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Desperate crowd awaits relief aid at Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

Robert Serry, Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General.

People fleeing violence in Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, South Sudan, arriving at UNMISS base on 15 April 2014 to seek shelter.

Officials in South Sudan say gunmen have raided a United Nations compound housing 5,000 civilians and U.N. peacekeepers, killing at least 20 people and wounding 60.

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.