Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/30/AR2010033002771.html

I don't mean to sound nostalgic for the Cold War, but we've got to stop conducting ourselves as if nobody is looking. The Senate has shriveled into a body that routinely thwarts majority rule. The Supreme Court has ruled that big money can dominate our elections as never before.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/30/AR2010033004018.html

MOSCOW -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged Tuesday to drag "from the bottom of the sewers" those behind the deadly attack on the Moscow subway system, but some Russians began to challenge his government for failing to prevent the suicide bombings despite signs that Islamist rebels had been preparing to strike.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-campaigners-take-on-highschool-bullies-after-irish-girl-is-driven-to-despair-1931659.html

Whatever the Prince family expected for their daughter Phoebe when they moved to America from a village in the west of Ireland, it cannot have been what eventually transpired. Phoebe only joined her Massachusetts school last autumn. Within six months, she had hanged herself in a clothes cupboard, the victim of a "relentless" bullying campaign.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8595775.stm

Coalition supporters say the EPCA has not kept pace with technology
US technology firms and privacy groups have called for an overhaul of privacy laws, saying the government has too much access to private online data. Google, eBay and others have launched the Digital Due Process coalition, seeking to update the 1986 privacy act, passed before internet usage exploded.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/eighteen-million-out-road

RealtyTrac, the California-based authority on property trends and valuations, projects 4.5 million home foreclosures before the end of this year. That's 4.5 million homes, and with four people to a household that is eighteen million people. Eighteen million men, women and children put out into the road, people who must scramble to find shelter and scramble to find new schools for their children.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/important-daily-news-you-need-know-todays-issue-drug-lobbies

Political lobbying is an important part of the Washington political machine. Representatives cannot possibly carry on expertise in every field of interest. The government could never hire enough bureaucrats to keep track of all of the interest groups in this country who need representation.

Link: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/819822-brainstorming-makes-you-less-creative-researchers-say

Far from generating a raft of brilliant new ideas, thrashing out random thoughts in the boardroom on a Monday morning is counter-productive.

Link: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/819818-nicolas-sarkozys-healthy-disregard-for-us-attitude-to-healthcare-bill

Speaking at Columbia University in New York, the French leader scolded the US before taking dinner with the Obamas at the White House last night. ‘Welcome to the club of states who don’t turn their back on the sick and the poor,’ Mr Sarkozy chided, referring to the health care overhaul signed by Barack Obama last week. Using a lectern flown in from France, he added: ‘The very fact there should have been such a violent debate simply on the fact that the poorest of Americans should not be left out in the streets without a cent to look after them is something astonishing to us.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/germ-m31.shtml

Sixty-five years after the end of World War II, Germany is once again a leader in the world arms industry. The main responsibility for this development lies with the former Social Democratic Party (SPD)-Green Party government. During its term in office (1998-2005), it allowed the deployment of the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) outside the NATO area and practically deregulated arms exports.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/rttt-m31.shtml

The Obama administration on Monday named Tennessee and Delaware as initial winners in its “Race to the Top” education initiative. The two states, which were granted a combined award of $600 million in federal funds, were those in which local and state union affiliates carried out the greatest collaboration in undermining public education and teachers’ job security.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9011711

A drive-by shooting killed three people and wounded six others in the nation's capital Tuesday night, and three people were in custody, officials said. A gunman sprayed bullets "into a crowd," said Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The shootings of six men and three women happened about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday around the 4000 block of South Capitol Street, said D.C. Police Department spokesman Officer Hugh Carew. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer says all were in their 20s and 30s, except for one teenager.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/03/201033012213217329.html

A team of scientists in Switzerland have made a "major breakthrough" in understanding how the universe was created billions of years ago.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/03/201033033812841804.html

Five Arctic nations have agreed to work more closely to safeguard the region's environment and resolve disputes over territory.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/03/20103310571444191.html

The US president has pressed for tougher UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme to be passed in a matter of weeks.

Link: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/30/teaparty-social-security/

Last night on CNN, Larry King discussed the rise of the tea parties with a variety of guests and featured footage from last weekend’s lobbyist-organized Tea Party Express rally in Searchlight, NV.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/30/us-israel-lobby-pressure-obama

America's main pro-Israel lobby group is mobilising members of Congress to pressure the White House over its bitter public confrontation with Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/30/our_president_is_deceiving_the_american

We are joined by a man who played a major role in efforts to end the Vietnam War in the 1970s. In 1971, the then-RAND Corporation analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked to the media what became known as the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page classified history outlining the true extent of US involvement in Vietnam. After avoiding a life sentence on espionage charges, Daniel Ellsberg has continued to speak out against US militarism until the present day. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/unem-m30.shtml

The US Senate left Washington on its two-week spring vacation last Friday without passing a $10 billion extension for jobless benefits, due to expire April 5. The Senate’s failure to approve the measure means that more than 200,000 people who have been out of work for more than six months will have their checks cut off beginning next week.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/30/us-oil-donated-millions-climate-sceptics

A Greenpeace investigation has identified a little-known, privately owned US oil company as the paymaster of global warming sceptics in the US and Europe. The environmental campaign group accuses Kansas-based Koch Industries, which owns refineries and operates oil pipelines, of funding 35 conservative and libertarian groups, as well as more than 20 congressmen and senators. Between them, Greenpeace says, these groups and individuals have spread misinformation about climate science and led a sustained assault on climate scientists and green alternatives to fossil fuels.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/eugene-robinson-the-far-right%E2%80%99s-hate-element58113

The arrests of members of a Michigan-based "Christian" militia group should convince doubters that there is good reason to worry about right-wing, anti-government extremism -- and potential violence -- in the Age of Obama.

Link: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0330/protesters-cuff-rove-drive-stage/

The former White House Deputy Chief of Staff and top Bush adviser was treated to a cadre of protesters Monday, who threatened him with a citizen's arrest and ultimately succeeded in driving him offstage. As the local CBS News affiliate described it, "Karl Rove book tour starts out with a bang."

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50844

Shortly after it informed the world of the discovery of three new species of frogs, the environmental organisation Fundación Andígena closed its doors in Venezuela this month due to lack of financial support.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan03302010.html

When Israeli Minister without Portfolio Yossi Peled said recently that a war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah was “just a matter of time” and that such a conflict would include Syria, most observers dismissed the comment as little more than posturing by a right-wing former general. But Peled’s threat has been backed by Israeli military maneuvers near the Lebanese border, violations of Lebanese airspace, and the deployment of an anti-missile system on Israel’s northern border.

Link: http://environment.independentminds.livejournal.com/299187.html

Data from the US Department of Agriculture show a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, following a 36 percent decline in 2008 and a 32 percent fall in 2007. This affects not only honey production but around 15 billion dollars worth of crops that depend on bees for pollination. Scientists call the phenomenon "colony collapse disorder" that has led to the disappearance of millions of adult bees and beehives and occurred elsewhere in the world including in Europe.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/03/201033032153200764.html

Russian leaders have pledged to "find and wipe out" those behind twin suicide bombings at metro stations in Moscow that killed 39 people and left scores injured. "They are simply beasts," Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said of the bombers after laying a wreath of red roses at Lubyanka metro station, one of the sites targeted.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9010110

U.S. transit agencies beefed up security as a precaution Monday after the double suicide bombing in Moscow's subway system, sending more police into stations and officers to conduct random inspections of rail yards.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/29/teenagers-charged-girls-suicide

Nine teenagers have been charged over the death of a 15-year-old Irish migrant who killed herself after months of merciless and sometimes violent bullying by fellow students at a Massachusetts school.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9010183

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Who doesn't want to be a millionaire? Maybe a 43-year-old unemployed bachelor who lives with his elderly mother in Russia — and who won $1 million for solving a problem that has stumped mathematicians for a century.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/republicans-in-strip-club-row-1930847.html

The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, was under pressure last night after it emerged that the committee signed off a bill for $1,949 (£1,300) spent at a Hollywood club that features topless dancers and bondage outfits.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/born-in-the-usa-someone-doesnt-think-so-1930680.html

She's been called a heroine, a patriot, and a tireless defender of liberty, justice, and the American way. She's also been dubbed a racist crank who exemplifies the worst excesses of the blowhard right.

Link: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/819708-bodies-of-21-babies-discovered-in-chinese-river

The investigation into Jining Medical College Hospital in Shangdong province started after eight of the 21 babies were found to still be wearing the hospital’s tags which showed their mother’s names, birth dates, measurements and weight.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7080660.ece

Nato’s military offensive in Afghanistan will prove a waste of time unless President Karzai can stamp out corruption in the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, the US said yesterday in its second top-level warning to the Afghan leader in less than 24 hours.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7080594.ece

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni have finally been invited to the White House
After a year of frostiness Barack Obama will finally grant Nicolas Sarkozy the special gesture that he craves tonight: a cosy meal for the French first couple in the Obama family dining room.

Link: http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-03-30/moscow-metro-blast-casualties.html

The death toll from the bomb attacks on two Moscow underground stations has reached 38 people. More than 70 others were injured in the explosions during the crowded morning rush hour. Many of those wounded remain in a critical condition. Tuesday, 30th March, has been declared a day of mourning in the Russian capital.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-post-office30-2010mar30,0,902701.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fnation+%28L.A.+Times+-+National+News%29

Reporting from Washington - The discussed demise of Saturday mail delivery would become a reality early next year under a cost-cutting U.S. Postal Service plan unveiled Monday that would also slash thousands of front-line jobs. America has 27 trillion to give to the international (so-called) 'Federal Reserve' banking system every year and trillions for wars based on lies, so why not enough money for our postal system?

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/stocks-rise-during-morning-session

Shares on Wall Street were largely mixed at the closing bell on Friday. The Dow Jones (0.08 percent, 9.15 points) and the S&P 500 (0.07 percent, 0.86 points) each finished the day in the black, but the NASDAQ (0.10 percent, 2.28 points) dropped during the day.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/dangerous-dental-implants-imported-china

As much as 20 percent of dental implants are manufactured outside of the U.S. The FDA and the American Dental Association are currently investigating reports that materials used by some of those manufacturers may contain high levels of lead and other dangerous metals.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/health-care-reform-may-make-way-national-vat

With the successful passage of a massive new entitlement program in health care reform, many are deeply concerned about the nation’s national debt, and some believe that in order to rein in the debt, a national sales tax may be inevitable.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7080215.ece

Police in Moscow say that the two women suicide bombers who blew themselves up on packed underground trains this morning were accompanied by other women. Detectives were reported to be preparing to publish CCTV images in an attempt to track down the accomplices of the two bombers, whose explosives belts were packed with bolts and iron rods to maximise death and injury.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/03/2010329183640434410.html

Nine suspected members of a Christian militia group have been charged with conspiring to attack a police funeral and wage "armed conflict" against the US government.