Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/21/sarkozy-france-regional-elections-2010

France is expected to deal a bloody nose to Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling rightwing party today in regional elections viewed as a key indication of the president's unpopularity more than halfway through his time in office.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/21/binyamin-netanyahu-palestinians-israel

Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has bowed to American demands to suspend the construction of settlement homes in east Jerusalem ahead of his departure today for a visit to Washington DC, it was reported last night.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8997230

A pro-democracy activist jailed for months in Myanmar after trying to visit his sick mother in prison arrived home in the United States on Friday, capping weeks of discussions between the ruling military junta and the U.S. State Department.

Link: http://en.rian.ru/world/20100320/158259636.html

Washington says it is ready to be engaged in the Six Party talks as soon as North Korea decides to resume the stalled negotiations, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pers-m19.shtml

This document was clearly intended as a rebuttal to the annual US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2009, released two days earlier.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8575627.stm

Hundreds of Cuban government supporters have heckled members of the "Ladies in White" rights group marching in protest through the streets of Havana. The women - wives and mothers of jailed dissidents - are staging a week of protests on the anniversary of Fidel Castro's 2003 Black Spring crackdown.

Link: http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=courierpostonline&sParam=33053469.story

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday took to the Fox News Channel, derided by his White House as a wing of the Republican Party, to sell his embattled health care overhaul in an interview punctuated with interruptions from the host and chiding from the guest.

Link: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/1310ap_us_immigration.html?source=mypi

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama, facing criticism from advocates of immigration reform, pledged Thursday "to do everything in my power" to get immigration legislation moving in Congress this year.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/us/19jane.html?ref=us

The Pennsylvania woman accused of recruiting men on the Internet to wage jihad in southern Asia and Europe pleaded not guilty Thursday to all counts in federal court in Philadelphia.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/03/2010318153714888868.html

Russia and the United States have made "substantial progress" in negotiating a new nuclear arms disarmament deal, the US secretary of state has said.

Link: http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=courierpostonline&sParam=33046397.story

WASHINGTON — The growing front in the war on terrorism may be no farther than Main Street. The terror cases that have emerged in the past week have one common characteristic: The suspects are all Americans. One is a woman who looked after the elderly in suburban Pennsylvania. Another a security guard from New Jersey.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/us-muslims-court-pakistan-terror

Five young US Muslims were charged today with plotting terrorism in Pakistan in a case that has generated concerns that Americans are heading to the country to join militant groups.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/geor-m17.shtml

Viewers of the 8pm Saturday news broadcast by the Imedi network in the former Soviet republic of Georgia switched on their televisions to see an invading force of Russian tanks and soldiers heading towards the capital, Tbilisi, while bombs fell across the country. Over this footage an announcer declared that the Georgian government had fallen and the country’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, was dead.

Link: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/03/16/everything-stops-tea

Hundreds of Tea Party activists rallied outside the US Congress on Tuesday in protest at President Barack Obama’s almost $900bn healthcare reform. The group of mostly rightwing grassroots protesters are opposed to the way the administration is driving healthcare through congress.