World | WPN World People News

With only days to go before the referendum on the future of Ukraine's Crimea region is held, all eyes are on the peninsula where a Russian-speaking majority is likely to side with Moscow. Crimea's looming separation from Ukraine is raising fears that Moscow will not stop before asserting control over all the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine. Analysts think any division of Ukraine is likely to fuel ethnic tensions in the region.

Special Representative and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Tarek Mitri, briefs the Security Council on the situation in that country.

Libyan officials said their forces have intercepted a tanker carrying crude oil that a separatist militia was trying export in defiance of a government ban.

As the conflict in Syria approaches another sombre milestone, more than twice as many children are now affected compared to 12 months ago, says a new report by UNICEF published. Particularly hard hit are up to a million children who are trapped in areas of Syria that are under siege or that are hard to reach with humanitarian assistance due to continued violence.

Map of Crimea.

Japan is marking the third anniversary of the earthquake-tsunami disaster that killed over 18,000 people and caused the world's worst nuclear crisis in decades.

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane

The United States is warning of consequences related to any unauthorized sales of oil that militia members have loaded onto a North Korean-flagged tanker in a Libyan port.

Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in the Syrian capital Damascus (January 2014).

Kremlin-controlled media have launched an information war to justify Russia’s seizing of Crimea. In response, Ukrainians are organizing to counter Moscow’s version of events.