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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