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.