Erstellt am: 3. 3. 2014 - 16:29 Uhr

The situation remains tense

Reality Check: Situation remains tense between Russia and Ukraine, The response from the West, Croatia vs. Serbia at the ICJ, The Cost of Flooding, Zuhause in Fukushima.

EPA

Ukrainian protests continue

Ukraine/Russia: Moscow View

The situation remains tense between Russia and Ukraine with the build-up of Russian forces on the Crimean Peninsula and reports of the Ukrainian air force scrambling jets when two Russian warplanes apparently entered Ukrainian airspace. Nobody wants a shooting war but it remains to be seen who is willing to give diplomacy a real chance.

Ukraine/Russia: The response from the West

It was just over two decades ago that Ukraine became an independent state following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Back then Britain, the United States and a few other western countries all signed up to guarantee Ukrainian sovereignty. But now with a growing Russian/Ukrainian crisis on the Crimean Peninsula, just how far are western powers willing to go in the defence of Ukraine? There's talk of maybe boycotting the G8 meeting in Sochi later this year or even of imposing travel and economic sanctions on Russia.

Croatia vs. Serbia at the ICJ

The Balkans War may have ended a long time ago but it continues to cast a long shadow. Today the United Nations highest court, the International Court of Justice, starts hearing evidence in a case seen as an attempt to determine who carries the historic blame for what happened

Public Domain

The International Court Of Justice in Den Haag

The Cost of Flooding

The South West of England has been particularly badly hit by flooding this year and it was not so very long ago that we here in central Europe were battling against the same type of natural disaster. Climate change means that much of Europe will have to get used to these weather extremes and the damage they cause. That's the conclusion reached in a study by IIASA, The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis based on the outskirts of Vienna.

Zuhause in Fukushima

TOMOHIRO OHSUMI / POOL

It was three years ago that the world watched as first an earthquake and then a Tsunami shattered the eastern coast of Japan. What started out as a natural disaster however soon turned into a human tragedy of unimaginable proportions as the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant went into meltdown.

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