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South Korean divers resumed searching Thursday for 282 people - many of them teenagers - missing nearly 24 hours after an ocean-going ferry capsized near an island off the South Korean coast. Coast guard officials say 25 people were confirmed dead by early Thursday, and that 179 others had been rescued.

President Barack Obama has expressed hope that a plan to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine, reached Thursday in Geneva, will lead to restoration of peace and security for all citizens of Ukraine. Obama told reporters in Washington that if Russia fails to take steps to defuse the crisis in eastern Ukraine, the United States and Europe will respond with tough measures, but he ruled out a military intervention.

The EU must step up sanctions targeting individual Russians and be ready to impose economic sanctions on Russia immediately, MEPs said in a vote on Thursday. They also called for EU measures against Russian firms and their subsidiaries, especially in the energy sector, and Russia's EU assets, against a background of violence designed to destabilise the east and south of Ukraine.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) meeting with displaced persons at the main mosque in Bangui, during his visit to the Central African Republic on 5 April 2014.

A makeshift primary school for students at the UNMISS displaced persons camp in Bor, Jonglei state, South Sudan.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has summoned his National Security Council to a Thursday meeting in Abuja, after suspected militants carried out a string of deadly attacks and abducted more than 100 school girls.

The latest reported mortar attack on a school inside the old city of Damascus on Tuesday during school hours is a stark and horrific reminder of the violence that children across Syria are enduring on a daily basis. The attack is reported to have resulted in the death of one child and the injury of many others.

Since June 2013, attacks in northeastern Nigeria have resulted in school closures affecting thousands of students, many of whom have had no access to education in months.

Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson addresses the Security Council meeting on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

UN Police at the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) lead a security sweep of the grounds at the UN House in Juba, currently serving as a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) escaping the ongoing violence throughout the country.