Five Jordanians imprisoned in Israel have entered their 20th day on open hunger strike, a prisoner rights groups said Tuesday.

“Five of around 30 Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails are currently on an open hunger strike,” Amani Srahan, spokeswoman of the Palestinian Prisoners Club – an organization that documents the cases of Palestinian prisoners – told Al-Akhbar.

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Drake & Scull Construction (DSC) the General Contracting Arm of Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI) has announced that it has been awarded a SAR 1.725 billion (Dh1.68 billion) contract by Lamar Investment and Real Estate Development Co. to complete the Lamar Towers project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

DSC Saudi Arabia will oversee and undertake all aspects of construction works on the project complemented by the international expertise of the engineering division of DSI KSA assigned to execute all incidentals MEP works.

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Hate being inside a stuffy, square office with artificial lights? How about working inside a giant, see-through sphere filled with trees? That's the latest proposal for Amazon's South Lake Union project.

They get that the revelations about DOJ overreach reveal a threat not just to freedom of the press but to the most necessary of press functions: the work of revealing for citizens the details of what their government is doing in their name but without their informed consent. None of these members are foolish or casual in their approach; they understand that it is necessary for the government to protect against the leaking of information that could endanger people. But they also understand that it is possible to provide that protection within a constitutional context.

Perhaps most importantly, they get that the best way to protect the First Amendment guarantee of a free press is to protect the Fourth Amendment guarantee of privacy. Journalists do not need—and should not seek—an array of special protections to do their jobs. But journalists and their sources do need to know that information can be shared without the threat of unwarranted—and self-serving—government surveillance of necessary conversations.

It is with this in mind that four very different members of Congress (Michigan Republican Justin Amash, South Carolina Republican Mick Mulvaney, California Democrat Zoe Lofgren and Colorado Democrat Jared Polis) have proposed a precise and appropriate response to the overreach by the Department of Justice. While the White House and key members of the Senate are backing a Shield Law, which protects journalists from being required to reveal sources, the House members are going deeper—to protect not just journalists but all citizens from “unreasonable searches and seizures.” They seek a Telephone Records Protection Act, which requires court approval when the government demands telephone records from service providers.

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—As it makes live feed available, BP admits oil flow worse than claimed:

In my experience watching the feed, it's had some technical hiccups, but I was able to watch about five minutes before the video screen went black. It's incredibly disturbing -- clouds of oil billowing from the site of the leak, at times appearing far, far worse than the initial video BP released.

The fact that BP now claims to be siphoning off 5,000 barrels per day but the flow of oil appears to be as bad as ever tells you just how massive this leak is. CBS was the first news organization to get its hands on the live feed and showed it to Purdue Professor of Mechanical Engineering Steven Werely. He estimates that nearly 100,000 barrels -- 4 million gallons or an Exxon Valdez every three days -- is still spewing from the leak.

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A 2-year-old child is in critical condition at Wolfson Children’s Hospital after falling into a pool Tuesday at an unlicensed day care on the Westside, Jacksonville authorities said.

Children were swimming earlier and then the boy went back and fell in, patrol Sgt. Dennis McVicker said outside Kiddie Heaven at 8337 Ireland Drive. It wasn’t clear how long he was in before being found or how many people were there. Authorities were called about 2 p.m.

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By David Sharp

Associated Press

BANGOR, Maine | When 16-year-old Nichole Cable left home May 12, she told her family she was heading out to see someone she’d met on Facebook.

The high school sophomore never came back.

Now, a 20-year-old man faces charges in her death after a body believed to be the missing teen’s was found in a wooded area north of Bangor.

Kyle Dube, of Orono, was charged with murder Tuesday, a day after the remains were found in Old Town, Maine State Police Lt. Christopher Coleman said at a news conference.

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Opera Aida is a standard in the Cairo Opera House repertoire.

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Decisions can be hard. We may be haunted by the path not taken.

A goat made a daring, potentially life-saving escape Tuesday morning from a truck authorities believe was headed to a slaughterhouse. The goat, named Sky, fell or jumped while being driven across the Pulaski Skyway bridge, where she ran wild during the rush hour commute.

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In Washington, CEO Tim Cook defended Apple’s R&D cost sharing arrangements.

Apple CEO Tim Cook came under fire in Washington today at a U.S. Senate hearing focused on the elaborate strategies Apple used to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars in corporate taxes. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday the indictments of nine First Coast men on drug and firearm charges as the result of an undercover investigation. Seven have been arrested so far.

Seven were named in a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release, but the agency did not specify if they are the arrested individuals. Four were arrested Tuesday, following the previous arrests of three others.

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Hybrid cars are reaching the Gulf in limited numbers. But those who want to do their bit for the environment, or make a statement, will have to dig deep into their resources — the niche here is dominated by prestige, performance marques such as Porsche, Lexus, BMW and McLaren Automotive.

And for now, these companies are not particularly promoting hybrids.

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Want to say. Not necessarily would say.

A 4-year-old boy was accidentally killed May 9 when he became caught in a remote-controlled massage chair he was playing in, according to a Clay County Sheriff’s Office investigation.

Lucas Scott Colley was with his mother at a friend’s home when the accident occurred. Erin Nicole Colley, 23, and Mary Elizabeth Wade, 60, had gone into the kitchen of the Middleburg home to talk while Lucas stayed in the living room, according to the investigation. The women heard screams and returned to the other room where the boy’s head was caught in the chair.

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The union representing most of Jacksonville’s non-public safety government workers has tentatively agreed to a package of pension changes that would mainly affect only new workers.

The package, similar to the deal struck between the Mayor’s Office and the Police and Fire Pension Fund, would lower the percentage of pay retirees would get and would make some retirees wait longer to start getting their pension.

It would also increase how much new workers have to contribute, from the current 8 percent to 12 percent.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not concerned about Dubai’s ability to repay its estimated $48 billion of debt obligations, according to the director of its Middle East and Central Asia department.

Masood Ahmed was speaking to reporters in the emirate on Tuesday as part of the IMF’s regional economic outlook update for the MENAP region.

The update reported a mild economic recovery of three per cent for the region’s oil importers but warned that the rise will not be enough to reduce the region’s large employment deficit.

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Yeah basically, we, Europeans, are always hearing weird things about America. What do you, Americans, have to say about funny/strange things you saw in Europe ? Surely we're not even aware of it!

PORTLAND, Ore. — Residents are voting to keep Portland, Ore., as the largest U.S. city without fluoride in the water or any plans to add it.

With more than half the expected ballots counted, the Multnomah County election website shows the fluoride proposal failing, 60 percent to 40 percent.

Voters in Portland twice rejected fluoridation before approving it in 1978. That plan was overturned two years later, before any fluoride was ever added to the water.

The recent Kerry-Lavrov initiative to end the conflict in Syria through talks was met with skepticism among those who believe that the United States and Russia will bring their own agendas to the table, that Bashar al-Assad will refuse to step down, and that the Syrian opposition is too fragmented to strike a deal. But those are common problems, and successful talks can be -- and have been -- started under just such conditions.

Children hang from the barrel of a tank,2012. (Ahmed Jadallah / Courtesy Reuters)

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Two charter airplanes carrying the "Today" show anchor team and their crew from Hawaii to Yellowstone National Park were diverted in the air to Oklahoma for coverage Tuesday of the catastrophic tornado outside of Oklahoma City.

Television networks rushed their big names to the scene, including anchors Brian Williams of NBC's "Nightly News" and Scott Pelley of the "CBS Evening News." Both broadcasts were expanded on Tuesday to cover the story, as was ABC's "World News," with Diane Sawyer remaining in New York.

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Some top members of Jacksonville’s City Council want to hire their own lawyer to help sort through the pension-reform deal Mayor Alvin Brown announced this month.

But there’s one big thing standing in the way of that: the city’s lawyer.

“It’s absolutely 100 percent clear, the City Council cannot hire their own legal counsel to advise them on matters generally. They just can’t do it,” General Counsel Cindy Laquidara said Tuesday, hours after eight council members met to discuss filing emergency legislation to seek outside legal help.

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