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Daybreak: Converting China

Plus Dubai cause-of-death, Snooki’s glassy Purim, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
March 01, 2010
Don’t worry guys, Snooki is okay.(Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Don’t worry guys, Snooki is okay.(Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

• An Israeli delegation showed Chinese officials extensive intelligence on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. China is the final veto-possessing holdout when it comes to further Security Council sanctions. [Haaretz]

• Israel’s plans to landmark two Biblical sites in the West Bank led to further skirmishes, as well as the Israeli police entering al-Aqsa mosque in the Temple Mount. [WSJ]

• Dubai police officials disclosed that Hamas weapons man Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was killed January 19th (by, most believe, the Mossad), died after being injected with a powerful muscle relaxant and asphyxiated. We’ll have much more on the Dubai Murder Mystery later today. [NYT]

• A rift between Hamas’s Syria-based leadership and its Gaza branch has been exacerbated by disagreements over the negotiations for Gilad Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier. [Haaretz]

• David Bankier, a Holocaust scholar at Yad Vashem, died. The 63-year-old had pioneered the study of ordinary Europeans’ cooperation with the Nazis. [NYT]

• A glass ceiling at a Manhattan hotel collapsed during a Purim party, injuring 10 guests. “Omg roof just collapsed at the purim event!” Tweeted Jersey Shore star Snooki. “We thought the dj was beatin the beat hardcore but nope, the roof couldn’t handle snooki and vin.” Welcome back from the weekend, folks! [NY Post/Vos Iz Neias?]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.