Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• New island forms in Red Sea off Yemen: NASA

  A new island has appeared off the west coast of Yemen following a volcanic eruption, NASA said Friday.

• Crowd dynamics: The wisdom of crowds | The Economist

  IMAGINE that you are French. You are walking along a busy pavement in Paris and another pedestrian is approaching from the opposite direction. A collision will occur unless you each move out of the other’s way. Which way do you step? The answer is almost certainly to the right. Replay the same scene in many parts of Asia, however, and you would probably move to the left. It is not obvious why. There is no instruction to head in a specific direction (South Korea, where there is a campaign to get people to walk on the right, is an exception). There is no simple correlation with the side of the road on which people drive: Londoners funnel to the right on pavements, for example.

• UK secretly supplied Saddam - FT.com

  Margaret Thatcher’s government was covertly supplying military equipment to Iraq as early as 1981, according to newly released government documents. Secret files made public on Friday contain an exhaustive list of equipment from Hawk fighter jets to military air and naval bases that the government was attempting to sell Saddam Hussein’s regime.

• Crackdown in Cairo - By Sarah Carr | Foreign Policy

  CAIRO – There was a flurry of good news last week in Egypt. Activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah was released on Christmas Day, Cairo's Administrative Court issued a ruling banning "virginity tests," and thousands of women took part in a spirited march in downtown Cairo to denounce the military's brutal violence against women protesters during the breakup of a sit-in in front of the Cabinet building on Dec. 16 and 17. That streak of good times was interrupted Thursday afternoon when public prosecution officials, assisted by armed Central Security Forces (CSF) soldiers -- Cairo's ubiquitous black-clad riot troops -- raided the offices of six civil society groups.

• هل تخبرنا التجربة الرومانية بما سيحدث في مصر؟

  هل تخبرنا التجربة الرومانية بما سيحدث في مصر؟

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• US 'fails to account' for Iraq reconstruction billions - BBC

  "A US federal watchdog has criticised the US military for failing to account properly for billions of dollars it received to help rebuild Iraq. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says the US Department of Defence is unable to account properly for 96% of the money. Out of just over $9bn (£5.8bn), $8.7bn is unaccounted for, the inspector says."

• A Quarter Century after Chernobyl: Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany - Spiegel

  "As Germany's wild boar population has skyrocketed in recent years, so too has the number of animals contaminated by radioactivity left over from the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. Government payments compensating hunters for lost income due to radioactive boar have quadrupled since 2007."

• Report: Israel aiding plot for bloodless coup in Gulf emirate - Haaretz

  "Israel is helping an exiled Arab sheikh to plot a bloodless coup in the Gulf emirate of Ras al-Khaimeh, the Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday. According to the Guardian report, Sheikh Khalid bin-Saqr al-Qasimi - the exiled crown prince of Ras al-Khaimeh - met with Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ron Prosor in March. The Sheikh reportedly asked then for Israeli support in his attempt to seize control of the emirate from his dying father, Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qassimi, and the current crown prince Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr al-Qasimi. "

• Kitesurfing in the Sahara - FT

  "Dakhla is an elemental place. Stand at the edge of town with your back to the rolling Atlantic and there is nothing but 3m square miles of sand and rock stretching before you – this is the Western Sahara after all. But I’m not here for the sand. I’ve come to this disputed region that Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office warns has “a high risk of unexploded mines” and “a high threat from terrorism” for one thing only: wind."

• UAE to suspend BlackBerry services - FT

  **I'm glad I didn't buy my blackberry yet...*** "The United Arab Emirates on Sunday said it would suspend BlackBerry mobile communication services from October 11 because they operate outside of its laws, after India also raised similar concerns about Research in Motion’s network in recent weeks. The Gulf state’s regulator said in a statement that the decision was based on the fact that “certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE.”"

Very well-informed and interesting interview with Theodore Kattouf, the former US ambassador to Syria and the United Arab Emirates, on US-Syria relations and possibilities for progress in the future.

The interview can be found here.

Below is a well-written article from Al-Jazeera English on Syria's strategic political maneuvering as it has shifted and changed its alliances and the balance of power in the region over the years.

Worth the read

The original article can be found here.

Excerpts:

Syrian foreign policy has been based on two pivotal principles: first, that there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends; and second, that every situation can and will be used as leverage that will serve national interests and ensure the survivability of the regime.

Immediately after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, Washington considered implementing regime change in Damascus as part of the Bush administration's policy of pre-emption.

Damascus observed with alarm as US officials alleged that Iraq's "nuclear material" was hidden on Syrian territory and the rhetoric against Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, became more venomous.

Realising that its survival was at stake, Syria - in tandem with Iran - supported the insurgency in Iraq despite US sabre-rattling.