BBC News with Stewart Macintosh

President Putin has signed an order recognizing Crimea as an independent and sovereign state with immediate effect, it comes shortly after the Untied States and the European Union imposed targeted sanctions on key Russian and Ukrainian officials connected with Moscow's intervention in Crimea. Mr. Putin is to address both Houses of the Parliament and the nation on Tuesday. Artyom Liss is the head of the BBC Russian service.

“The authority exists to apply sanctions to a variety of individuals and entities, we are not going to rule out individuals or rule out actions except to say that there will be costs imposed on Russia. Additional costs imposed on Russia if Russia does not change direction here when it comes to how it's handling the situation in Ukraine.”

President Obama said he wanted to make it clear there would be consequences for provoking the secession and said further sanctions could again be announced. But he stressed there was still a path to solve the crisis diplomatically. White House spokesman Jay Carney when asked by journalists whether sanctions could be imposed on Mr. Putin, gave this response.

“The authority exists to apply sanctions to a variety of individuals and entities, we are not going to rule out individuals or rule out actions except to say that there will be costs imposed on Russia. Additional costs imposed on Russia if Russia does not change direction here when it comes to how it's handling the situation in Ukraine.”

Among those already targeted are senior Crimean officials, and deputy Russian prime minister, members of the parliament and commands of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Russia's Western and Southern military district, units of which are deployed in Crimea. The EU's Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton said those singled-out for travel and asset bans were responsible for threatening Ukraine's territory integrity and independence. The Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said US measures reflected it designed to impose its own unilateral unbalanced approach.

Scientists in the United States say they've detected the tiny and faint echos of the massive explosion known as the Big Bang. That brought the universe, galaxies and stars into existence almost instantaneously nearly 14 billion years ago. If the findings which Albert Einstein predicted are verified, it could rank as one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever.

The central Asian countries of Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan have said no unspecified aircraft into their air space on March 9th, the day that a Malaysian airlines palne disappeared with 239 people on board. The two countries are the northern end of one of the two possible routes taken by the missing aircraft after it deviated from its flight plan between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

This is the World News from the BBC

Police in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa say they've arrested two people who were driving around with two improvised bombs hidden inside a car. The policy said the suspects, one Kenyan and the other of Somali origin were preparing an attack on an unspecified target. Richard Hamilton has more details.

The arrest reportedly came following a tip-off, local media says security has been increased in the city after the incident. However, Kenya is already on a heightened state of alert following the siege of the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September in which at least 67 people were killed at the hands of the Somali Ismalist group al-Shabab. In February, more than 100 people appeared in court in Mombasa, accused of being members of al-Shabab after a raid on a mosque.

A clump of moss frozen solid beneath the Antarctic ice for more than 1,500 years has been brought back to life by British scientists. The Lazarus-like revival of the moss shows for the first time that some plant life has the ability to survive millennial-scale exposure to extreme climatic conditions like Ice Ages.

The fashion designer and girlfriend of the rolling stone singer Mick Jagger has been found dead at her apartment in New York. L'Wren Scott, a 49-year-old formal model was found hanged. A spokesman for Mick Jagger who's on tour in Australia said the singer was completely shocked and devastated by the news. David Willis reports.

L'Wren Scott's body was discovered by her assistant at her 8-floor apartment in Manhattan. Policy say there was no evidence of foul play, but it will ultimately be up to the medical examiner to determine the cause of her death. 6-foot-3-inch's tall, L'Wren Scott was first a model and then a fashion designer, she met Mick Jager in 2001, a couple of years after his marriage to the Texan model Jerry Hall was annulled.

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