Sometimes globalization is the answer. Despite some foot-in-mouth history, Larry Summers, ex-President of Harvard and former US Treasury Secretary, writing in the Financial Times, rightly argues that better foreign policy by Congress can help save Ukraine. He points out how a bipartisan response to the occupation of Crimea can be aided if Republicans Congress want to do something besides attacking alleged Obama weakness.

Prof Summers backs measures like restoring funding for the International Monetary Fund now bottled up in committee. He also suggests allowing exports of US surplus natural gas to lower Western European (and Ukrainian) dependence on Russian Gazprom gas exports. He also backs a modest and results-driven funding program for Kiev based on cleaning up Ukraine's oligarchy-linked political system and providing a safety net for the poor.

Summers is famously linked to hands-off support for market solutions. This was his line when he was a top level advisor under the Clinton Administration. But he seems to have changed his tune to a more interventionist direction while also remaining a stalwart supporter of the existing global financial system.

Foxtons, a UK real estate sale and letting brokerage (and financier) is listing on the ADR market. It is also challenging the New York realtors' commission schedule by offering cut-rate services here. The stock has recently been downrated in its home market.

Usually Monday news is dominated by changes in how our stocks are rated. But not today. Today's news is dominated by mergers and acquisitions. There will be further technical upgrades to our website overnight Monday. Visit www.global-investing.com often but early.

More follows from Italy, Singapore, Britain, Hong Kong, Brazil, Australia, Suriname, Guyana, Canada, Israel, India, and among the yurts of Inner and Outer Mongolia and the Crimean Tartars along with troubles in China affecting distant lands.

*News that China's Feb. exports fell 18% from Feb. 2013 hit Vale (half sold) hard. The Brazilian miner exports its iron ore to China, and Goldman Sachs now predicts that the stuff will command less than $100 per metric tonne in Q2 this year. Today ore pellets were priced at $104.75 over 8% below Friday's close and down 22% YTD.

*Our Guangshen Railway, GSH, which runs along the export-oriented Pearl River basin (to what used to be called Canton, now Guangshou) is down 3.28% so far today, a victim of the numbers.

*Also hurt by the China worry was the Australian $, which we play through Aberdeen Asia Pacific Income Fund, FAX. The Aussie fell to 90.17 US$. Now I don't want to be a Pollyanna, but the China sell-off over exports lagging has been overdone. In fact shifting the economy to meeting domestic demand and cleaning up China's unbreatheable air also require steel inputs, preferably using higher grade ore and metallurgical coal than the polluting stuff locals mine. Steel-making ingredients are going to come back into vogue and their prices will rise.

FAX reports earnings today along with Aberdeen Global Income Fund, FCO, after the market closes according to Closed-End Fund Advisors of Richmond VA, www.CEFAdvisors.com 1-800-356-3508. It is moving into a gap in close-end fund reporting now that Tom Herzfeld has pulled out of this business.

*I also got in barely ahead of the mob with a buy of Raven Rus (RUS:GM) at 78 UK pence put in for the London opening after I wrote this up as a best buy for Russia in a write-up yesterday.

I argued that it was easier to nab this London Alternative Investment Market stock than competing with Bank of NY-Merrill and UBS in trying to buy Yandex on the cheap, as I suggested last week. (Barrons' Shuli Ren wrote in today's issue, which I get on Sat., that both were recommending YNDX.)

This morning RUS, a Guernsey company investing in Russian commercial logistics was tipped by the Investor's Chronicle's stock guru Simon Thompson it today's IC blog because it sold part of its portfolio and will distribute some of that cash to its shareholders. The cash it holds means it is trading at a 50% discount to its book value, which he calls "anomalous."

Merrill is also on this case, giving RUS a buy rating because IT "is the only equivalent of an investment company in the Russian property universe with financing in place sufficient to complete its projects currently under development" as well as the only one "supporting shareholders" (paying a dividend.)

*Reader SMH sent a report by KPMG on the latest Singapore budget which threatens our India office and commercial property play, Singaporean company Ascendas India Trust. ACNDF is part of a Singapore REIT (real estate investment trusts) group founded a dozen years ago when Singapore set out tax and regulatory rules for the instrument, also popular in the US.

The problem is that the 2014 Singapore budget presented last month did not renew the foreign income incentive for REITs invested outside the country, for example in India. This allows REITs to exempt from Singaporean taxes the income they get from property located outside the country when it is brought home to Singapore. The measure gives Singaporean REITs a way to boost their portfolios without having to chip in for homeland taxes.

This first arose with a sunset clause in Singapore's 2010 budget, setting an expiration date for the foreign income incentive of Mar. 31, 2015, unless it is extended. Experts expected the extension to make it into the 2014 budget but this didn't occur, leaving REITs scrambling to restructure their holdings or waiting in the hope that something will be done next Feb. at the 11th hour. Since by law Singaporean REITs have an independent board they are cursed if they do wait and see and damned if they don't.

For foreign REIT investors the situation is less dire. If Singapore were to tax ACNDF, we would be able to offset the bite as a credit against taxes we would otherwise owe on other foreign holdings, since the US and Britain Singapore have double taxation treaties with Singapore. I am not sure which other countries do.

Singapore also has a double taxation treaty with India which may apply to some or all real estate income regardless of what the REIT law requires. You should NOT hold ACNDF in a US tax-sheltered account like an IRA or a 401K.

*While not a REIT, fellow-Singaporean which acquired a portfolio of Brazilian sites last week for $1.36 bn will get a good yield. Global Logistics Properties will get a 9.4% yield on its BR Properties SA buy last week, chairman Jeffrey Schwartz told a real estate newsletter in São Paulo. He or they did not specify if it is gross or net. The GBTZF deal,subject to regulatory oversight, is expected to close in Aug.

*Orocobre Ltd told the world that its flagship Salar de Olaroz lithium project in Argentina now is 80% completed (it was 60% completed when Frida Ghitis reported on it 2 weeks ago.) It is pumping brine, and liming (removing magnesium from) brine. Its gas pipeline is ready for connection to Gas Atacama. Its reverse osmosis plant is awaiting the completion of the import approval process. It will, it says, complete production "on time and within budget."

OROCF is developing Olaroz with Toyota Tsosho Corp, a sub of the Japanese carmaker (25%) and a Jujuy Province mining and energy quango (8.5%). Lithium is used for electric autos, why we got back into this small-cap share from Australia. It also owns Borax Argentina which mines boron, used in fire prevention and electronic applications. It has a by-product, potash, whose price may be inching up. You can see the pictures of the facilities on the company's website if you don't want to go to Argentina.

*Tencent Holdings is taking a complex stake in Chinese e-commerce retailing group JD.com.inc in another challenge to Alibaba Group. The deal will cost $215 mn (US) initially. The Hong Kong-traded search and mobile chat firm, TCTZF, will buy 15% of JD and a further option on 5% after JD does an IPO in this country to raise as much as $1.5 bn. Tencent will help drive traffic to the site via ads on its WeChat and QQ messaging sites. In turn, JD will take over two smaller Tencent e-commerce business units, Wanggou and Paipai, and its B2C sub Yixun.com. The move, which gives TCTZF about a quarter of the Chinese e-commerce space, is a challenge to Alibaba which also plans a US IPO to raise money. Alibaba controls about half the Chinese B2C e-commerce market.

*Our Canada gold miner signed an option to explore for further gold in areas around its mine in Rosebel, Suriname. IamGold sub Omai Gold picked up another 8% of rights to mine in neighboring Guyana as a result of the combination of its now-delisted partner Eagle Mountain Gold with Goldsource Mines. IAG's 95% has the right to get gold at a 5% discount to be paid a year after the Goldsource mine opens, depending on the price and quantity of gold produced. IAG is also drilling for gold at Monster Lake which is in Quebec, another potential trouble spot for an Anglo Canadian company, if secession is voted. I rather like these risks compared to others in the gold business. Now if IAG can also cut its costs we are in the gold.

*Teva launched a generic of Xeloda in two sizes Friday, a treatment for breast, colorectal, and other cancers. The patent version by Genentech had annual sales of $755 mn last year. TEVA was upgraded by Leerink Swann to outperform also on Friday. But it fell in Tel Aviv yesterday and pulled down the TASE index.

*Reckitt Benckiser is in M&A mode too, buying K-Y Brands, described as a consumer healthcare company. Actually K-Y makes a sexual-arousal and lubricant gel which can be added to RBGLY's Durex condoms. It works for both men and women. The seller is Johnson & Johnson which had annual sales of the line topping $100 mn sold worldwide. Price was not given. JnJ needs the money for investing in startups to treat, among other things, Alzheimer's disease.

*GlaxoSmithKline will raise its stake in its Indian sub to 75% paying GBP 625 mn ($1.05 bn) for 24.3% of its already controlled sub via an offer to shareholders which ran till last Weds. and was reported on today. The deal will close Mar 20. GSK in British.

*Ranbaxy did another recall of its generic for Lipitor this time because the wrong size was in the bottles. As noted frequently, the flies and filth our FDA found at its India plant have no impact on its commercial rival, Dr Reddy's. RDY is India-listed (and also on the NYSE); Ranbaxy is Japanese-owned.

*Italian ute A2A reported preliminary unaudited consolidated results for 2013. Revenues during 2013 fell 13% to euros 5.6 bn mainly because of reduced wholesale gas trading and restructuring of its operations with EdF of France to which it de-merged its Edipower SpA sub, plus sale of some hydor-electric power plants. Operating margins rose 6% to euros 1.1 bn while debt was reduced by euros 500 mn to under 3.9 bn during the year. Gross operating margins were positive for the first time in 3 years. Net debt as a proportion of gross operating margins came in at 3.4x last year vs 4.1x the year before. These novel italic metrics are not giving us the bottom line on AEMMY, which as shareholders we would like to see. The stock made a new 52-week high in Milan trading today.

*Israeli offshore gas is in focus with the Ukraine crisis, and Delek Group nailed down yesterday a deal with its partners in the Tamar offshore field (which is in production) for off-take of up to 3.3 bn cubic meters of natural gas for its Delek Sorek IPP Ltd. IPP stands for Independent Power Plant, a Delek wholly owned power plant sub to be built on the seashore near Tel Aviv (Israel).

It is linked to a plant nearby which has begun desalinating Mediterranean seawater using Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO), where a pilot went live late last year. The SWRO plant will eventually turn 150 mn cubic meters of seawater into fresh water annually at relatively low cost (US58 cents/m2 initially) and with reduced environmental impact. The SWRO plant is 51% owned by a jv of Delek (described below) and 49% by Hutchison Whampo of Hong Kong.

The take-or-pay $750 mn Tamar deal starts in 2016 and runs for 14 years with a possible 2 year extension. DGRLY will ultimately pay an amount related to the Israeli and US consumer price index and will be penalized if it doesn't take the full amount after a 3-year break-in period.

The Sorek deal is subject to Jerusalem anti-trust and desalination water office approvals and closing the finances of the Sorek IPP project to be financed in shekels, dollars, and euros. Sorek's SWRO will use vertically-placed large (16-inch) membranes, pressure centers, advanced energy recovery systems, and other innovations to lower desalination costs. The separate Delek Sorek IPP operation will power the highly efficient pumps similar to the ones used currently at Askelon and Hadera, the largest desalination plant on earth. Sorek IPP needs it sown financing.

Our keen-eyed biotech maven Patti discovered that via an outfit called IDE Technologies, in which DGRLY is a 50% partner, is also building a SWRO desalination plant in southern California. Its other partner is Israel Chemicals (ISCHF, which we sold as a potash play under political and environmental pressure in Israel.)

There is a problem: the euro tranche of the SWRO construction was financed by the European Investment Bank, which is under pressure from elements in Euroland opposed to any Israeli deals (even at its extreme western seafront border) out of concern for Palestinians. The long-term finance of both the IDE SWRO plant and Delek's Sorek IPP power plant depend on global loans. This is a complex story because Israel is only testing the waters (pun intended) in multinational finance.

*In Xanadu. As the only game in town (if the town is Ulaanbataar) Mongolia Growth Group, now focusing on real estate, is up smartly. MNGGF is speculative and trades also in Toronto as YAK (it should be YURT but they use only 3 letters on the TSX.) Rio Tinto is taking full control of the development of the Oyu Tolgoi mine project which is marginal to its global business. For MNGGF, which leases commercial and office property in the Mongolia's formerUlan Bator, it is central. Mongolia has been the most successful former Soviet Republic in politics and economics since the USSR fell, a model for Ukraine; about 12% of the population of the Crimea are Tartars of Mongolian or part-Mongolian descent.

It is also a model for China's Uighurs, also relatives, who had an independent country along the Silk Road at various times in Chinese history. Different Mongolians speak different languages. But they look more European than Chinese. So Uighurs can use stolen passports in a possible terrorist attack on an Air Malaysia flight to China.

*While the low-ball estimates by Canadian Solar for the current quarter are scary, they are the result of lousy weather in its major market, Canada. It expects sales of 480 megaWatts of solar material this quarter vs Q4 levels of 621 mW. In US$, the level will fall from $520 mn to $480 mn. Note that weather-delayed sales are usually made up in later quarters. After a hard winter, spring still comes. CSIQ Q4 profits also were below analyst consensus. But all this is not enough for the share to drop 11% since it reported. CSIQ makes its photovoltaic material in China and sells it to North Americans, both households and utes, plus Japanese. And Japan still wants an alternative to nuclear power even if it is bringing back onstream its troubled plants.

*We also play the nuclear card with Cameco, another Canadian firm, CCJ, the largest miner of uranium.