UKRAINE - Crimea is permanently lost to Russia. That is implicit in President Barack Obama’s remarks about where the Ukraine crisis heads next; the terms of the Paris talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the West’s rejection of military action to hurl back the occupying Russian forces. That Crimea is gone forever is also the view of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who declared, “I do not believe that Crimea will slip out of Russia’s hand.” It is now generally accepted in Washington that short of sparking a shooting war, Crimea is lost and will now always be Russian. President Vladimir Putin, presiding over an economy of $2 trillion, barely equal to California, has roundly defeated the United States and the European Union, with a combined worth of more than $34 trillion.

GREECE - According to a March 24th, 2014 article of L’Osservatore Romano “a meeting between Pope Francis and the delegation of Apostolikí took place on Monday, 24 March. The delegation, led by the director general Bishop Agathanghelos, is an ecumenical organization which promotes pastoral work, cultural and editorial activities for the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece.” The ecumenical delegation from the New Calendar State Church of Greece conducted meetings with the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. Such activities have been condemned by traditional Orthodox Christians and represent the attitude of the fallen Patriarchates which seek various increasing levels of unity with the Roman Catholic Church

UKRAINE - The Russian invasion and rapid absorption of the Crimean peninsula might seem like the spark ready to ignite a new Cold War. In fact, given the feeble Western response so far, the more likely outcome is not the division of Europe once more between NATO's Western alliance and a neo-Soviet Russia, but rather the fracturing and ultimate demise of NATO and the Western alliance itself.

GERMANY/CHINA - The word dollar didn’t even come up. “The volume of transactions that can be carried out in the Chinese currency in international and German financial centers is not commensurate with China’s importance in the global economy,” the Bundesbank explained in its dry manner on Friday in Berlin, after signing a memorandum of understanding with the People’s Bank of China. President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel were looking on. It was serious business. Everyone knew what this was about. No one had to say it. The agreement spelled out how the two central banks would cooperate on the clearing and settlement of payments denominated in renminbi – to get away from the dollar’s hegemony as payment and reserve currency.

UK - Britain faces food price rises and water shortages as well as floods and deadly heatwaves as a result of climate change, a major report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds on Monday. Other parts of the world will be even harder hit and less able to adapt to the impacts, the IPCC warns. Food shortages and poverty will be exacerbated and could lead to the outbreak of wars, the report says. It also suggests that people will be forced to flee areas that become too warm, while some species of wildlife face risk of extinction. The IPCC's report into the impacts of climate change threatens to be overshadowed by a row between its authors over its findings. Richard Tol, a scientist who was a lead author on a section of the report dealing with the economic effects of global warming, last week claimed the report's conclusions were "too alarmist".

USA - Some of the best known companies in the US are taking water supplies into account when deciding where to locate their facilities amid growing concern about a resource long taken for granted. AT&T, the telecommunications giant, and Hershey, one of the world’s largest confectionery makers, are among those taking such steps as California confronts a prolonged drought and other markets confront stressed water supplies. “I think water is becoming the next big issue,” said John Schulz, assistant vice-president of sustainability operations at AT&T. “There is a rising awareness from a business risk perspective that if we don’t start getting control of this, it could become a real business-impacting issue.”

USA - Knowing how Empires die is fundamental to forecasting the world economy. All governments had better open their eyes for we are on the brink of a major convergence between both the Cycle of Civil Unrest, Civil War & Revolution and International War. Both of these models converge and as I pointed out at the Cycles of War Conference, this is the first time we have seen this convergence since the 1700s.

USA - Experts say a bigger earthquake along the lesser-known fault that gave Southern California a moderate shake could do more damage to the region than the long-dreaded "Big One" from the more famous San Andreas Fault. The Puente Hills thrust fault, which brought Friday night's magnitude 5.1 quake centered in La Habra and well over 100 aftershocks by Sunday, stretches from northern Orange County under downtown Los Angeles into Hollywood — a heavily populated swath of the Los Angeles area.

USA - Yellowstone National Park, which sits atop one of the world's largest super-volcanoes, was struck on Sunday by a magnitude 4.8 earthquake, the biggest recorded there since February 1980, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported. The tremor, a relatively light event by seismic standards, struck the northwest corner of the park and capped a flurry of smaller quakes at Yellowstone since Thursday, geologists at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations said in a statement. The latest earthquake struck at 6:34 am near the Norris Geyser Basin and was felt about 23 miles away in two small Montana towns adjacent to year-around entrances to the park - Gardiner and West Yellowstone.

INDIA - The moon is all set to be painted red on April 14-15 as total lunar eclipse 2014 becomes the most talked about thing in the world. The lunar eclipse is already a talking point across the world more than a fortnight before it will be a reality. Sky watchers and astronomers are certainly excited with the prospect of watching the eclipse when the Earth will come between the sun and the moon. This time it is going to be a rather interesting and long lunar eclipse that will begin with partial eclipse. The partial eclipse will begin when the moon enters Earth’s umbral shadow.

KOREA - North and South Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells into each other's waters Monday in a flare-up of animosity that forced residents of five front-line South Korean islands to evacuate to shelters for several hours, South Korean officials said. The exchange of fire into the Yellow Sea followed Pyongyang's sudden announcement that it would conduct live-fire drills in seven areas north of the Koreas' disputed maritime boundary. North Korea routinely test-fires artillery and missiles into the ocean but rarely discloses those plans in advance. The announcement was seen as an expression of Pyongyang's frustration at making little progress in its recent push to win outside aid.

UK - Chauffeurs, photographers and caterers will break the law if they do not provide services to same-sex couples getting married on conscience grounds, the government's equality watchdog has said. In accordance with new rules introduced yesterday, businesses such as florists, hoteliers and wedding planners could have to pay thousands of pounds in damages to same-sex couples if they refuse to work on a gay wedding. The guidance, drawn up by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and civil servants, makes it clear that "refusal to provide services to customers" is in breach of equality laws and all weddings must be catered for on an equal basis. Tory MP David Burrowes, Tory MP for Enfield Southgate, in north London, said the guidelines were in breach of assurances given by ministers that people's employment rights would not be affected by their views. He said a "chill wind" was passing that would lead to greater intolerance.

CHINA - China is considering a plan to cover the entire world with a network of surveillance satellites. If it went ahead the plan could see more than 50 observation satellites in orbit within two years, The South China Morning Post reported. This would put the country’s satellite surveillance capabilities on a par, or greater than, the US. The paper said support for the massive upscale was fuelled by China’s frustration over the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. After a three-week search satellites have been unable to locate for certain debris from the disappeared plane, which was carrying mainly Chinese passengers on a scheduled flight to Beijing.

FRANCE - France's anti-immigrant Front National was on track to win at least 14 towns in local elections, exit polls showed on Sunday, beating its previous record amid public dissatisfaction with President Francois Hollande's Socialists. After winning the northern town of Henin-Beaumont in round one, the FN took at least 13 more towns, including Béziers in the southwest and Fréjus, population 84,000, on the Riviera. Its best ever previous score was just three, in 1995. The Front National scored a major victory by claiming the mayorship of the 7th sector of Marseille, putting it in charge of 150,000 people. “We have moved onto a new level,” Marine Le Pen, FN leader, claimed. “There is now a third major political force in our country.”

TEMPLE MOUNT, ISRAEL - A wide ranging group of rabbis from the National Religious camp have written a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu advocating the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. Among the rabbis are those considered religiously “conservative” and who have avoided making public calls for prayers on the Temple Mount until now – including Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu – as well as those considered more “liberal,” including Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi She'ar Yashuv-Cohen, Rabbi Menachem Borstein, and Rabbi Daniel Shilo. Many of the latter have also avoided calling for prayers on the Mount as well.