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KSA to stop wheat cultivation by 2016

In a move to discourage the cultivation of water-intensive wheat crops, Saudi government will altogether stop buying wheat from local farmers by 2016, said Dr. Fahd Bin Abdulrahman Balghunaim, Minister of Agriculture.

Qatar aims to invest billions of dollars in farm city - Industries - ArabianBusiness.com

Qatar aims to invest billions of dollars in an agricultural city to house food growers and processers, in an effort to increase its food supply security and combat rising food prices, a government official said.

Israel, Obama, and Abbas’s U.N. Challenge Over Palestinian Statehood - The Daily Beast

U.S. policy in the Middle East has long boiled down to a squalid bargain: support for Arab dictators as long as they abstained from challenging the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. Now the Arab Spring offers America the chance—fragile, uncertain, but potentially the best opportunity in more than a generation—to break out of paralysis: to side with the future rather than the past. In Egypt, in Libya, in U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford’s courageous stand against the vicious crackdown in Damascus in Syria, America has shown a commitment to the future. But the Arab world sees Palestine as the test: the U.S. vote in the Security Council will be taken as proof of where America really stands. As the 2012 election approaches, domestic politics may prevent Obama from supporting Abbas’s resolution in the Security Council, but even a carefully explained abstention would send a powerful message. America’s Founding Fathers did not regard their independence as negotiable. How can President Obama demand that the Palestinians accept any less?

Israel fears settlers in West Bank are using terror tactics - Middle East, World - The Independent

** Nothing new here, they've been doing this for years ** Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, says that Jewish extremists are forming new "terrorist" groups that are deliberately targeting Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, intelligence sources were quoted as saying yesterday. Israeli officials have watched with alarm a sudden spike in attacks by Jewish zealots, particularly West Bank settlers, on Palestinian and Israeli property and personnel following the Israeli army's demolition of several homes in Migron, an illegal Jewish outpost in the occupied West Bank, 10 days ago.

Abu Dhabi fund improves rate of return - FT.com

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, last year sharply improved its annualised rate of return measured over a 20-year period. Adia said in its an annual review published on Tuesday that annualised rates of return increased to 7.6 per cent on the back of global economic growth, compared with 6.5 per cent in 2009, the first year the fund reported 20-year annualised rates of return.

US poverty rate: Census report shows 15 percent below poverty line

It’s official: The poor are getting poorer. A record 46 million Americans were living below the poverty line in 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the US Census Bureau. That means a household income of $22,113 for a family of four. The national poverty rate of 15.1 percent was the highest it’s been since 1993.

The Years of Shame - NYTimes.com

** Nice work Krugman, saying what needs to be said, as usual ** What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

Veto a State, Lose an Ally - NYTimes.com

** Turki Al-Faisal's op-eds are getting better and better ** The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region. Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has.

Was Marx Right? - Umair Haque - Harvard Business Review

In case you've been on Mars (or even just on vacation), here's a surprising idea that's been making the rounds lately: there might have been something to Marx's critiques of capitalism after all.

Saudi Arabia plans to build 4,000 new schools - Education - ArabianBusiness.com

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education will spend SR32bn ($8.5bn) on constructing 4,000 new schools in the kingdom as part of its plan to overhaul the Gulf state’s education system, it was reported on Sunday. A total of 600 new schools have been built and 1,200 have been renovated so far this year, a Ministry of Education spokesperson told Saudi daily Arab News.

Qatar's Al Jazeera says Egypt offices raided, staff held - Media - ArabianBusiness.com

Security officers raided the offices of an Al Jazeera channel in Egypt and detained some of its staff, the Qatar-based broadcaster said on Sunday, describing the move as an attempt to drive the channel off the air. State news agency MENA said it had shut down a company that provided facilities to the channel Al Jazeera Mubasher (Live), which broadcasts live international events. MENA said the Al Jazeera unit did not have a proper licence.

AUC students and workers launch strike against soaring fees and wage cuts | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

About two thousand students and workers at the American University in Cairo (AUC) began an open-ended strike Sunday in protest at the recent hike in tuition fees and continuing low salaries, amid silence from the university's administration. Protesting students stormed classrooms at the new AUC campus in New Cairo, urging all students to unite and ask for their rights, chanting, "Get out," and, "Why are you silent? Aren't you a student like us?" They then marched around the campus and stood in front of the administration building that houses the office of AUC President Lisa Anderson, chanting: "Lisa, where did our parents' money go?"

The 9/11 Decade - Bill Keller’s Unfinished Business - NYTimes.com

** Nice to see some repentance by the Iraq War advocates ** Ten years after the attacks, we memorialize the loss and we mark the heroism, but there is no organized remembrance of the other feelings that day aroused: the bewilderment, the vulnerability, the impotence. It may be difficult to recall with our attention now turned inward upon a faltering economy, but the suddenly apparent menace of the world awakened a bellicose surge of mission and made hawks of many — including me — who had a lifelong wariness of the warrior reflex.