Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/17/crisis-us-israeli-relations-barack-obama

He blinked once and he can not afford to blink again. The most serious crisis in US-Israeli relations in 35 years was not of President Obama's making. He had already climbed down a fair way from his original demand for a total halt on settlement construction.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/16/federal-reserve-interest-rates-low

The Federal Reserve tonight reaffirmed its promise to keep interest rates low for an "extended period" while it waits for clear evidence of an upturn in the US economy.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/mar/16/dickcheney-iraq

Lest we forget: on 16 March 2003 Dick Cheney appeared on Meet The Press to make the Bush administration's case for the US invasion of Iraq. Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course but we now know that Cheney had no basis for claiming the things that he claimed that day, and that he himself knew there was little or no evidence for the words coming out of his mouth.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/16/violent-clashes-erupt-east-jerusalem

Israeli-Palestinian tensions erupted into violence today with clashes in East Jerusalem as the US postponed a visit by its Middle East envoy in protest at Binyamin Netanyahu's settlement policy.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/16/pensions-deficit-ba-strike-unite

British Airways passengers face the threat of disruption on both sides of the Atlantic after the Teamsters, the powerful US trade union, confirmed last night it is meeting Unite representatives to discuss supporting a looming cabin crew strike.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pitt-m16.shtml

Curtis Mitchell died February 7 in his home more than 30 hours after both he and his wife, Sharon Edge, made the first of repeated calls to emergency 911 requesting an ambulance be sent to their home in the Hazelwood section of the city of Pittsburgh.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8571347.stm

Western nations failed to understand how China works, says Lord Stern. The "disappointing" outcome of December's climate summit was largely down to "arrogance" on the part of rich countries, according to Lord Stern. The economist told BBC News that the US and EU nations had not understood well enough the concerns of poorer nations.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/how-economy-was-lost-doomed-myths-free-trade

The American economy has gone away. It is not coming back until free trade myths are buried six feet under.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/many-nations-surpassing-us-education

Education has always been the backbone of American productivity, for generations American students were the best and brightest the world had to offer. Unfortunately, for nearly 20 years the state of primary and secondary education in America has fallen off.

Link: http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108195

The Sunday Herald has reported that hundreds of powerful US "bunker-buster" bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia. In January, the US government signed a contract to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island, the Scottish newspaper wrote on March 14. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu-110” and "Blu-117" bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures. Crucially, the cargo included 195 smart, guided, Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8569465.stm

Toyota Motor Corp says it has found no evidence to support a driver's account of a widely-publicised "runaway" Prius incident in California last week.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/mar/15/healthcare-reform-obama-congress

It's understandable that boredom and confusion are twin reactions to the continuing battle over healthcare reform. The process has been running for almost a year now. And in that time the debate has raged over "death panels", public options and trillion-dollar price tags. But all that is almost at an end.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7063184.ece

Covert troops who killed two pregnant women and a teenage girl in eastern Afghanistan went on to inflict “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” on the survivors of a botched night raid, a report by the UN said.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7063214.ece

Sit down at any dinner table in the Arab world and the conversation will inevitably turn to one of the enduring mysteries of the region. How is it that America has shown such unwavering support for Israel over the decades?

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/bronwen_maddox/article7063203.ece

President Obama does not have to look as far as Afghanistan to find a drugs war, a failing state and violence that threatens the US’s stability. He can look south to Mexico, to a conflict that is bound to displace far-flung troublespots in US preoccupations.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/util-m16.shtml

Since the start of this year, at least eight people in Detroit have died in fires that occurred in houses where the heat and electricity had been shut off by DTE Energy, the local utility provider. The residents of these homes were too poor to pay for these services. They were forced to turn to unsafe methods in order to try to stay warm as temperatures dropped, and they paid for this with their lives.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/hits-m16.shtml

A long-time US military official used Pentagon funding to establish a private intelligence and assassination network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a report Monday in the New York Times. The network was shut down after the CIA station chief in Kabul objected to a competing military-backed intelligence operation, the newspaper said.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031503730.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Dick Armey is intellectually versatile: The former leader of House Republicans went from being a rainmaker for a Washington lobbying firm to being the unofficial leader of the anti-Washington "tea party" movement.

Link: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/817741-passengers-given-four-pringles-each-in-16-hour-air-ordeal

The starving flyers had to endure a seven-hour wait on a runway and then a two-and-a-half-hour coach journey before they finally got to their destination.