Tensions continue to rise in Ukraine. Thursday's news includes word that:
— "Dozens of heavily armed gunmen seized control of local government buildings in Ukraine's Crimea region early Thursday and raised the Russian flag, mirroring the three-month protest movement that drove Ukraine's pro-Russian president into hiding last week." (The Associated Press) There were no reports of injuries at the sites in Simferopol, the local capital. Ukrainian security forces established a security perimeter around the area.
As the Parallels blog has written, Crimea "is an autonomous part of Ukraine, [that has] strong emotional ties to Russia and [where] a majority of people identify themselves as Russian.
Crimean lawmakers were reported to be preparing to enter the government buildings, possibly to vote on whether to seek to split from Ukraine and seek a union with Russia.