Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Would Iran Really Want to Blow Up the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S.? - Max Fisher - International - The Atlantic

  It's entirely possible that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement today is exactly what it looks like: the U.S. discovery and foiling of a plot by Iranian government agents to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in a bomb attack, possibly in Washington, DC. Iran has a record sponsoring terrorism, and Iran-Saudi competition can sometimes look like a Cold War of the Middle East. But, for all the plausibility that Iran might be willing to blow up a Saudi ambassador, it's not at all apparent what they would gain from it. Iran has never been shy about sponsoring terrorism, but only when it was within their interests, or at least their perceived interests. It's hard to see how they could have possibly decided on a plot like the one that Holder claimed today.

• Two spaces after a period: Why you should never, ever do it. - Slate Magazine

  Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong. And yet people who use two spaces are everywhere, their ugly error crossing every social boundary of class, education, and taste.

• US charges man with spying for Syria - FT.com

  A Syrian-born man has been arrested on charges of spying on Syrian protesters in the US on behalf of the government in Damascus, the justice department announced. Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, a 47-year-old resident of Leesburg, Virginia, was charged with acting as an unregistered agent of the Syrian intelligence agency by collecting information about dissidents “in order to silence, intimidate and potentially harm the protesters”. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

• Saddam’s bronze buttock up for auction in Britain

  A bronze buttock from the statue of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein toppled in Baghdad after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 is to be auctioned in Britain, an auction house said Tuesday. A former soldier from Britain’s elite SAS regiment retrieved the two-foot (0.6-meter) wide piece of history and took it back to Britain shortly after U.S. marines dragged the statue down on live television.

• Hiring Narcos to Murder the Saudi Ambassador? If It’s True, Tehran Is Pretty Dumb - Global Spin - TIME.com

  If Iranian government operatives really did try to contract a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., as the Obama Administration alleges today, then they weren't just being diabolical. They were being fairly stupid.

• Netanyahu Announces Deal to Free Shalit - NYTimes.com

  Israel and Hamas, two of the Middle East’s most implacable foes, announced Tuesday they had reached a tentative agreement brokered by Egypt to exchange more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held captive for more than five years.

• Saudi cabinet OKs rail connecting east, west coasts | Reuters

  Saudi Arabia approved plans to build a freight and passenger railway connecting its western port of Jeddah with the eastern ports of Dammam and Jubail, president of the Saudi Railway Organisation said in an statement on Tuesday.

• Floating island concept unveiled for Dubai's The World - Real Estate - ArabianBusiness.com

  A Dubai-based joint venture has developed a floating island concept which it says could answer the needs of owners of islands in Nakheel's The World project. Atoll Floating Islands, a joint venture between Palmerstone and Donald Starkey Designs has unveiled the 'Ome, a floating home on a monocoque type structure, which is designed to be manouvered between Dubai's coast and The World islands.

• Abbas stumps for Palestinian statehood in El Salvador - CNN.com

  Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is on a three-country tour in Latin America in a bid to build support for U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, met with the president of El Salvador on Sunday. Salvadorian President Mauricio Funes expressed his support for a Palestinian state and said that he hopes it will soon have a place at the United Nations, according to the president's website.

• GCC power: Coping with ever increasing demand | Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) | AMEinfo.com

  For the past several years, GCC countries have made concerted efforts toward enhancing their power generation capacity in an effort to satiate rising demand due to the increase in the population and economy. Power consumption across the GCC has grown at an annual rate of about 9% from 2002; Saudi Arabia and the UAE account for a combined 75% of the total GCC consumption. The major power projects, completed across the GCC during the past decade, have now commenced operations; installed capacity has doubled from nearly 46,600 MW in 2002 to almost 98,000 MW in 2009: a CAGR of 10%.

• Cairo rally by Coptic Christians spurs deadly clashes - The Washington Post

  At least 23 people were killed and nearly 200 were wounded in downtown Cairo on Sunday night as a march by Coptic Christians turned into the deadliest outbreak of violence in Egypt since the popular revolt that toppled the country’s autocratic leader in February.

• Singing Bad Karaoke in Front of Strangers Is For People With a Death Wish | Death and Taxes

  A 42-year-old man has been convicted of punching a 79-year-old man into a plate glass window after complaining about the older man’s karaoke singing at a western New York bar. The Ontario County District Attorney’s Office says a jury Thursday convicted Paul Collen of the town of Naples of second-degree assault. Prosecutors say Collen was at the bar at the Naples Hotel last March when he punched the 79-year-old man in the face, breaking his nose and facial bones. Authorities say the punch sent the man’s head through a plate glass window. The assault occurred during one of the bar’s weekly karaoke nights. Officials say Collen complained about the man’s singing, then began punching him before several patrons stepped in to stop the assault.

• BBC News - Poland votes in general election

  People in Poland are voting in a parliamentary election which the governing centre-right hopes to win. If successful, PM Donald Tusk's Civic Platform would become the first Polish party to win two consecutive terms since the fall of communism in 1989. Mr Tusk has presided over four years of strong economic growth.

• Qatar announces plans for $1bn solar plant - Energy - ArabianBusiness.com

  Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec) has announced that it plans to build a $1bn polysilicon production facility. QSTec's plant will manufacture 8,000 MTPY (metric tonnes per year) of high-purity solar grade polysilicon and is scheduled to start operations in the second half of 2013. The site, chosen with future expansion in mind, is located on 1.2m sq m of land in Ras Laffan Industrial City in the north east of Qatar, the heart of Qatar's LNG refineries and exports.

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