This is the world in brief from The Economist.

Our top stories. Speaking at a World Economic Forum meeting in Saudi Arabia,

the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that only America could stop Israel from carrying out its plan offensive on Ruffer.

About 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in the Gazan city.

On Saturday Israel's foreign minister, Israel Cutts, said that the operation

could be suspended if her mass agreed to release more hostages as part of a prisoner swap.

Elon Musk, the boss of electric carmaker Tesla, met China's prime minister, Lee Chung, in Beijing.

Mr. Musk visited China

amid growing competition from the country's car industry.

According to local media, Mr Lee told Mr Musk that China will always be open to foreign firms and hail

Tesla's investments in the country as a successful example

of cooperation with American businesses.

Crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests at American universities led to more than 200 arrests on Saturday.

Over 700 people have been arrested in the 10 days since Columba University in New York called police to campus.

Protests quickly spread to other universities.

Saturdays arrests happened at Arizona State University, Indiana University, Northeastern University, and Washington University in Missouri.

Mohammed bin Rashid al-Makthum, the leader of Dubai, announced a 35 billion dollar project to extend

almachtum international airport, making it the world's largest.

Almachtum will have five runways, 400 gates and serve 260 million passengers a year.

Most operations will move from Dubai International Airport to Al-Mak-Tum, which will also become the hub for Emirates, the United Arab Emirates flag carrier.

Iraq's parliament revised a law in order to allow prison terms of up to 15 years for gay people and three years for transgender people.

One MP said the law would combat sexual deviancy which contradicts Islamic and societal values.

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