President Obama is going all out in his effort to get the stimulus bill passed through the senate. Two senators - Senators Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine are leading an effort to accomodate republican concerns about the effectiveness and the excessive costs of the $ 900 billion dollar stimulus package. The democrats need atleast two republican votes to get the bill through. Read the New York Times report here.

Battle hardened Somali pirates claimed victory over the somali waters when they received a ransom of $3.2 million to released a Ukrainian ship - MV Faina, carrying soviet era arms and armaments. This problem is expected to escalate as the pirates still hold around 147 hostages on other ships. In the past couple of years the pirates have wreaked havoc over the waters claiming almost $80 million in ransom money. Access a CNN news report here.


According to this BBC world poll global attitudes towards Russia and China are worsening. This is a turnaround from last year's poll where most people looked at these two countries favorably. Around 40% of the participants from thirteen countries rated China negatively compared with 39% who view it positively. Russia did a lot worse. 42% view its influence negatively while a mere 30%  view it as having a positive influence in the world. The United States still carries the distinction of being the worst of the three with a 43 % negative rating, but is an improvement over last years 47 %. Access this BBC news poll conducted by GlobeScan here.