Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

UAE residents consume an average of 3.5 kg of coffee and tea beverages each year, nearly twice as much as in any other GCC country, making it one of the fastest growing markets by volume for coffee in the world, it was reported Sunday.

Protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s motorcade Sunday during her visit to Egypt. Although a tomato hit an Egyptian official in the face, the armored car carrying Clinton was around the corner from the incident, reports Reuters. Protesters were chanting “Monica, Monica,” in reference to Monica Lewinsky.

Sometimes when I’m lying in bed at night counting sheep and thinking about the day I often wonder about: 1) ponies and 2) the fact that a bigger deal hasn’t been made about the fact Mitt Romney used to dress up like a police officer in college and pull people over. For fun.

The gloves are finally coming off among Germany’s normally sober and scrupulously polite community of economists in a bitter battle over the future of the euro.

Saudi Aramco has launched an investment arm to buy into companies that have developed technologies of strategic importance to Saudi Arabia and speed their deployment in the kingdom, the state-run energy group said. Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures LLC (SAEV) plans to invest in start-up and high-growth ventures offering new technologies to the upstream and downstream oil and gas sectors, renewables, energy efficiency and water supply, the company said on Monday.

** Romney claiming he will make things better in the African American community!?? Who wrote that line for him. ** The audience settled down again after a few seconds, but not for good, the Associated Press reports. Romney was heckled again later in the speech for criticizing President Obama, after he said, "If you want a president who will make thing better in the African American community, you are looking at him."

The Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act was a turning point in the health-care debate, a chance to stop refighting old political battles and move forward with implementing and improving a law that is already lowering health-care costs and providing more security for millions of American families. Instead, congressional Republicans will spend Wednesday staging yet another repeal vote.

Batroun entered the Guinness Book of World Records Sunday for the largest cup of lemonade reported The Daily Star on Monday. The event was part of the Batroun International Festival and saw 400 participants enter the lemonade making contest.

Traveling in Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday made a brief stop in Laos, the first visit by an American secretary of state in 57 years and one that was marked by the enduring legacy of the Vietnam War.

President Obama, they warn, is a socialist. The critics cry, “Obamacare is socialism!” They falsely equate Western European-style socialism, and its government provision of social insurance and health care, with Marxist-Leninist totalitarianism. It offends me, and cheapens the experience of millions who lived, and continue to live, under brutal forms of socialism.

A shark sighting off the coast of Cape Cod closed the popular Nauset Beach in Orleans on Saturday, but swimmers were already allowed back in the water the following day. Shelly Negrotti, who snapped a terrifying photo of the shark tailing a kayaker, recalls the Jaws-like scene that unfolded as people scurried out of the water. "It was just like a chain reaction up and down the beach," Negrotti said. "We were all saying ‘Get in!' to the paddler as the shark was getting closer and closer."

Abu Dhabi: National Energy Co said it’s not in talks about buying a controlling stake in a Dutch wind farm, denying a media report that the government-run utility known as Taqa was close to signing an agreement.

A British judge will rule Tuesday on a bid by residents to stop their London tower block being used as a missile base during the Olympic Games.

The Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank has set Oct. 20 as the new date for long-delayed municipal elections, a step seen as deepening the political split with Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's party has unanimously approved a plan to end exemptions from conscription for ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab Israelis. The move by the Likud party means the coalition government can now move towards drafting a new law.

There will be more cars crossing the border from Portugal to Spain to fill up their tanks from tomorrow as the government seeks to add cash to its coffers. Portuguese gas prices are set to go up by three cents per liter at a time when gas is already as much as thirty cents more per liter than in Spain, as Diario de Noticias reports.

Senior euro-zone finance officials, moving ahead on a plan to create a single overarching bank supervisor for all the countries in the 17-nation currency bloc, are settling on a framework that would create a new agency reporting to the European Central Bank to police the largest banks in the currency union, people involved in the discussions said.

Egypt’s Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) held an emergency meeting late Sunday to discuss the implications of the decision by newly-elected President Mohammed Mursi’s decision to reconvene the lower house of parliament (People’s Assembly) until parliamentary elections are held, SCAF sources were quoted as saying by an Egyptian daily.

Poland, Europe's shale gas pioneer, expects companies to drill at least 41 more wells this year to shed more light on the country's gas potential. The environment ministry, which has granted 111 rights to drill for shale gas to companies including Chevron and ExxonMobil, also said on Friday there were "a few tens" of new requests for exploration licences awaiting approval, Reuters reported. "The more wells we make in a short period of time, the faster we will get a confirmation of our forecasts regarding shale gas resources," the government said according to the news wire.

The Cooperative Health Insurance Council has made it mandatory for medical insurance companies to cover the cost of basic immunization vaccines for children until they reach school-going age.