Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

A consortium led by Saudi International Company for Water and Power (ACWA) is close to win a contract worth at least US$500m to build a 160-megawatt concentrated solar power plant south of Morocco, an official source said on Wednesday.

Wake-up call If the US and Iraq do go to war, there can only be one winner, can't there? Maybe not. This summer, in a huge rehearsal of just such a conflict - and with retired Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper playing Saddam - the US lost. Julian Borger asks the former marine how he did it

What do we mean when we say a Chinese company has “close ties to the government”? Or is “connected to the military”? And does this matter? It is a problem that writers on China have encountered for years, and it can be difficult get firm evidence. But now Congress is getting interested in those questions, and the results (if they go public) could make for fascinating reading. Members of the House Intelligence Committee who are investigating spying threats from China have asked two big Chinese telecommunications firms active in the United States to explain their relationship with the Chinese government.

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund that bought London’s Harrods department store in 2010 for US$2.22bn, has snapped up a luxury retail complex on Paris’s Champs-Elysées boulevard, it was reported on Tuesday.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, a member of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank group, started a $600 million agriculture and farm fund to promote investments in Muslim countries.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has long been a dominant force in the oil market - but has never been an oil trader. That's changing now as Riyadh seeks to capitalise on its refining strength and run its own oil trading book - buying and selling gasoline, gas oil and other fuel to balance the needs of its expanding system, and to turn a profit. A new Saudi state-owned company, Aramco Trading, is even venturing into derivatives such as futures and paper trading, a significant cultural change given Riyadh's deeply conservative business culture.

Faced with overwhelming financial firepower on the right, Democratic-aligned super PACs and advocacy groups are increasingly joining forces in a collaborative effort to bolster President Barack Obama and a select number of House and Senate candidates for the 2012 general election. From newly formed super PACs to unions, environmentalists and women’s groups, Democratic-aligned organizations are forming short-term partnerships to advance their most immediate goals — whether that means rallying behind a chosen candidate or gunning for a shared Republican enemy.

CAIRO // Liberals have boycotted a new commission to rewrite Egypt's constitution after Islamist groups reneged on a deal to divide seats equally between Islamist and non-Islamist members.

Vandals have defaced the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem with graffiti denouncing Zionism. One of the slogans daubed in paint on the walls of the memorial read: "If Hitler had not existed, the Zionists would have invented him." "This unprecedented act crosses a red line," Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said in a statement. Suspicion for the attack has fallen on radical ultra-Orthodox Jews who oppose the creation of the state of Israel.

Estimated to cost $1.3bn for a month, the billboard features a Jet Pack Man flying around the billboard in a seconds-long promotion for Skydive Dubai and Go Fast.

Why don’t Democrats just say it? They really believe in active government and think it does good and valuable things. One of those valuable things is that government creates jobs — yes, really — and also the conditions under which more jobs can be created.