Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Hillary Rodham Clinton dodging political 'high wire' – USATODAY.com

  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to step off the "high wire of American politics" after two decades and is again tamping down speculation that she might stay in government if President Obama wins a second term.

• Popuphood: How To Revitalize A Struggling Neighborhood In Six Months | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

  In September 2011, Dominguez and his friend Sarah Filley, an urban planner, teamed up to create Popuphood, a project that is giving five new retail shops the opportunity to get six months of free rent at previously vacant storefronts on one block in the neighborhood.

• UN Security Council to discuss Syria as violence spikes - The National

  Two days of violence in Syria killed more than 50 people as regime forces shelled residential buildings, fired on crowds and left bleeding corpses in the streets in a dramatic escalation of violence, activists said yesterday.

• Newt Gingrich Compares Gay Marriage To Paganism

  Newt Gingrich has three marriages and repeated infidelity under his belt, but that doesn't stop him from sounding off about the sanctity of male-female marriage. On a conference call for Religious Right supporters Wednesday, Newt compared gay marriage to paganism. Right Wing Watch has excerpts from the conversation:

• Obama-backed electric car battery company files for bankruptcy protection - The Washington Post

  Ener1, an electric car battery company that the Obama administration awarded a $118 million stimulus grant to expand its operations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday after being unable to repay pressing debts.

• Twitter may censor tweets in individual countries – USATODAY.com

  Twitter has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis. The additional flexibility announced Thursday is likely to raise fears that Twitter's commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money.

• BBC News - Guatemala ex-leader Rios Montt to face genocide charge

  Ex-Guatemalan military leader Efrain Rios Montt is to be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity.

• Obama: U.S. 'Saudi Arabia of Natural Gas' - US News and World Report

  President Obama called America the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas" Thursday and said the country should start using natural gas to power more cars and trucks. Obama made the remarks in light of his decision to open nearly 38 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and natural gas extraction, saying that natural gas could support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

• BNP Paribas to sell $11bn energy loan portfolio - FT.com

  BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank by assets, has put on the block up to $11bn of loans to oil and gas companies.

• Bill Gates pushes ‘green revolution’ for small farms in developing world - The Washington Post

  After years that have seen riots over rice shortages in Asia and record low world reserves of staple crops such as wheat, software-billionaire-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates argues that there is a simple solution. Grow more food.

• Kuwait snaps up Total for $9bn China refinery deal - Energy - ArabianBusiness.com

  Kuwait chose Total as the third partner to build a $9bn oil refinery in China, Kuwait Petroleum Corp chief executive officer Farouk Al-Zanki said.

• Sanctions spur surge of Iranians buying luxury homes in Dubai - The National

  There has been a sharp rise in the number of wealthy Iranians buying luxury homes in Dubai recently as increasing international sanctions bite in their home country.

• 100,000 flood Tahrir Square as Egypt marks the day it all began - The National

  Liberal activists chanted for the military to hand power to civilians. Islamists cheered their victory in the parliamentary elections. Four young men, wearing black and holding signs "mourning the blood of the martyrs", stood silently. The 100,000 and more who streamed into Tahrir Square yesterday were a microcosm of political life in the country a year after Egyptians took to the streets to demand the end of the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

• Stalled Abu Dhabi museums revived after review - Construction - ArabianBusiness.com

  Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich sheikhdom that’s transforming itself into a business and cultural hub, plans to resume suspended real-estate projects including branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums after reviewing their viability, the government said.

• Petrobras soars on woman chief’s appointment - FT.com

  Shares of Petrobras soared to a near eight-month high as the Brazilian state-controlled oil company announced the appointment of its first woman chief executive. Petrobras said Maria das Graças Foster, a company veteran said to be close to Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, would take over the reins of what is arguably Latin America’s most important company from incumbent José Sérgio Gabrielli in February.

• Mubadala to move out of property development - FT.com

  Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government investment company, is winding down its property development business as real estate prices continue to fall in the emirate. In unusually candid comments, Waleed al-Muhairi, Mubadala’s chief operating officer, said the company had “taken some gambles and I think been proven wrong in some of the businesses that we’ve done”, making a specific reference to the fund’s property activities.

• gulfnews : Aramco likely to pump first shale gas by 2020

  Riyadh: Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) is seeking to begin producing natural gas from shale rock in the country before the end of the decade as domestic power demand climbs.

• Croatia Votes 2 to 1 to Join European Union - NYTimes.com

  Croats voted by a two-to-one margin on Sunday to join the European Union, signaling that the bloc retains its allure despite the debt crisis engulfing the euro currency that many of its members use.

• Keystone XL oil pipeline: John Boehner says Republicans might use payroll tax cut bill to force approval

  House Speaker John Boehner told Fox News Sunday that Republicans “may” tie approval of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to the next extension of the payroll tax cut that President Obama supports. Boehner made it clear that “all options are on the table” to force the president to give his backing to the controversial project, reports Reuters.

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