Here’s another quick look at some of the big stories going on around the world…

• The European Central Bank gave $700 billion in cheap, three year loans to 800 lenders, the central bank’s latest effort to arrest the financial crisis.

• The GM/Peugeot Citroen European alliance is a change for the French auto maker’s founding family which will see holdings diluted.

• Copper prices are rising even as warehouses in China, a big consumer of the metal, are filling with it.

• Violent weather across the US midsection spawned thunderstorms and tornadoes, killing at least 12 people.

• Chinese authorities raised the number of people killed in ethnic violence in its western Xinjiang region to 20.

• A judge blocked an FDA plan requiring graphic warning labels on cigarette packs, citing free-speech rights… Really? Humans have been smoking tobacco (among other things) for centuries. If they want to smoke, let them. If they smarten up to the detrimental side effects, they will stop. Advertising the effects so heavily wont help much. Focus that energy on something more productive, like fixing Congress or something.

• A Parkinson’s drug appears to speed the recovery of patients with traumatic brain injury, a new study found.

• Major League Baseball is near a deal to expand playoffs to 10 teams from eight.

• Twenty-six more states asked for waivers from No Child Left Behind Act rules, exemptions that would curb the education law’s impact… Will someone just get rid of the NCLBA already? It only makes student performance look better on paper. In reality, Americans are still getting more stupid.

• Some military advisers are returning to Afghanistan after the US and its allies pulled them out in the wake of a Quran-burning controversy.

• Syrian troops massed around a rebel-held area of Homs, raising fears of a ground assault. Damascus blocked the UN’s top humanitarian official frome ntering the country.

• Romeny’s primary wins on Tuesday sent a wave of relief through the ranks of his supporters and GOP leaders, but he still faces difficult races… I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat, however… All the Republican candidates seem like jokes to me. Not saying I am anti-Republican in any way, but is there no one on their side that can be taken seriously? Looks like a ‘no’ to me…

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