* A plane carrying the president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, as well as dozens of the country's top political and military leaders crashed as it was trying to land in a fog in western Russia. From The New York Times: "And in a bizarre twist, it happened at the moment that Russia and Poland were beginning to come to terms with the killing of more than 20,000 members of Poland’s elite officer corps in the same place 70 years ago."
* Temperature affects the gender of sea-turtle hatchlings. In the Caribbean Sea, rising global temperatures might lead to a decline in the number of male sea turtles that are born, threatening the survival of the species.
* A woman in Tennessee who had adopted a Russian boy sent the boy, now 7, home alone on a one-way ticket to Moscow with a note saying that his violent behavior was too much for her to handle. Outraged, Moscow suspended U.S. adoptions of Russian children. From The New York Times: ''He drew a picture of our house burning down and he'll tell anybody that he's going to burn our house down with us in it,'' she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. ''It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible.'' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother ''the last straw'' in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the U.S.
* A new exhibit of art by Mexican-Americans who came of age during the 1990s, "Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement," is a disparate mix of styles, aesthetics, and philosophies, prompting some to wonder if grouping artists by race, ethnic background, race, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality is a valid approach anymore. From The New York Times: "Few pieces resemble the ideologically charged paintings and graphics of the Chicano movement, which blossomed in the late ’60s and early ’70s." Pieces in the collection include "Margarita Cabrera’s sculpture of a full-size yellow Volkswagen Beetle, a car that was produced in Mexico from 1967 to 2003. Made of mainly sewn-together pieces of colored vinyl, it evokes the soft sculpture of Claes Oldenburg. According to the catalog, it also draws attention to the poor working conditions of industrial laborers in Mexico."
* A DVD called "Crying Girl" from Japan (it has a one-word title in Japan: "Nakigao"), made available on Amazon Japan in late March, features 11 girls sobbing as they recount break-ups and other sad experiences, with "real tears" and talking in "sexy sad voices." The DVD is being marketed to men who want to feel more macho by seeing girls in vulnerable states, arousing feelings of protectiveness. Girls featured in the DVD include "Marika, who was yelled at by her manager; Risa, who had been jilted by her boyfriend; Nana, who saw a bad picture of herself in a magazine; Shiho, who cried when her boyfriend said goodbye; Mai, who cried 'touching the loneliness of the city;' and Yutaka, who has a friend with breast cancer who's engaged to marry."