BBC News with David Austin.
Ukraine's acting President Oleksander Turchynov has accused Russia of provocation in Ukrainian Republic of Crimea. In a televised address in Kiev, he said Russia was behaving as it did before it sent troops into Georgia in 2008. Mr. Turchynov warned of serious consequences if the Russians didn't pull back.
The entire civilized world supports Ukraine. The national security and defence council has devised a plan to normalize the situation on the Crimean peninsula. We demand that the act of provocation be stopped. We demand that the situation be normalized. We assured that Ukraine will keep its territory. Ukraine will defend its independence and any annexation attempts or invasion will have very grave consequences.
In Crimea where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based, unconfirmed reports say that four Russian transport planes have landed in the capital Simferopol with 700 troops onboard. It comes following a day of intensive military activity on the peninsula as our correspondent there Christian Fraser reports.
We don't know the identity of the military units that guard the airports here, but we do know their allegiance lies with Moscow. We know the naval ship that patrols in the Balaklava Bay takes its orders from the Kremlin. The military trucks that moved on the road today belonged to the same Black Sea fleet. All of which suggest President Putin is quickly and effectively taking control. Across the peninsular, there are paramilitary forces in place at telecommunications hubs, at the state television building and at the local parliament. If reports are correct, 700 Russian troops have flown in tonight while civilian airspace was closed to all incoming and outgoing flights. It's a major power-play. Russia does not need to invade Crimea. It's already here. Kiev is expected to bow to the pressure. If it doesn't, then President Putin will squeeze. And right now, it doesn't appear there is an awful lot the new interim government can do about it. Christian Fraser reporting from Crimea.
The White House said that a Russian intervention in Ukraine would be a grave mistake. A spokesman said US officials had stressed the territorial integrity of Ukraine should be respected. The UN Security Council is meeting now to discuss the crisis. Nick Bryant is at the UN in New York.
What's unlikely to happen is any kind of statement coming out of the Security Council condemning what is happening in the Crimea at the moment. Why, because Russia will block any kind of statement that other members of the security council wanted to push through. The meeting was called at the request of Ukraine, they are worried about their territorial sovereignty and their territorial integrity and those concerns are shared clearly by a number of Security Council members. Nick Bryant.
World News from the BBC.
And an eruption of gunfire has forced the governor of northern Nigeria's Adamawa state to abandon a visit to people affected by Islamist violence. Murtala Inyako was trying to visit an area where 28 people were killed on Wednesday by suspected members of the Islamist group Boko Haram.
A Jihadist group in Syria has posted pictures online of an alleged thief having his hand cut off by an Islamic court. It comes as the group, the Islamic State of Iraq and and the Levant or ISIS is reported to be pulling back from some of its positions in northern Syria after being given an ultimatum by rival Islamic extremists. Sebastian Usher of our Middle East desk reports.
It may be something of a grisly first. Photos tweeted in a near real time of an amputation. The final photo shows the man collapsed with a bloody stump after his hand is being severed with a sword. It happened in a town in the northern Aleppo province. It's the kind of a brutal implementation of a harsh Islamic law. But it has turned not just local residents but other Jihadist groups against ISIS, one such group the Nusra Front issued an ultimatum to ISIS this week, saying it must accept arbitration over its actions by Islamic authority or face being driven out of Syria. The ultimatum runs out on Saturday. ISIS appears to be pulling back to its stronghold in Raqqa province in preparation.
The New York city coroner has said the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died accidentally from an intoxication caused by a mixture of drugs. The drugs included heroin, cocaine and amphetamine. Mr. Hoffman who was 46 was found dead in his apartment earlier this month.
The Cuban spy released by the United States on Thursday has received a hero's welcome after returning to the communist island. Fernando Gonzalez was the second member of the group known as the Cuban Five to be freed. He spent more than 15 years in jail. They have convicted of trying to infiltrate American military bases and spying on exiles in Miami.