The Arduino is really popular, and it is open-source hardware, so there are variations, including the third-party Freeduinos called Bare Bones Board, the Really Bare Bones Board, and the Boarduino, which are very nice for using with breadboards. The standard Arduino is adapted using things called Shields. You can make your own breadboard shield or buy something like this ProtoShield Kit.
The Arduino uses an FTDI USB-RS232 chip or cable. [The standard Arduino has it build in, while the most of the bread board ones use a special cable that has the chip inside, and saves you some money.] There is a built-in driver for Linux, and Mac OS X and Windows users can download a driver. Effectively, this means that the Arduino acts as a device communicating on a serial port, and so it is very easy to communicate with.
To use it, you also download software. It comes with an IDE, an AVR-GCC toolchain, a really nice library, and software to upload your program on to the chip. It hides most of the details from you, and has a great community. It is programmed in a language called "Wiring", but it is really C++.
Lastly, being open-source hardware, there are schematics out there. Indeed, I seem to recall reading that it was fairly easy to build an earlier model. Searching for "Arduino schematics" in your favourite search engine will give you good results.
As for kits, the Maker Shed offers a lot of Arduino-related items in stock. They appear to ship around the world. Some ones of interest include:
The Shoppe at Wulfden (USA) has a nice experimenters kits, and appears to ship internationally.
Solarbotics (Canada) has a ARDX Arduino Experimenter's Kit, a Freeduino Starter Bundle - Ultimate and an Arduino Starter Bundle - Basic (and Ultimate), and appears to ship internationally.
The main Arduino's "buy" page lists Arduino vendors in all areas of the globe.
Other places I would check include Adafruit Industries and Sparkfun Electronics (both in the US).
The RC network's purpose is to provide a dampened path for the charge stored in the inductor. The MOV and TVS diode purposes' is to limit the high voltage that may appear. So they're complementary. Use both a RC network plus either the MOV or TVS.
I used 100 nF + 100 ohm for my loads for years and never had any problems so that's a couple of starting values.
Best Answer
LEDs are a nonlinear load and probably these lamps will not have a power factor correction converter. This means that the current will not be sinusoidal therefore you will have some reactive power flowing. There may be a PFC choke before the rectifier bridge.
If you want to measure the power factor and harmonic content just take a scope with voltage and current probes and measure line voltage and line current.
PS. This it how you distinguish China Export mark from European CE: