs issued a ban this week on the sale of tobacco to youth under 18.

• Lebanon dilemma for UAE travellers - The National

  The summer holiday plans of hundreds of people may be scuppered after the UAE warned its citizens to stay away from Lebanon. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, alongside its counterparts in Qatar and Bahrain, suggested it was unsafe to travel because of conflict in the north of the country.

• Amazon noses into industrial supply chain - FT.com

  Yet the US’s biggest industrial suppliers – who provide manufacturers such as General Electric, General Motors, Boeing and Caterpillar with everything from toilet paper to complex electronic components – seem remarkably unruffled by the debut last month of Amazon Supply, a website with more than 500,000 products aimed at grabbing a share of the $160bn market for US industrial supplies.

• First Solar Plans Middle East Office to Help Tap Regional Market - Bloomberg

  First Solar Inc. (FSLR), the largest maker of thin-film solar panels, plans to open an office in the United Arab Emirates this year to tap growing demand for power in the Middle East. The company is in talks with potential partners to help win contracts and is considering opening a manufacturing plant in the region,

• U.S. To Crack Down On China's Solar Panel Trade

  The Obama administration on Thursday ordered hefty tariffs on solar panels imported from China, arguing the Chinese goods are sold below fair-market place and are endangering the U.S. clean energy industry.

• California Flaming Rocks: Health officials blame phosphorous coating, but puzzled how it got there.

  California environmental officials say that they think they have figured out what caused a handful of rocks to burst into flames while in the pocket of a woman who had picked them up off a San Clemente beach last week

• Federal Water Tap, May 7: Fracking Fracas | Circle of Blue WaterNews

  Under a rule the Obama administration submitted for review on Friday, energy companies using hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and gas on public lands would be required to disclose the chemicals they use in the process, the New York Times reports. However, owing to industry lobbying, companies will be allowed to wait until drilling is completed to reveal what’s in their fracking fluid.

• First India Shale Gas Seen in 4 Years, China Output Nears - Bloomberg

  Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) of India and competitors may drill for at least four years before producing the first commercial shale gas in the nation as China expects to commence output next month and Australia boosts reserves.

• In the Loop contest: Where to put those missiles - The Washington Post

  ** Clearly Republicans are worried about the budget deficit... ** The House is scheduled this week to take up a bill that would require the Pentagon to start work on a missile defense system to protect the East Coast from Iranian or North Korean long-range nuclear missiles. The bill would require the Defense Department to conduct an environmental-impact statement by the end of next year with an operational site in place “not later than the end of 2015.”

• US citizen on hunger strike in Dubai - FT.com

  One of Dubai’s highest profile prisoners, US citizen Zack Shahin, has gone on hunger strike to protest a lack of due process after spending more than four years in jail without a conviction. His protest marks a broadening of a three-week hunger strike by other foreigners imprisoned in Dubai on financial charges, shedding an uncomfortable light on the emirate’s judicial system as its economy starts to recover after the financial crisis.

• Badly parked submarine on JBR beach attracts fine - The National

  As far as parking offences go, police in Dubai thought they had seen it all. Until they ticketed a submarine. Two Emirati officers on patrol near Jumeirah Beach Residence found a two-man vessel seemingly abandoned on the beach in April after its owner became tired from hauling it out of the water, the Dubai Misdemeanour Court heard yesterday.

• On the Eve of the NATO Summit, Is Phone Jamming Coming To Chicago? - The Daily Beast

  With Chicago hosting the NATO summit this weekend, protesters and police are braced for confrontation. Eight people have already been arrested for storming President Obama’s campaign headquarters. Others have pledged to “shut down” Boeing. And gas-mask sales have been brisk citywide. But much of the cat-and-mouse game will be technological, with people in the streets wielding smartphones to coordinate actions and publicize what’s happening, while law enforcement mulls whether to take the power of those phones away—disrupting service in the name of public safety.

• Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson discusses his new film before its Cannes Film Festival Premiere (VIDEO) - Slate Magazine

  Wes Anderson’s latest movie Moonrise Kingdom is set to premiere this week as the kickoff for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.   A period piece set in the 1960s, the film tells the story of a 12-year-old couple who runs away from their New England town, leaving the adults scrambling to find them.

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• Henry Hitchings on Proper English : The New Yorker

  For a long time, many English speakers have felt that the language was going to the dogs. All around them, people were talking about “parameters” and “life styles,” saying “disinterested” when they meant “uninterested,” “fulsome” when they meant “full.” To the pained listeners, it seemed that they were no longer part of this language group. To others, the complainers were fogies and snobs. The usages they objected to were cause not for grief but for celebration. They were pulsings of our linguistic lifeblood, proof that English was large, contained multitudes.

• BBC News - Sonic device deployed in London during Olympics

  The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a sonic device will be deployed in London during the Olympics. The American-made Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) can be used to send verbal warnings over a long distance or emit a beam of pain-inducing tones. The equipment was spotted fixed to a landing craft on the Thames at Westminster this week.

• Saudi Arabia keen on African farm investments - Banking & Finance - ArabianBusiness.com

  Saudi Arabia is encouraging companies to invest in farms in Africa as the kingdom seeks to secure supplies of food imports to replace local production, said Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghunaim.

• The Politics Of Spite - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

  Remember how meretricious this assault on gay couples was. They are already banned by state law from marrying. Now their own state constitution bans them from any civil rights as couples whatsoever: no domestic partnerships, no civil unions, nothing. It's an act of pure punishment of citizens who are gay, a deliberate psychological blow to their self-esteem, their sense of citizenship, their core equality as human beings. A 60 percent majority decided that 2 percent of their fellow citizens are and must remain inferior in law

• China Expels Al Jazeera English-Language Channel - NYTimes.com

  Al Jazeera, the satellite broadcasting network, was forced by the Chinese authorities to close its China news operations of its English-language channel on Monday, the first such action in almost 14 years and the strongest sign yet of fraying relations between the ruling Communist Party and the overseas journalists who cover it.

• Self-sufficiency in fish production is the goal - Arab News

  The Saudi Agricultural Development Fund (SADF) is leading an initiative with other government and private establishments aimed at attaining self-sufficiency in the production of fish to satisfy local needs and export the surplus during the coming decade, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported yesterday quoting an informed source.

• No Longer Just ‘Adult-Onset’ - NYTimes.com

  A study of diabetes in overweight and obese youngsters bears an ominous warning about future health care trends in this country. It found that Type 2 diabetes, a new scourge among young people, progresses faster and is harder to treat in youngsters than in adults. The toll on their health as they grow older could be devastating.

• Israel PM Netanyahu calls for early elections - The National

  TEL AVIV // Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced yesterday that he would dissolve parliament and called for new elections in September. The ballot would be the first in decades not to focus on pledges and ideas of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, partly because the peace process has been deadlocked since September 2010, analysts said.

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• Student forgotten in cell: DEA apologizes to man who says he was left in cell for five days

  The DEA apologized Wednesday to a college student who was picked up during a drug raid last month and then left in a windowless holding cell for four days without access to food or water.

• Dubai to build underwater hotels - Travel & Hospitality - ArabianBusiness.com

  The shipbuilding arm of Dubai World has announced plans to build a series of underwater hotels in the emirate. In a statement released on Wednesday, Drydocks World said it has signed an agreement with a Swiss contractor to develop the World Discus Hotel, which is partly submerged under the sea.

• 9 killed in Cairo clashes outside Defense Ministry - Yahoo! News

  Clashes erupted on Wednesday between assailants and mostly Islamist protesters gathered outside the Defense Ministry in the Egyptian capital, leaving nine people dead and nearly 50 wounded, security officials said.

• Delta Air Lines buys a refinery, estimates it can cut fuel bill by $300 million a year - The Washington Post

  Delta Air Lines is buying a refinery in a novel — and some say risky — attempt to slice $300 million a year from its escalating jet fuel bill. The Atlanta airline said Monday that is buying the Trainer, Pennsylvania refinery near Philadelphia for $150 million from Phillips 66, a refining company being spun off from ConocoPhillips. The refinery has struggled to make money, and ConocoPhillips planned to shut it down if it couldn’t find a buyer.

• BBC News - Libya ex-Minister Shukri Ghanem dead in Danube river

  The body of Libya's former Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem has been found in the River Danube in Vienna, Austrian police say. A spokesman said there were no signs of violence to his body. The former prime minister, 69, worked as a consultant for a Vienna-based company. He apparently left his home early on Sunday, police said.

• Centrica considered Qatar gas supply deal - FT.com

  Centrica, the owner of British Gas, was prepared to give Qatar a stake in its business and a board seat in return for a 20-year gas supply deal worth up to £30bn, documents seen by the Financial Times reveal. In a sign of the challenges utilities face as they seek to lock in liquefied natural gas supplies amid strong demand from Asia and dwindling North Sea resources, the papers show Centrica spent more than two and a half years trying to seal a long-term deal with state-owned Qatargas.

• Saudi closes embassy in Egypt over protests - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

  Saudi Arabia has decided to recall its ambassador to Cairo and close its diplomatic missions in Egypt after protests  outside its embassy over an arrested Egyptian lawyer, state news agency SPA reported. An official spokesman, quoted by SPA, said on Saturday that the measures were decided in response to demonstrations outside its missions in Egypt and threats following the announcement of the arrest of the Egyptian lawyer in Saudi Arabia.

• Experience Porto's exuberance | StarTribune.com

  As a friend planned her upcoming Portuguese vacation, I quietly encouraged (OK, tirelessly browbeat) her into taking a side trip from Lisbon to Porto. "I'd only have time to get off at the train station, turn around, and come back," she protested. "That's reason enough to go," I told her.

• 27 Injured in 4 Blasts in Eastern Ukraine City - ABC News

  Opposition lawmakers in Ukraine are suggesting that President Viktor Yanukovych's government may be behind a series of blasts in an eastern city that injured at least 27 people. Four blasts within minutes Friday rocked the center of the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk in what prosecutors believed was a terrorist attack. Nine children are among the injured.

• BBC News - Iran undecided on nuclear bomb - Israel military chief

  Chief of Staff Lt Gen Benny Gantz made the statement in an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. He said Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had not yet made the final decision whether to build a nuclear bomb.

• Israeli prime minister Netanyahu says sanctions on Iran 'better work soon' - CNN.com

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has suggested that time is running out for Western sanctions on Iran to have a meaningful effect on Tehran's nuclear program. The sanctions "are certainly taking a bite out of the Iranian economy," Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on CNN's "OutFront." But "they haven't rolled back the Iranian program -- or even stopped it -- by one iota," he added.

• Egyptian Actor Guilty of Insulting Islam in Films - NYTimes.com

  A court found Egypt’s most popular comic actor guilty on Tuesday of insulting Islam in roles in films mocking religious hypocrisy, alarming liberal-minded artists and intellectuals already anxious about the growing power of Islamists here after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

• Kuwait Grand Mosque 'unlikely to collapse' - Culture & Society - ArabianBusiness.com

  The Grand Mosque in Kuwait will not be demolished, despite the appearance of cracks in the building due to land sliding deep under certain parts of the structure. In a report by the Kuwait Times, a local researcher said the mosque was unlikely to collapse and did not need to be torn down.

• '60 Minutes,' Israeli Ambassador Clash Over Story About Arab Christians (VIDEO)

  "60 Minutes" decided to pull back the curtain on a charged confrontation it had with the government of Israel over a story it reported about Arab Christians in the country.

• Israel legalizes 3 settlement outposts, adding more obstacles to Mideast peace

  Israeli has legalized the status of three settlement outposts in the West Bank, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

• Pentagon Forms New Spy Service - The Daily Beast

  After years focusing on tactical considerations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is now looking to bolster its espionage work outside the battlefield. The new Defense Clandestine Service will work closely with the CIA to gather intelligence on targets like Iran.

• Allen West Ousted From NAACP Event Over Communist Remark

  It turns out calling Democratic lawmakers "Communists" has some consequences. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) was supposed to be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for his district chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) this past Saturday. But days before the event, the group canceled the gathering and asked West not to come back when they rescheduled. Why?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren once again proving how even the Israeli government cannot justify its own policies while trying to claim they want peace with the Palestinians

• Qatar SWF says it has US$30bn to spend this year - Banking & Finance - ArabianBusiness.com

  Qatar's aggressive sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), has US$30bn to spend this year, executive board member Hussain Al Abdulla said at a conference on Sunday.

• Finds that form a bedrock of hope - FT.com

  Good piece from the FT on Shale Gas

• Eole Uses Wind Power to Make Water From Desert Air | Green Prophet

  A  revolutionary way to condense water from the desert air, powered by – and housed within – a wind turbine has been tested in the UAE  since October of 2011, by French innovation startup Eole Water. The ground-mounted version has proven that it can condense up to 800 litres a day from air with just the 15-20% humidity typical of the region, and the company believes that a tower top turbine will produce levels well over 1,000 litres (264 gallons) a day.

• Qatar increases stake in Europe's Total to 3% - Banking & Finance - ArabianBusiness.com

  Qatar’s stake in Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, has risen to three percent, Christophe de Margerie, Total’s chairman and chief executive officer said on Saturday. “It’s a good company, it’s a good investment,” de Margerie said in an interview in Doha.

• Emirates boosts US services with JetBlue deal - Transport - ArabianBusiness.com

  Emirates Airline customers travelling to the United States will soon enjoy seamless connections to a dozen US cities, after the airline announced the start of a one-way codeshare with JetBlue.

• First Solar to close German plants, lay off 2,000 workers - The Washington Post

  First Solar, one of the world’s leading solar-panel makers, announced Tuesday that it will close its German manufacturing operations late this year, indefinitely idle four of its 24 production lines in Kulim, Malaysia, on May 1 and lay off 2,000 employees — about 30 percent of its global workforce.

• Taliban commander turns self in... for reward on ‘Wanted’ poster - BlogPost - The Washington Post

  Mohammad Ashan, a mid-level Taliban commander in Paktika province, strolled toward a police checkpoint in the district of Sar Howza with a wanted poster bearing his own face. He demanded the finder’s fee referenced on the poster: $100.

• Saudi food firm posts 46.7% rise in Q1 profit - Retail - ArabianBusiness.com

  Saudi food and drink manufacturer Savola Group recorded a 46.7 percent jump in first-quarter net profit, beating forecasts. The firm reported earnings of SR242.2m ($64.6m), up from SR165.2m a year earlier, according to a statement posted on the bourse website.

• Obama oil regulation proposal $52 million price tag for increased regulation

  President Obama on Tuesday will formally unveil a $52 million plan that would look to address rising oil prices by "cracking down" on oil market manipulation with the help of stronger federal oversight and higher penalties.

• Egypt panel definitively bars top 3 presidential candidates from elections - The Washington Post

  CAIRO — Egypt’s election commission rejected the appeals of three main contenders for president Tuesday, definitively removing the most polarizing candidates from the race to become the country’s first elected leader since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

• Mubadala in $1bn deal as supplier to Boeing - The National

  Mubadala Aerospace yesterday announced a US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) contract to build major sections for the Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner airliners at its Strata Manufacturing plant in Al Ain.

• Saudi Arabia bans ‘emos’ from universities

  Saudi authorities on Sunday banned university students from emulating ‘emo’ subculture according to a report in Al Riyadh newspaper on Sunday. Universities across the kingdom have been asked to ban students from sporting ‘emo’ clothing and hairstyles after an investigation cited this culture to be “improper and deviant” reported Al Riyadh.

• Newt nipped by zoo penguin, gets Band-Aid | Reuters

  Newt was nipped on the finger by a penguin during a private tour of the famous St. Louis zoo on Friday before he spoke to the National Rifle Association convention, zoo officials confirmed on Monday.

• German shipping company says no arms on Syria-bound vessel

  A German shipping company ordered its vessel Atlantic Cruiser to turn its transponder back on Monday after the ship suspected of smuggling Iranian arms to Syria switched off the tracking system because its crew feared attack, the firm said on Monday.

• Man 'did not rape' because his wife's prettier - The National

  ABU DHABI //The lawyer of a man charged with rape has requested permission to bring his client's wife to court, claiming she is so beautiful that he has no need for other women. The Filipina maid of RM, a Jordanian, accused him of committing the crime while his wife was at work and his 13-year-old son was playing computer games in his room.

• Egyptians in fear of a plot … but which one? - The National

  What has emerged is a country ruled by islands of power, each following its own agenda. This has created a debilitating transitional weakness: security has declined, the economy is in tatters and the country often appears on the verge of a nervous breakdown with frequent street protests and scandals. "Egypt's institutions haven't collapsed, whether it's the judiciary, the military, the press, universities or parliament, but they are not working in tandem any more," said Khaled Fahmy, a history professor at the American University of Cairo. "There is no one centre in the country that can force its will and achieve some kind of harmony between these different groups."

• Senate Blocks Buffett Rule 30% Tax Floor on Top Earners - Bloomberg

  The U.S. Senate blocked the proposed Buffett rule that would set a minimum 30 percent federal tax rate for the highest earners, stopping the legislation for now while an election-year debate on tax policy and income inequality continues.

• Activist beaten by IDF officer: Claim protesters were violent is 'a complete lie' - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  Andreas Ias, the Danish activist that was hit in the face with an M-16 rifle by senior IDF officer Lt.-Col. Shalom Eisner on Saturday, said on Monday that the officer's claim that the activists were violent is a fabrication. The beating of the pro-Palestinian activist by a senior IDF officer was seen in a film posted

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Apologies to some for my recent laxity in posting news items. You have thoroughly guilted me in to posting today.

• Pro-Palestinian activists detained in Israel - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

  More than 40 pro-Palestinian activists have detained by Israeli authorities at Tel Aviv's international airport for taking  part in an attempted "fly-in". The Welcome to Palestine campaign, now in its third consecutive year, aims to gather activists from more than 15 countries in Israel from April 15 to 21 to "challenge the Israeli siege of the occupied territories", it says on its website.

• ‘Implementation of Jordan Red Sea Project to begin early next year’ | The Jordan Times

  Implementation of the first phase of the Jordan Red Sea Project (JRSP) will start early next year, Minister of Water and Irrigation Mousa Jamani said on Tuesday. Projected to supply the Kingdom with around one billion cubic metres of water by 2022, the JRSP will be the key to addressing the Kingdom’s water scarcity, Jamani said yesterday.

• Azerbaijan seeks to steal Burj Khalifa's crown - Construction - ArabianBusiness.com

  Oil revenues have already fuelled a high-profile construction frenzy in the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan, but in an attempt to raise its profile further, the Caspian Sea country is looking to build the tallest building in the world.

• Food costs sink after price caps take hold - The National

  Food prices have fallen in the UAE this year after the Government tightened its control on suppliers and retailers to contain inflation. Measures introduced in the first three months of the year have helped to lower the prices of basic commodities, according to an analysis by The National.

• Soaring Father and Son Skyscraper Could Absorb Cairo’s Crowds | Green Prophet

  How to deal with Cairo’s crowds is a complex dilemma that IAMZ Design Studio has approached with this soaring Father and Son Skyscraper. Inspired by the relationship between a father and son, the young Egyptian architect has fused traditional Islamic architecture with modern design in a concept for an 8,000 square meter building that receives its energy from the sun and boasts a series of carbon-sapping green roofs. Read on for more details and then let us know: do you have any ideas for revitalizing a once vibrant downtown Cairo?

• Abu Dhabi wealth fund hit by $1.1bn loss - FT.com

  Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government investment company, made a 4.2bn UAE dirham ($1.14bn) loss last year as declining financial and real estate markets led to big writedowns. The sovereign wealth fund, which owns stakes in Carlyle Group and General Electric, is one of the few Gulf state investment vehicles to publish audited financial results. Its disclosure is a rare insight into the performance of one of the region’s most high-profile investors.

• Chin Chin workers use dumplings for “penises”: suit - NYPOST.com

  Kitchen workers at a celeb-packed Manhattan Chinese restaurant allegedly use a culinary technique they don’t teach at Le Cordon Bleu — making mock penises out of the dumplings before serving them to diners, an ex-bartender claims in a lawsuit filed yesterday.

• Abdullah slams Ahmadinejad over 'provocative' trip - The National

  The Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed last night strongly condemned yesterday's visit by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the UAE's island of Abu Musa.

• Qatar Airways to invest in US clean tech firm - ArabianBusiness.com

  Qatar Airways plans to invest in California’s Byogy Renewables to produce cleaner jet fuel from alcohol, curbing carbon output to meet emission goals.

• allAfrica.com: Sudan: Saudi Arabia Gets Two Million Acres From Govt for Tax-Free Farming

  A prominent Saudi businessman announced last week that the Sudanese government agreed to give his country two million acres of land as a farming investment that would allow the Arab Gulf state to ensure safe and steady food supply.

• Syrian Troops Fire into Turkey, Bashar al-Assad's regime demands written agreement

  After the peace plan for Syria just about collapsed over the weekend, Syrian forces fired across the Turkish border Monday, wounding at least five people in a refugee camp.  The Associated Press reports that the Syrian soldiers were apparently firing at fleeing rebels

• Saudi's SABIC plans $100 mln China R&D centre | Reuters

  Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the world's largest chemical producer by market value, said it was planning to invest $100 million to build a technology research and development centre in China. The facility in the Shanghai region will house a total of about 400 employees when it is completed in 2013, the company said on Friday.

• Saudis Increasing Riyadh Water Supply | Crossroads Arabia

  With the bulk of Saudi Arabia’s drinking water coming from desalination plants, the country’s sky-rocketing population growth puts enormous demand on water supply. Arab News reports that a new desalination plant in the Eastern Province is gearing up to go online. When it is producing, it will nearly double the amount of water flowing into the capital, Riyadh.

• gulfnews : Taqa exits Tesla, invests in Kurdistan

  Abu Dhabi: National Energy has sold its 7 per cent stake in Tesla, cashing in on a stock rally that has seen the electric carmaker's shares surge more than 20 per cent over the past year. The move, which netted the company — also known as Taqa — a profit of Dh415 million on the book price, came as the energy giant announced that it has taken a 50 per cent stake in a Kurdistan power plant.

• Tipping point as Yemen purges Saleh loyalists - The National

  The protracted fight among Yemen's elites spilt into the street - and onto the runway - again yesterday after the country's new president, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, tried to sack a number of old-regime officers and officials.

• News Desk: Our Men in Iran? : The New Yorker

  It was here that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted training, beginning in 2005, for members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian opposition group known in the West as the M.E.K. The M.E.K. had its beginnings as a Marxist-Islamist student-led group and, in the nineteen-seventies

• UAE says investigating US think tank staffer - ArabianBusiness.com

  UAE authorities said on Friday they were investigating an employee of a US pro-democracy group after briefly detaining him as he tried to leave the Gulf state. Slobodan Milic works for the National Democratic Institute which was last week ordered to close its UAE offices. The Serb was detained at Dubai airport on Thursday evening, questioned and then allowed to return to his apartment in Dubai, NDI said.

• Palestinians prepared to drop border demand if settlement building ends - The National

  Palestinian negotiators are prepared to drop one of two key preconditions for the resumption of peace talks with Israel if the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to halt all settlement construction in the West Bank, a top Palestinian official said yesterday. Nabil Shaath, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, said the Palestinians would give up their demand that any negotiations with Israel take place on the basis of borders that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. In exchange, he said, Mr Netanyahu's government must end settlement building.

• Saudi Arabia mulls tax on unused land - Real Estate - ArabianBusiness.com

  Saudi Arabia's Shoura Council is considering taxing unused land, al-Eqtisadiah daily reported on Wednesday, in a move that could help uncork a serious housing bottleneck in the world's top oil exporter.

• Netanyahu delays eviction of West Bank settler house | Reuters

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overruled the planned eviction on Tuesday of Jewish settlers from a building in an occupied West Bank city that is flashpoint of tensions with Palestinians. Some 20 settlers moved into the Hebron building last Thursday at night, seeking to expand a settlement of some 500 families in the heart of a biblical city overwhelmingly populated by Palestinians who regard Israelis as interlopers.

• Supreme Court OK’s Strip Searches - The Daily Beast

  If you get arrested, better have an alibi and a clean pair of underwear. The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that people arrested for any offense may be strip-searched before going to jail.

• News from The Associated Press

  The tombstone marking the grave of Adolf Hitler's parents, a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis, has been removed from an upper Austrian village cemetery at the request of a descendant, and the grave is ready for a new burial, officials said Friday.

• Qatar said to freeze $67m French entrepreneur fund - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.com

  Qatar has reportedly frozen plans to set up a $67m fund for entrepreneurs from France's often-deprived suburbs to set up businesses. According to reports in France, the Gulf state has put the fund on hold until after the country‘s presidential election.

• US says UAE shuts office of pro-democracy group - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.com

  The UAE has closed the Dubai office of the National Democratic Institute, a US-funded pro-democracy group that was the subject of a crackdown in Egypt, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

• Germany puzzled as UAE think tank ordered to close - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.com

  Germany's Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a think tank close to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives which promotes democracy abroad, said on Thursday authorities in Abu Dhabi had ordered it to shut its office there.

• Arkansas Court Strikes Teacher-Sex Ban

  The Arkansas Supreme Court on Friday overturned a state law that had made it illegal for a teacher to have sex with a student under the age of 21.

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• Spike Lee tweets wrong George Zimmerman address in Florida

  Spike Lee has apologized for distributing a tweet that provided an inaccurate address for George Zimmerman's whereabouts, forcing an elderly Sanford-area couple to flee their home.  The McClains, who have a son named William George Zimmerman, received hate mail, threats, and visits from reporters looking for Zimmerman

• Arab leaders endorse Kofi Annan plan for Syria - The National

  Arab leaders yesterday formally endorsed the international envoy Kofi Annan's plan to end the bloodshed in Syria, and demanded that it be implemented "immediately and completely" - a sign of Arab League scepticism of the Syrian president Bashar Al Assad's commitment to the plan. "The solution for the crisis is still in the hands of the Syrians as a government and opposition," the Arab League secretary general Nabil Elaraby told the summit gathering in the Iraqi capital, the first here in 20 years.

• Most Cities Unprepared for Coming Population Boom: Scientific American

  The world's cities are mushrooming at the rate of around 1 million people a week as the planet's population heads toward 9 billion people by 2050 from 7 billion now. Urban areas are set to sprawl over an extra area equivalent to most of Europe within 20 years, yet little is being done to prepare for the major challenges that expansion will bring, scientists said Tuesday.

• Complaints spur Dubai inquiry into Groupon Middle East - The National

  Dubai authorities have launched an investigation into Groupon Middle East after a slew of protests over poor customer service. The online-deals company has been inundated with complaints from hundreds of dissatisfied customers who have faced delays to orders.

• Saudi oil minister wants lower prices - Overheard - WSJ

  Ali Naimi is not fond of extremes. The Saudi Arabian petroleum minister is so worried by high oil prices — Brent crude commands about $123 a barrel — he felt compelled to pen an Op-Ed in today’s Financial Times. The last time he took to the newspapers, according to a search of Factiva, was back in February 2009, following oil’s crash from triple digits to less than $40 amid the financial crisis.

• Israel’s Secret Staging Ground - By Mark Perry | Foreign Policy

  In 2009, the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Baku, Donald Lu, sent a cable to the State Department's headquarters in Foggy Bottom titled "Azerbaijan's discreet symbiosis with Israel." The memo, later released by WikiLeaks, quotes Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev as describing his country's relationship with the Jewish state as an iceberg: "nine-tenths of it is below the surface."

• Exclusive: Investors press U.S. shale oil drillers to control flaring | Reuters

  Investors representing $500 billion in assets are pushing energy companies in the shale oil rush in North Dakota and other states to disclose the amount of natural gas they burn - a practice they see as a wasteful financial risk.

• Martin Peretz: The Appalling Crusade To Free Jonathan Pollard; Unhappiness In Jordan; And More | The New Republic

  Of course, that’s what the Pollard enthusiasts are saying. Frankly, I find it disgusting that so many Israelis and so many American Jews, too, have the chutzpah to besiege Obama with urgent demands to release Pollard now.

• Saudi bans video game over “sexual” sounds - Media - ArabianBusiness.com

  Conservative Gulf kingdom Saudi Arabia has banned a video game because its female characters sounded “too sexual”, according to the game’s developer. In the game, called ‘Shoe Wars’, the user controlled character is encouraged to collect as many pairs of expensive designer shoes, while avoiding men by jumping over them.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.