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Nawaf Obaid, a fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, is also senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. Here he describes the events leading to the Saudi turndown of a seat on the UN Security Council. The Saudi foreign policy establishment made this decision after several weeks of debate in Jeddah considering the U.S. and Russia's effort to make only a muted criticism of the use of chemical weapons in Syria in the Security Council; and the U.S. effort to have the British, French and Saudis give up on demands for firm language in a Security Council resolution on action to be taken against the use of chemical weapons. For the Saudis, says Obaid, better not taking a temporary seat on the UN Security Council, than to be left a docile member without its own voice and the voice of others in the international community being heard. Obaid also points out that this is the beginning of Saudi effort to exercize its own influence in the Middle East, as it faces three separate developments in 2013- the Iranian rapprochement with the West under new president Rouhani, the Arab Awakening and the new consciousness in the Middle East, the U.S. policy under president Obama of not taking leadership in the Middle East. This also comes as the Saudis parted ways with the Obama administration on the role of the military in Egypt, and has differences with Turkey and Quatar on support for Islamic groups in Egypt and Syria....

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The action taken by local and government officials to address the high PM 2.5 pollutant levels and smog in Harbin, China, in October 2013. For the first time the Ministry of Environmental Protection has powers to take serious action. It is sending out inspection teams to cities across China for the winter to make sure environmental regulations are enforced. One big change is that cities now report in real time the change in pollutant levels for PM 2.5, the worst pollutant. By Oct. 2013 113 cities in China carried the live reports on websites. The Ministry has published a list of the 4189 factories in China that create 65% of total industrial air pollutants in China. The Jinping-Li Keqiang administration supports the stronger enforcement and has set a goal of reducing PM 2.5 levels by 15- 25% each year for Tianjin, Beijin and Hebi province in northern China, compared to 2012 levels. These three regions have been given the target of reducing coal use by 80 million tons a year.

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Lahart points out that the increase in Caterpillar's business coming from China and the higher proportion of revenues coming from the slowing mining equipment business are the reasons why Caterpillar is repeatedly missing revenue and profit forecasts. Caterpillar moved to make acquisitions in the mining equipment business just as the mining business was beginning to slowdown.

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Fouad Ajami points out that U.S. president Obama has presented what is an abdication of responsibility in the Middle East in a lawyerly reasoning that people would see coming from a careful prudence. For a U.S. and European public opinion weary of foreign entanglements this is often perceived in this way of carefully crafted and prudent policy. In the process the U.S. has failed to stand up for its own values in crisis after crisis in the Middle East.

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Germany calls U.S. intelligence agencies spying on Chancellor Merkel's mobile phone "a grave breach of trust."

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Jesse Eisinger compares the public criticism and the response of two executives of major American banks- Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. He says Dimon may come out looking better with his reputation in much better shape because of the changes he made at JP Morgan Chase after realizing that he had made faulty judgements. Dimon has now set the goal of putting JP Morgan ahead of the other banks in its risk management and working with regulators. Blankfein is seen as making only minor changes in the culture at Goldman and having overcome a wave of public criticism without significant change in the way the company does business. In the process Dimon will have learned more from the financial crisis and make improvements that will be good for JP Morgan in the future, an opportunity that Blankfein is seen as missing.

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This Journal editorial points to the low labor participation rate of 63.2% in the U.S. as indication of the high unemployment in September 2013. About 90.6 million men and women over the age of 16 are not working, compared to total employment of 144.3 million, based on Labor Department statistics. Factors contributing to this are the six million baby boomers turning 65 since 2008, more young people staying in school in a poor job market, easier access to government support benefits such as unemployment insurance, disability.

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The German government says the U.S. intelligence agencies may be monitoring Chanceller Merkel's mobile phone and finds such surveillance completely unacceptable.