GERMANY - As the Crimean crisis escalates, the German Navy is dispatching one of its spy ships to the Mediterranean. The "Alster," which had already been carrying out espionage on the Syrian war zone, is reported to have sailed from its homeport. Whether it will pursue a route through the Mediterranean to the Black Sea remains the Bundeswehr's secret.

EUROPE - Over the past few months, one or two regular correspondents have laughed off the idea that the ultimate aim of the EU is a federal union of European states, despite expressing their support for the UK’s membership of the EU.

RUSSIA - I've already explained why meaningful trade and financial sanctions against Russia are a non starter – everyone would lose from such action. Europe would be pushed back into recession, Russia into financial meltdown. This is not the sort of self harm Europe is prepared to contemplate right now. Indeed, thanks to the indiscretion of a UK official, who was snapped going into Downing Street with his briefing documents on display for all the world to see, we know this to be the case. Trade and financial sanctions have already been ruled out. This doesn't seem to have stopped the Russians threatening retaliatory action against the threat of the non sanctions. One possibility, says the Kremlin economics aid Sergei Glazyev, is for Russia to abandon the US dollar as a reserve currency, or to figure out a way to use a new payments system that was not reliant on US dollars for international transactions.

USA - If Daniel Nadler is right, a generation of college graduates with well-paid positions as junior researchers and analysts in the banking industry should be worried about their jobs. Very worried. Mr Nadler’s start-up, staffed with ex-Google engineers and backed partly by money from Google’s venture capital arm, is trying to put them out of work. Its algorithms assess how different securities are likely to react after the release of a market-moving piece of information, such as a monthly employment report. That is the kind of work usually done by well-educated junior analysts, who pull data from terminals, fill in spreadsheets and crunch numbers. “There are several hundred thousand people employed in that capacity. We do it with machines,” says Mr Nadler. “We’re not competing with other [tech] providers. We’re competing with people.”

RUSSIA - Russia has said China is largely "in agreement" over Ukraine, after other world powers condemned Moscow for sending troops into the country. Hundreds of Russian soldiers have surrounded a military base in Crimea, preventing Ukrainian soldiers from going in or out. Russian troops are also reported to have taken control of a ferry terminal in the city of Kerch on the eastern tip of Crimea, which has a majority Russian-speaking population.

COLOMBIA - Fewer crop species are feeding the world than 50 years ago - raising concerns about the resilience of the global food system, a study has shown. The authors warned a loss of diversity meant more people were dependent on key crops, leaving them more exposed to harvest failures. Higher consumption of energy-dense crops could also contribute to a global rise in heart disease and diabetes, they added. "As the global population rises and the pressure increases on our global food system, so does our dependence on the global crops and production system that feeds us. The price of failure of any of these crops will become very high," he warned.

USA - US intelligence agencies recently confirmed China’s development of a new intermediate-range nuclear missile (IRBM) called the Dongfeng-26C (DF-26C), US officials said. The new missile is estimated to have a range of at least 2,200 miles — enough for Chinese military forces to conduct attacks on US military facilities in Guam, a major hub for the Pentagon’s shift of US forces to Asia Pacific. As part of the force posture changes, several thousand Marines now based in Okinawa will be moved to Guam as part of the Asia pivot. In April, the Pentagon announced it is deploying one of its newest anti-missile systems, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to Guam because of growing missile threats to the US island, located in the South Pacific some 1,600 miles southeast of Japan and 4,000 miles from Hawaii.

USA - For the second time in what has been a frigid winter in the Northeastern United States, Niagara Falls has come to an icy halt as the six million cubic feet of water that typically flow over the falls every minute has frozen over. The flow of water over the falls typically can withstand icy temperatures like those that have frozen much of the country this winter, but Monday's high of 9 degrees Fahrenheit brought Niagara Falls to a standstill. In January, another record-breaking cold front managed to freeze the mighty falls in a 'polar vortex' that turned the cascading water to ice - and affected about 240 million people in the US and southern Canada. No thaw is expected anytime soon, as temperatures at the western New York tourist attraction will dip below 0 degrees Fahrenheit Monday night through Tuesday morning.

EUROPE - There will never be a United States of Europe, according to the newly-crowned top Socialist candidate for the European elections. European Parliament President Martin Schulz was endorsed by the Party of European Socialists (PES) at a congress in Rome on 1 March. He will be the PES’ election frontrunner and its first-ever official candidate for the presidency of the European Commission. “Speaking from my experience of 20 years in the European Parliament, I know that we will never have a United States of Europe,” Schulz said on the eve of his nomination, at a meeting with young voters organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He also lashed out at EU regulatory overreach, singling out last year’s botched attempt by the EU commission to ban refillable olive oil bottles from restaurant tables.

EUROPE - Gas and oil prices have risen amid fears the Ukraine crisis could have a damaging effect on one of Europe's main energy supply routes. But analysts say high European gas stocks will limit the turbulence. Gas futures climbed by up to 10% in early trading, while the benchmark price for oil rose by more than 2%. Traders are worried about the stability of supplies from Russia, which provides a quarter of Europe's natural gas, half of it through Ukraine. However, a relatively mild winter has reduced demand for heating fuel, with storage levels at the main gas hubs about 20% greater than last year.

FRANCE - An ancient virus has "come back to life" after lying dormant for at least 30,000 years, scientists say. It was found frozen in a deep layer of the Siberian permafrost, but after it thawed it became infectious once again. The French scientists say the contagion poses no danger to humans or animals, but other viruses could be unleashed as the ground becomes exposed. Professor Jean-Michel Claverie, from the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Aix-Marseille in France, said: "This is the first time we've seen a virus that's still infectious after this length of time." The researchers believe that other more deadly pathogens could be locked in Siberia's permafrost.

USA - The US conceded on Sunday that Moscow had “complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula” and announced that the secretary of state, John Kerry, will fly to Kiev in an attempt to halt a further Russian advance into Ukraine.

RUSSIA - The real purpose of Russian troops in Ukraine is to undermine the credibility of Nato. If you want to invade a country, it’s important to call it liberation. Over the coming weeks and months, that’s what we’re going to see in Ukraine. In fact it has started already. Just look at the Crimea.

UK - The turmoil in Ukraine is the "biggest crisis" to face Europe in the 21st Century, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned. He said Russia controlled the Crimea, in violation of Ukraine's sovereignty, and warned of "significant costs" if its troops did not withdraw.

ISRAEL - Ex-MK Aryeh Eldad notes that the US and Britain guaranteed Ukraine's security in exchange for nuclear disarming. The lesson for Israel from Ukraine's current plight, according to ex-MK Aryeh Eldad, is that Western guarantees of Israel's security must never be trusted.