Russian tightens its grip on Crimea, at least one is soldier dead – Chinese satellite pictures might bolster the search for missing Flight MH370 west of Perth – Can the great, big US resist a deal offered by little Uruguay? – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

At least one Ukrainian soldier is dead as Russian armored vehicles smashed through the gates of Ukraine’s Belbek Air Base near Sevastopol and more shots were fired in the air.  Earlier, several hundred unarmed protesters seized a Ukrainian naval base at Novofedorivka in western Crimea.  The Ukrainian flags were taken down and replaced with Russian banners. 

China released new satellite images showing a third object floating in the Indian Ocean near the scene where a multi-national effort is searching for any signs of missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.  The item is about 22.5 meters long and 13 meters wide.  The images were in black and white and heavily pixilated, indicating that perhaps Chinese Intelligence doesn’t want to tip off the rest of the world to its true satellite imaging capabilities (waving “hello” at the sky).  If you’re taking part in one of those online crowdsourced searches, start looking here – 90 degrees 13 minutes and 43 seconds East, 44 degrees 57 minutes and 29 degrees South.  That’s right in the heart of the “Roaring 40s”, a notoriously rough and fast-moving patch of ocean.

Turkey’s attempt to ban Twitter is drawing condemnation from all over the world, including from Turkey’s own President Abdulluh Gul.  The government banned access to the popular social media network because many revelations of alleged corruption and graft were released to the public via Twitter, including a recording that purports to be of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan telling his son to hide big, giant piles of money from police.  All of this is happening just before an election that could see a backlash against Erdogan.

Pope Francis has included a survivor of a pedophile priest in eight appointments to the Catholic Church’s special commission to confront its chronic sexual abuse problems.  A priest molested Ireland’s Marie Collins 50-years ago when she was just 13-years old.  A spokesman says the Pope has made it clear that the protection of children must be its foremost priority.

US Commandos have returned a rogue oil tanker to Libyan authorities.  It was hauling some US$30 Million in essentially stolen crude oil from a port in Libya’s east that is controlled by rebels.  The episode led to the sacking and self-exile of Libya’s Prime Minister, and had international implications as the tanker flew a North Korean flag, now disavowed by Pyongyang.  Authorities believe the tanker was operated by an Egyptian company.

One of the al Jazeera journalists jailed alongside our Peter Greste has lost the use of his arm, because their Egyptian jailers have denied medical treatment.  Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy was finally taken to a hospital for the first time since their arrest in December, and showed his family that he could move his right arm only a few centimeters.  The four AJ journalists are charged with spreading misinformation about Egypt and aiding terrorists – charges they describe as absurd

Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in a shootout in the West Bank town of Jenin.  One of the men is believed to have been a fugitive member of Hamas’ military wing.  Two Israelis were wounded in the battle.  This went down as the April deadline for forming a framework for peace talks approached. 

The Organization of American States (OAS) has refused to hear from a right-wing Venezuelan lawmaker who wanted to use the forum to denounce the government in the midst of opposition protests.  Firebrand Maria Corina Machado was allowed to speak as a guest of Panama in a closed-door session of the western hemisphere diplomatic group.  Machado was a backer of the 2002 failed coup against President Hugo Chavez, and now is backing barricades and protests against his successor Nicolas Maduro – both leaders were democratically elected.  Machado faces losing her parliamentary immunity from criminal investigation for her role in allegedly encouraging the protests which have left 31 people dead.

Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica has a deal for Barack Obama – Uruguay will accept detainees from America’s much-criticized Guantanamo detention center, if the US reciprocates by releasing three Cuban intelligence agents jailed for spying.  Those men are members of the “Cuban Five”, which sounds like a really awesome musical group, but is actually a team of agents from Havana who went to America to gather intelligence on the Miami Cuban exile community’s efforts to destabilize Cuba.  The US says it is unaware of any request from Mujica to release the Cubans.

North Korea fired 30 short-range rockets into the Sea of Japan.  Despite giving no warnings to air or sea traffic, no one was hurt.  Pyongyang usually blasts a bunch of rockets into sea when the US and South Korea hold military exercises.  Don’t know why, it never seems to change anything.

US First Lady Michelle Obama extolled the joys of freedom of speech in her goodwill mission to China, saying that Beijing’s censorship of the Internet will cloud its own education goals.  She told an audience of college students that open access to information - especially online - is a universal right.