Democrats said their health care legislation would provide greater medical security to those in need. But it appears to fall short on protecting arguably the most vulnerable demographic: sick children. Insurance companies wasted no time after the bill was passed to unearth a loophole that allowed them to deny coverage to children with pre-existing illnesses for the next four years. According to the New York Times, "Insurers agree that if they provide insurance for a child, they must cover pre-existing conditions. But, they say, the law does not require them to write insurance for the child and it does not guarantee the 'availability of coverage' for all until 2014."

KANDAHAR, Mar. 29 -A blast on later Monday night killed or wounded as many as 13 American troops in Kandahar's Zhari district. The report states the U.S. invaders were about to carry out a search of house where explosives had already been placed by Mujahideen; the detonation occurred as soon as the enemy entered the building, Mujahideen official said. The witness said the explosions was so powerful as to collapse the building completely, while the parts of the bodies of the Americans, their caps and other outfits were seen lying scattered around the area. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: U.S.-led coalition troops take deadly losses in Helmand.

The US Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan has been hit by rockets during an official visit by President Barack Obama to the war-torn country. Afghan officials told Press TV on Monday that three rockets targeted the airfield. No damages or casualties have been reported; however, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who claimed responsibility for the attack, said there were serious casualties inside the base. PressTV: Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: More missiles strike Bagram airfield.

PARWAN, Mar. 29 - Bagram airbase, situated 20 kilometers north of Kabul, was, once again, attacked by Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate in the late night hours of Monday. According to the report, at least three missiles struck the U.S. military bases inside the airfield in the late night operation, most likely to cause the enemy deadly losses. Indeed, the attack on the airbase came as the president Obama, after a shot visit to Afghanistan, was about fly to America from the airbase. The report adds [that] shortly after the attack on the airbase, mortar rounds were fired by the enemy at a nearby area known as Qala Band, but caused no one any harm.

Fars: Ex-Prisoner Unveils Abuse in Bagram:

An Afghan national, recently released from the US army jails in Bagram Air Base, said that Muslim prisoners are brutally mistreated by the US forces at the base.

Huge explosions during morning rush hour in two subway stations in central Moscow killed more than 33 people on Monday, officials said, raising fears of a renewal of terrorism here. Firefighters and Interior Ministry officers working near the entrance of the Lubyanka metro station after an explosion during rush hour in The causes of the blasts were not immediately clear, but the government said it suspected suicide bombers, Russian news agencies reported. The subway system, one of the world’s most extensive, had been subjected to attacks related to the separatist war in Chechnya in the early part of the last decade. PressTV: Twin blasts kill 35 in Moscow metro. Boston.com: Double suicide bombings kill 37 on Moscow subway. Daily Mail: Two bombs, 40mins apart, detonated during morning rush hour. PressTV: Russian leaders vow "retaliation" after Moscow blasts. LifeNews.ru: Pictures from the Russian Subway [Warning: Graphic]

Mine workers became trapped in the Wangjialing coal mine in China's Shanxi Province on Sunday when underground water gushed into the mine, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the provincial work safety supervision administration. More than 100 workers were rescued from the mine, officials said. The cause of the flooding was not immediately known.

For all those Green morons calling on us to turn off our lights Saturday evening from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM to celebrate "Earth Hour", this is what it looks like every night in North and South Korea. The North is in the grip of a Stalinist dictator and the South is a thriving democracy. Like fire, electricity is truly a gift of the gods. It is the difference between the Dark Age and the present age...but not for everyone. Much of Africa is in darkness. too. People who hate civilization and the humans who created it are welcome to live out in the wilderness or in some primitive backward country where they burn dung to cook their meals. AWIP/WUWT: Earth Hour in North Korea a stunning success...

A leaked CIA report says: Public apathy enables leaders to ignore voters. The report is discussing apathy among the French and German people to their countries' involvement in the war in Afghanistan, but the same is true to the apathy of Americans towards the Iraq and other wars as well.

Likud Official Says Govt Will 'Liquidate' Hamas, Occupy Strip. Though he balked at setting any timeline for when it would happen, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz promised that Israel would “sooner or later” invade and reoccupy the Gaza Strip, liquidating Hamas in the process.

Israeli soldiers detained a thirteen-year- old girl from her home in the Old City of Hebron on Tuesday the 23rd of March. At about 5:45 PM, CPTers followed four soldiers as they entered the girl’s home and ordered the entire family to the roof. Once on the roof, a fifth soldier from a permanent post on a neighboring Israeli settler home ordered the family’s three teenage daughters to one side of the roof. The soldier singled out the thirteen-year- old and accused her of throwing a stone.

The Obama administration is ratcheting up its war threats against Iran in a calculated effort to provoke a crisis with Tehran that could produce a general war in the Middle East. In multiple venues—planted articles in the press, the release of a think tank study on military options, speeches at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and congressional declarations—Washington is building a case for a new eruption of US military aggression. The appearance of two articles in the Sunday edition of the New York Times underscored this campaign. The paper published a front-page lead reporting CIA and State Department allegations that Iran is accelerating its nuclear development; as well as the summary of a war game based on an Israeli air strike against Iran, published in the Week in Review section.

Selections from documentaries produced by Americans For A Just Peace In The Middle East. www. ajpme.org. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.

In the predawn hours of Friday, February 12, two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials were shot to death in their home in Afghanistan. The first person to die in the assault was Commander Dawood, 43, a long-serving, popular and highly-trained policeman who had recently been promoted to head of intelligence in one of Paktia’s most volatile districts. His brother, Saranwal Zahir, was a prosecutor in Ahmadabad district. He was killed while he stood in a doorway trying to protest their innocence. Three women crouching in a hallway behind him were hit by the same volley of fire. Bibi Shirin, 22, had four children under the age of 5. Bibi Saleha, 37, had 11 children. Both of them, according to their relatives, were pregnant. They were killed instantly.

As a 21-year-old, Ric Johnstone drove 150 miles daily across the scorching vastness of the Australian outback to work. A motor mechanic in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), he spent 1956 servicing military vehicles in the Great Victorian Desert. He lived with 300 other men in a tent town, eating dinners of bullied beef with the occasional vegetable. Johnstone described his first six months as similar to being a prisoner in a chain gang: “There was no church, no women, no entertainment, nothing.” But half a year later, Johnstone’s problems were very different.

As a follow-on to my post yesterday, I’ve been working on two charts using data from the International Institute of Strategic Studies to compare U.S. military spending with that of our European allies. I’m grateful to Charles Zakaib for his help crunching the numbers. I think that the charts are pretty evocative.

[This] chart shows changes in defense spending per capita over the same period. I’ve always thought this figure more instructive than spending as a percent of GDP. You can see that Americans are spending much more on our military over the past 10 years, whereas most of our European allies have made only modest increases. [This chart] aren’t perfect because there are some inconsistencies in the data. Different countries include different things under “defense” and this can lead to misunderstating what they spend relative to others, including the United States. For example, the figures for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium and Portugal include military pensions, but other countries do not. The stats for other countries (Turkey, Albania, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Romania and Slovenia) count coast guards and/or gendarmerie (aka national police) under defense spending, but in the United States some of those costs are covered under the Department of Homeland Security (especially the Coast Guard; we obviously don’t have a federal police force).

Striking gold in Quebec: Will the gold rush bring with it wealth and opportunity for locals in Malartic? Or will history repeat itself once again? MALARTIC, Canada — Canada’s gold rush is in full swing. It’s boom time in Malartic, a sleepy, one-horse town in northwestern Quebec. Prospectors have struck gold and are digging an open-pit mine of monster proportions. With demand for the precious metal hitting new highs, the mine is expected to bring jobs, people and life to the depressed town (population 4,000). People who were sitting on billions of dollars worth of gold have been uprooted to a new residential area. The Osisko Mining Corporation speaks of a “win-win” scenario. Yet, the mood in the so-called boom town seems decidedly downbeat. Locals trudge past shabby corrugated iron buildings with grim resolve, seemingly oblivious to the untold wealth beneath their feet.