Global risks are accelerating. This is our fourth major poll update of industry leaders: A critical review of their warnings from early last year when we first predicted a 87% risk of a crash: Bernanke's Fed saw an "unsustainable bubble" ... Gross: "credit supernova" ... Gundlach: "kaboom ahead" ... Ellis: "Don't own bonds" ... Shilling: "shocker" ... Roubini: "Prepare for perfect storm" ... Shiller: "Irrational exuberance is back" ... Schiff: "Doubling down" on "doomsday" prediction ... InvestmentNews' warning 90,000 advisers: "tick, tick ... boom!"

A few weeks later the crash risk was up to 98%. Then a dramatic preholiday uptick in investor sentiment. America's collective unconscious tired of negativity after a Halloween headline: "Economic guillotine dead ahead." A week later, 2014 became the "Year of the Boom." Bank of America's chief strategist screamed: "Bet on the bulls now." The Great Gatsby spirit was celebrating the holidays: "Even old grumpy Dr. Doom, celeb economist Nouriel Roubini, began humming a happy tune all over television: "A global recovery is going to occur, get into equities."

What really happened? Fed politics. Short-term, Larry Summers withdrew as a candidate for the Fed chairman's job. Dark cloud lifted as Janet Yellen become the pick. Wall Street cheered, Bernanke's easy-money printing presses would not screw up their year-end bonuses. Plus Main Street was mentally exhausted, tired of the bad news, relentless political drama. We needed a holiday break.

Israel attacked several Syrian military sites in retaliation for a roadside bombing that wounded four of its troops on the occupied Golan Heights the previous day, the Israeli military has said.

The targets included a Syrian military headquarters, a training facility and artillery batteries. Aircraft carried out the attack early on Wednesday, said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman. He described targets as military facilities on the Syrian-held side of the Golan.

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognised abroad. Tuesday's wounding of the soldiers as they patrolled the separation line on the strategic plateau marked Israel's worst casualties there since an insurgency erupted in Syria more than three years ago.

To progressives who have been celebrating the revolution in Ukraine: Be careful what you wish for. Ukraine now has the first European government in decades in which outright fascist parties have gained a significant role in the executive branch. In other European countries, far-right parties have won seats in the parliament, but not secured real power in the cabinet. Of course, not all Ukrainian revolutionaries are fascists or Nazis, as asserted in recent Russian propaganda. But it is equally wrong and irresponsible to assert that the presence of fascists and Nazis in the new government is merely Russian propaganda.

When the far-right Freedom Party became part of Austria's cabinet in 2000, the European Union issued sanctions against Vienna, and the New York Times was full of exposes of party leader Jörg Haider. But when the far-right Latvian National Alliance joined a conservative government in 2011, it was barely noticed in the Western media. And because the fascist party Svoboda (Freedom) and the Nazi shock troops of Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) played a vanguard role in Ukraine's anti-Russian revolution, their role in the new revolutionary government has been glossed over in the Western media, with no serious exposes so far.

So it may be controversial for far-right parties to join governments in the West, but it is permissible in the East if they are mainly opposing Russia. These same Western media commentators take any hint of criticisms of Israel as "anti-Semitic," and then support a new government with parties that use World War II-era imagery, such as the Wolfsangel logo of Svoboda, and the White Power symbol of Odin's Cross used by Pravy Sektor (ditto the Aryan Nations). The phrase "Never Again" takes on a hollow ring when the entry of real fascists into a government is minimized and excused.

Vladimir Putin stressed the support China showed during the UN Security Council meeting as the council sought to declare the Crimean referendum illegal. "We are grateful to all those who understood our actions in Crimea," Putin said. "We are grateful to the people of China, whose leadership sees the situation in Crimea in all its historical and political integrity. We highly appreciate India's restraint and objectivity."

Moscow vetoed the resolution, while Beijing abstained.

This step wasn't seen by mass media as clear support for the Crimean reunification and even deemed as a 'slap in the face' for Russia by Western diplomats.

Yet, the step by Beijing was considered as clever and politically far-seeing.

China wasn't able to veto the resolution on Crimea alongside Russia as it has its own domestic issues like Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But it has now deepened its relations with Moscow and gained a potential ally for the future when Beijing will have to make hard political decisions.

The US is considering sending ground troops to the Baltic states on new military exercises as it seeks to reassure Nato allies in eastern Europe of its commitment to preventing further territorial incursion by Russia.

Vice president Joe Biden spoke of the plan during a meeting with the Estonian president Toomas Ilves after calls for a tougher US response to Russia's attempted annexation of the Crimea.

It follows a Pentagon announcement of extra US F-15 jets to join Nato patrols in Poland and the Baltic on March 5, and recent requests by the Ukrainian government for possible US military assistance outside the Nato area.

"We are exploring a number of additional steps to increase the pace and scope of our military co-operation, including rotating US forces to the Baltic region to conduct ground and naval exercises - as well as training missions," said Biden.

Republican Tennessee Rep. Diane Black says that the Obama administration's most recent Obamacare rule change will result in insurance companies keeping more profits while paying less for customers' health care needs.

"I am writing to express my concern with the proposed rule change released on Friday, March 14^th that would allow insurance companies to keep an additional two percent of premiums for purposes other than medical care...your department is now proposing to increase the amount of money that insurance companies will be allowed to retain for profit," Black wrote in a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, which was obtained by The Daily Caller.

HHS' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quietly introduced the new rule Friday, which relieves insurance companies of some of the damage about to be levied on them by Obamacare-related administrative costs.

Crimea's secession from Ukraine was just like Kosovo's secession from Serbia, and any arguments otherwise are just attempts to bend the West-advocated rules that were applied to the Kosovo case, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Two people - a self-defense member and a Ukrainian soldier - were killed after snipers opened fire from a partially inhabited building near a military research center in Simferopol. One sniper was reportedly detained, another is on the run.

As RT producer Lida Vasilevskaya arrived at the scene, the perimeter of the Ukrainian military topography and navigation center was already surrounded by men in camouflage and the situation was "calm."

The local Interior Ministry said in a press release that shooting came from a house under construction opposite the center and targeted Crimean self-defense units as well the military center itself.

"Earlier today self-defense units were informed that a group of armed men had been discovered in a partially inhabited building," the press release said. "As the self-defense were taking measures to check, they came under fire, presumably from a sniper rifle," police said, adding that the shooting came "in two directions from one spot."

Ron Paul is once again speaking up about the situation in Crimea, and this time the former congressman is condemning critics from his own country who are seemingly obsessed with the recent secession.

The former Republican representative for Texas told RT earlier this month that he didn't think the United States had any business meddling in overseas affairs and that worsening tensions in Ukraine should be resolved only by those directly involved. The citizens of Crimea have since approved a referendum to separate from Ukraine, but both the US and European Union responded with sanctions against certain officials from Russia and the former Ukrainian government as a result.

In an op-ed published by USA Today on Monday, Paul asked: "What's the big deal?"

"Opponents of the Crimea vote like to point to the illegality of the referendum," Paul wrote. "But self-determination is a centerpiece of international law."

"Article I of the United Nations Charter points out clearly that the purpose of the UN is to 'develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples,'" he said. "Why does the US care which flag will be hoisted on a small piece of land thousands of miles away?"

"Where were these people when an election held in an Iraq occupied by US troops was called a 'triumph of democracy'?" he asked.

Demonstrators have stormed the Ukrainian Navy HQ in the town of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.

The protesters hoisted Russian and St. Andrew's flags, the latter being the Russian Navy Ensign, according to Interfax.

People have been protesting outside the HQ since 08:00GMT. Several thousand participants have cut the fences, stormed inside and changed the flags on the flagpoles. There have been no immediate reports of violence.

The participants of the rally are currently holding talks with the representatives of the Ukrainian Navy. Russian forces are not party to the negotiations.

There was an immediate alert on the territory of the HQ and the Ukrainian servicemen lined up in front of the protesters, reports Interfax. The line was broken by cars belonging to activists that entered the territory.

The protesters are calling upon the Ukrainian servicemen to leave the HQ. An ambulance has been called as a precaution.