Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Hackers disrupt websites of Israel’s stock exchange, national air carrier - The Washington Post

  JERUSALEM — A hacker network that claims to be based in Saudi Arabia paralyzed the websites of Israel’s stock exchange and national airline on Monday, escalating an international cyber war that has jolted this security-obsessed country.

• Rick Santorum: Dead Foreign Scientists Are A 'Wonderful Thing' (Video)

  "On occasion scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead. I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly," said Rick Santorum at a recent campaign stop in Greenville, South Carolina.

• Japanese Department Store May Want to Look Up the Word 'Fucking'

  Japanese Department Store May Want to Look Up the Word ‘Fucking’

• Preventing a Nuclear Iran, Peacefully - NYTimes.com

  ***A well-reasoned and rational appeal to expand the rhetoric and scope of options regarding nuclear proliferation in the Middle East***

  THE debate over how to handle Iran’s nuclear program is notable for its gloom and doom. Many people assume that Israel must choose between letting Iran develop nuclear weapons or attacking before it gets the bomb. But this is a false choice. There is a third option: working toward a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East. And it is more feasible than most assume.

• Norwegian U.N. official kidnapped in Yemen - CNN.com

  Armed tribesmen snatched a Norwegian U.N. official from the streets of Yemen's capital Sunday, demanding the release of a jailed tribal leader, Norwegian and Yemeni officials said.

• Protesters gather for fourth straight day in Romania - CNN.com

  Protesters seeking the ouster of Romanian President Traian Basescu and early elections gathered for a fourth straight day Sunday in a main square of Bucharest, the capital, and 18 other cities in the Eastern European nation. The demonstrations, which included clashes between police and protesters Saturday in University Square that injured 17 people, are the most serious since Basescu's election in 2004.

• North Korea denies punishing citizens for not mourning enough - CNN.com

  North Korea has angrily denied allegations that it punished some of its citizens for inadequately mourning the death of its late leader Kim Jong Il. Kim died last month after 17 years of repressive rule over the secretive state, setting off deep uncertainty about North Korea's future.

• President Obama politically hedges with SOPA opposition | Death and Taxes

  While there were collective cheers amongst the anti-SOPA alliance following Saturday’s press release, in which three Obama technology team officials stated opposition to the bill, it was not quite what was required. Rather, it was far too muted and well-timed: who pays much attention to political news on a Saturday, not to mention a day so occupied by NFL playoff fever?

• Swiss, German firms plan $2bn Oman solar project - Energy - ArabianBusiness.com

  Switzerland's Terra Nex Financial Engineering announced on Sunday plans for a major $2bn solar power project in Oman. It said it was collaborating with the Middle East Best Select (MEBS) Group of Funds to develop solar power resources within the sultanate. Terra Nex, a Swiss licensed and global wealth management company, said in a statement that solar power electricity generation stations were central to the project.

• Rick Perry: Marines urinating on corpses were just kids, shouldn't face criminal charges

  Texas Gov. Rick Perry told CNN Sunday that the Marines who were filmed urinating on Afghan corpses were just kids being kids and the White House has gone “over the top”  in its criticism. “When you're 18 or 19, you do dumb things. These kids made a mistake, there's not any doubt about it,” the Republican presidential hopeful said. He went on to note that other famous military figures acted the same way in a war environment: “[Winston] Churchill did the same thing.”

• Man suspected in Virginia butt slashings arrested in Peru - CNN.com

  A man suspected in a series of buttock slashings in Fairfax, Virginia, has been captured in Peru, authorities said. Johnny D. Guillen, known as the "Corta Nalgas" -- or "butt cutter" -- was captured Friday in Lima, according to Jair Quedas, system operator for Interpol Peru.

• ElBaradei ends Egyptian presidential run - CNN.com

  Egyptian reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei on Saturday ended his bid for president after criticizing the interim military government for its failure to bring about "a real democratic system."

• False Flag - By Mark Perry | Foreign Policy

  Buried deep in the archives of America's intelligence services are a series of memos, written during the last years of President George W. Bush's administration, that describe how Israeli Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to the terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as American agents. According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives -- what is commonly referred to as a "false flag" operation.

• Lebanese man detained on suspicion of spying for Israel - The Washington Post

  The Lebanese army has detained a man on suspicion of collaborating for years with Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Lebanese media and officials said Thursday. The state-run National News agency identified the man arrested earlier this week as Elias Younes, a retired employee of the state telecommunications company Ogero.

• FT Alphaville » US regains top position for clean energy

  The US overtook China to regain top position as the world’s leading investor in “clean” energy last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the FT reports. It was the first year since 2008 that the US has been ahead of China as the world’s largest market for investment in renewable energy, biofuels and energy efficiency

• Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour Pardons Murderers, Brett Favre's brother, Earnest Scott

  UPDATE: A Mississippi judge has temporarily blocked the release of 21 inmates who received full pardons or medical releases from outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour in his final days in office.

• Lebanon could start drilling gas reserves this year | Energy, Oil and Gas | AMEinfo.com

  Lebanese energy expert, Roudi Baroudi has said the country is sitting on one of the biggest gas reserves in the region and drilling is likely to start as early as this year, The Daily Star has reported. The '11th basin' off the Lebanese coast is reported to have a gas reserve which are almost three times bigger than Libya's gas reserve, he said. "I am very happy that the Lebanese government passed the law to administer the country's oil and gas wealth off the coast. This is a major step that will make Lebanon one of the largest gas producers in the region," Baroudi told the daily.

• Egypt: Israeli pilgrimage 'impossible' thus year - Yahoo! News

  Egypt's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it had told Israel that it would not be "appropriate" for Israeli pilgrims to make an annual visit to the tomb of a 19th-century Jewish holy man in the Nile Delta, as activists mobilized to block the pilgrimage route.

• Qatar restaurants see trade slump after alcohol ban - Travel & Hospitality - ArabianBusiness.com

  Restaurants and bars on Qatar’s flagship Pearl development have seen revenues slump by more than 50 percent in the wake of a new ruling banning the sale of alcohol to customers. Outlets on the manmade island off the coast of Doha were told on Dec 12 they could no longer serve booze to guests in what is seen as a display of tension between Qatar’s Muslim culture and its largely expatriate population.

• » Moo-ving forward? Qatar’s next big purchase- a farming sector – Kippreport.com

  Like other oil-rich, water-poor Gulf states, Qatar has been investing in large areas of farmland overseas to ensure access to food supplies. The agricultural arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, Hassad Food, has bought land in Sudan and Australia, and has announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on agricultural projects in countries including Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and Ukraine. But in contrast to the other Gulf states, Qatar also aims to produce most of its food domestically, by spending massively to boost crop yields and convert semi-desert into agricultural land.

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