Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• BBC News - Borat anthem stuns Kazakh gold medallist in Kuwait

  Kazakhstan's shooting team has been left stunned after a comedy national anthem from the film Borat was played at a medal ceremony at championships in Kuwait instead of the real one. The team asked for an apology and the medal ceremony was later rerun. The team's coach told Kazakh media the organisers had downloaded the parody from the internet by mistake.

• BBC News - Japan tsunami 'ghost ship' drifting to Canada

  A Japanese fishing vessel swept away by the March 2011 tsunami has been spotted adrift off the west coast of Canada. An aircraft patrolling the seas off British Columbia saw the 15m (50ft) vessel seen floating 275km (170 miles) from the Haida Gwaii islands on Friday. It is believed to be the first large item from the millions of tonnes of tsunami debris to cross the Pacific.

• Dubai's GEMS eyes global merger worth $2bn - Education - ArabianBusiness.com

  Global Education Management Systems Limited (GEMS), which owns schools in eight countries, is merging its global operations to create a business worth up to $2bn ahead of an overseas initial public offering in 2013, two sources familiar with the matter have said. An IPO by the UAE education company, which appointed former US president Bill Clinton as honorary chairman of its philanthropic arm in December, is one of the most highly anticipated in the region due to its growth prospects and dominance in the highly profitable private education sector.

• BBC News - Renegade Mali soldiers announce takeover

  Rebel troops have appeared on Malian state TV to announce they have seized control of the country, hours after attacking the presidential palace. The soldiers said a nationwide curfew was in force and that the constitution had been suspended.

• Muslim Brotherhood May Offer Presidential Candidate in Egypt - NYTimes.com

  Muslim Brotherhood officials said on Wednesday that the group was debating whether to field its own candidate in Egypt’s upcoming presidential contest, after failing to persuade several outside figures to run with the group’s backing. The Brotherhood had previously said it would not nominate a candidate for president, for fear of scaring voters who are wary that it would dominate the political scene or provoke a response by the country’s military rulers.

• Syrian peace plan: U.N. Security Council endorses Kofi Annan’s proposal - The Washington Post

  The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday endorsed international emissary Kofi Annan’s diplomatic plan to stop violence in Syria, crack open the door to humanitarian relief and prod the Syrian government and opposition into talks on a political settlement. The endorsement constituted a rare show of unity by the Security Council on the crisis in Syria,

• Supreme Court appears to side with Secret Service agents who protected Cheney - The Washington Post

  The Supreme Court seemed inclined to agree that Secret Service agents protecting the nation’s top officials deserve special protection from lawsuits charging them with being overzealous when they arrest people whom they believe — even wrongly — might be a threat.

• Downtown Dubai to get opera house and modern art gallery - The National

  The arts received a double boost yesterday with the announcement of two multimillion-dirham projects. The first, a glittering new cultural district in Downtown Dubai, will cater for aficionados of both opera and modern art. The second, the expansion of the blossoming grassroots art scene in Al Quoz industrial area, will provide studio and gallery space for aspiring artists.

• Goldman Sachs Can Fix This « Dealbreaker: Wall Street Insider – Financial News, Headlines, Commentary and Analysis – Hedge Funds, Private Equity, Banks

  In December of 2000, Nick Paumgarten wrote a Talk of the Town story about Goldman breaking a rather unusual international record: the world’s largest hug. The company hug was initiated by Maynard Holt, a Goldman vice-president in the energy and power group, who e-mailed Guinness World Records, Ltd., expressing an interest in breaking the record at the firm’s annual investment-banking conference, which typically draws about three thousand Goldman employees from around the globe

• Hillary Clinton 2016? NY Senator says she'll urge her to run again for president

  "I'm going to be one of the first to ask Hillary to run in 2016," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told BuzzFeed in a wide-ranging interview about women in politics. "I think she would be incredibly well-poised to be our next Democratic president."

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