ISRAEL - Israel's defense minister has accused the United States of projecting weakness internationally and said Israel could not rely on its main ally to take the lead in confronting Iran over its nuclear program. Moshe Yaalon, whose remarks were reported in the Haaretz daily on Tuesday, caused friction with the United States only two months ago when he described Secretary of State John Kerry's quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace as messianic and obsessive. His latest comments, confirmed by an Israeli official who was present at the lecture Yaalon delivered at Tel Aviv University on Monday, displayed deep disappointment with US President Barack Obama's handling of burning world issues. "We had thought it would be the United States that would lead the campaign against Iran," said Yaalon, who pointed to the Ukraine crisis as an example of Washington "showing weakness".

VATICAN - He is the spiritual father the world is looking for, whether they realize it or not. That’s how papal biographer and Vatican analyst George Weigel put it when we spoke the other day to mark the first anniversary of Jorge Bergoglio’s papacy. And as such, he is capturing the world’s attention, for reasons they may not even know or be correct in identifying. All they know is that he is reaching the human heart and mind and soul on a depth not even perceptible to the senses, except for that of the transcendent. Many people who are not Catholic, including the altogether un-churched, have called him ‘our pope’.

VATICAN - He was the most talked-about person of 2013 and winner of TIME’s “Person of the Year” award. Google Translate coders have set his name to translate as “a better world.” Yet Pope Francis insists that he is “a normal person,” and has no desire to be “a superman or a star.” Some religion columnists and commentators attribute the public’s esteem to his humble insistence that he is ordinary. In fact, humility may just be the pontiff’s paradoxical trademark. The Washington Post summed it up in one headline: “Like Pope Francis? You’ll Love Jesus.” The Post is not alone in pointing out that the pope’s actions, words and demeanor are often reminiscent of the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. Humility may be exactly the kind of “ordinary” Pope Francis hopes will become the norm among all of those who claim to follow Christ.

UKRAINE - The Western press has been deceiving readers, listeners, and viewers since the beginning of the so-called “Euromaidan” protests - from covering up the ultra-right wing ideology and literal Neo-Nazi flag wavers leading the mobs, to the role the West has played in organizing, funding, and equipping the protesters in the first place. With their proxies now entrenched in Kiev after violently overthrowing the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych, the truth has begun to trickle out, and with it, Russia has gained ground against the West in its defense of the Ukrainian people from what is essentially and quite obviously a right-wing Nazi regime backed by foreign interests from the West once again occupying Ukrainian territory just as they had in World War II. And just like in World War II, the Crimea peninsula has become a pivotal battleground.

UKRAINE - American and German inspectors will make observation flights over Russia and Belarus within the framework of the international treaty on Open Skies. The mission is set to verify the true position of Russian troops and military equipment.

RUSSIA – Russia’s deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama’s sanction against him today asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list. The Obama administration hit 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials with sanctions today as punishment for Russia’s support of Crimea’s referendum. Among them: aides to President Vladimir Putin, a top government official, senior lawmakers, Crimean officials, the ousted president of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian politician and businessman allegedly tied to violence against protesters in Kiev. It remains to be seen whether the sanctions will dissuade Russia from annexing Crimea, but an early clue that they will not be effective came just hours later when President Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea as an independent state, perhaps an early step towards annexation.

UK - The scale of Britain's growing inequality is revealed by a report from a leading charity showing that the country's five richest families now own more wealth than the poorest 20% of the population. Oxfam urged the chancellor George Osborne to use Wednesday's budget to make a fresh assault on tax avoidance and introduce a living wage in a report highlighting how a handful of the super-rich, headed by the Duke of Westminster, have more money and financial assets than 12.6 million Britons put together. Oxfam's director of campaigns and policy, Ben Phillips, said: "Britain is becoming a deeply divided nation, with a wealthy elite who are seeing their incomes spiral up, while millions of families are struggling to make ends meet."

IRAQ - This month alone, "the United States delivered nearly 100 Hellfire missiles together with hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition and M4 rifles" to the Iraqi government, the US Embassy to Iraq revealed Sunday. In a public statement, the US Embassy claimed the shipments were sent to aid the Iraqi government and military's so-called "counter-terrorism" operations targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Yet, experts have warned that the ongoing flow of US weapons into Iraq has only escalated political and sectarian violence in the country and region that was set in motion by the US-led invasion of Iraq.

SWITZERLAND - A Switzerland based company called Evolva has developed a synthetic vanilla that is set to be released in 2014. The vanilla is created using a process of genetic engineering called synthetic biology. Synthetic biology, according to a 2005 European Commission paper is “…the engineering of biology… the synthesis of complex, biologically based (or inspired) systems which display functions that do not exist in nature.” Unlike the older science of splicing genes from different species together, synthetic biology is seeking to create whole new organisms that do not exist on earth. Evolva’s synthetic vanilla is created by inserting computer coded DNA into yeast. This new method of genetic engineering is called “natural” by Evolva.

UKRAINE - The head of the Ukrainian nationalist movement Dmitry Yarosh has threatened to explode the gas pipeline through which the Russian gas is supplied to Europe, aiming to deprive it of its financing source, Voice of Russia reported on March 16. Yarosh voiced his threats as part of his "address to the Ukrainian government and his compatriots" in which he is accusing Moscow of having plans to seize Ukraine. The text of his address was cited by the UNN news agency. "We are well aware of the fact that Russia is earning money by transporting its oil and gas to the West through our pipe. Therefore, we'll destroy this pipe in order to deprive Russia of its financing source."

UK - This is the crucial clause 4 from the EU’s draft conclusions on Russia sanctions, courtesy of our Brussels Correspondent Bruno Waterfield:

USA - President Obama today issued a new Executive Order (EO) under the national emergency with respect to Ukraine that finds that the actions and policies of the Russian government with respect to Ukraine – including through the deployment of Russian military forces in the Crimea region of Ukraine - undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets.

GERMANY - In light of the pending incorporation of the Crimea into the Russian Federation, German politicians and media are stepping up their Russophobe agitation. The public's "understanding for Moscow's alleged motives" regarding the Crimea, remains "strikingly high," complains a leading German daily. This reflects the view that Western global aggressions are either "not better or even worse."

USA - A new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

UK - The world’s largest international banks are still too big to fail and resolving this issue remains the biggest problem for global regulators, according to the top Bank of England official in charge of financial stability. Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, said that six years on from the financial crisis he remained worried at the ability of the authorities to successfully wind up a struggling major institution in the event of a new crisis. “We have made a lot of progress on too big to fail. But we are not there yet. I do not think we can say with confidence now that we could resolve a failing global giant,” said Sir Jon, who is responsible for the stability of the British financial system.