BBC News with Jerry Smit.
A bus carrying 13 international military observers and Ukrainian officials has been seized in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. Officials in Kiev said the observers who are part of a German-led mission linked to the organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe are being held by pro-Russia militants. Steve Rosenberg reports.
Ukraine's interior Ministry said that armed separatists had seized seven military monitors from Europe and five Ukrainian army personnel as well as the driver of their bus. They were being held in Sloviansk, the town controlled by pro-Russian militia. Later, the local leader of the militant, the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, confirmed that the monitors' minibus had been stopped at one of the checkpoints in town and the passengers have been taken in for questioning. He told the Russian News Agency, RIA, that the observers looked more like spies than military men.
President Obama and European leaders have threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, saying it has failed to implement an agreement to defuse the crisis there. Here's our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.
The temperature of the Ukraine crisis keeps on rising. A week ago, Ukraine, the United States, the European Union and Russia reached an agreement in Geneva to call on activists to disperse and give up their arms. Western leaders now say Moscow has done nothing to honor that deal, but Moscow rejects all that, portraying Russia as the victim of a western plot since the end of the Soviet Union to strip away the Kremlin'a sphere of influence. Western leaders are hoping the prospect of profound and long-term damage to Russia's economy may persuade President Putin, he cannot afford to go any further in Ukraine and must avoid any sort of invasion.
The Finnish mobile phone company Nokia has completed the sale of its handset business to Microsoft. The deal closes the final chapter in the company's rapid decline. Just six years ago, it had a dominant hold on the mobile phone market. Theo Leggett has more.
Nokia's phones were shunned by consumers in favor of products from rival manufacturers notably iPhone and Samsung. Three years ago in an effort to stem the decline, it teamed with Microsoft producing phones using the software giant's Windows platform, but sales remain sluggish and Nokia's board decided to cut its losses. The firm will now focus on its telecoms infrastructure business and on research while Microsoft attempts to build up its position in the handsets market using the Lumia range developed by Nokia.
Explosions in the Iraqi capital Baghdad have killed at least 28 people and wounded many more. The blast happened at a rally for a Shia group ahead of parliamentary elections on Wednesday. A statement posted on Jihadist forums claimed the bombings were in revenge for attack on Sunnis.
World News from the BBC.
A South Sudanese opposition leader released after the government dropped charges of treason against him and three others, has promised to work for peace. Pagan Amum, a former secretary general of the governing SPLM, said he would engage with both the government and rebels to end what he called the senseless civil war.
The Spanish government has expanded more than $2.5m to improve border security in its northern African territories of Ceuta and Melilla, the European Union's only land borders with Africa. In two separate incidents last month more than 800 people climbed over the 6-meter-high triple border fence sit in Melilla and some 50 migrants drowned in Moroccan waters in February trying to swim to Ceuta from a nearby beach.
Leaders of the coup that ended almost five decades dictatorship in Portugal have come out with scathing criticisms over the country's current government and its austerity policies. The officers who led the Carnation Revolution accused the current government of stripping away many of the entitlements that return to democracy have brought. From Lisbon, Alison Roberts.
Addressing a crowd of thousands that spilled into the surrounding streets, Vasco Lourenco, one of the coup's leaders, was scathing about Portugal's current right of center government and the austerity policies it's implemented over the past three years. He also questioned whether Portugal should remain in the Euro or even the European Union if it continues to function as it is. His words were met with cheers and a sea of upraised carnations. The rally ended with singing of revolutionary songs and the national anthem.
North Korea says it has detained an American tourist who entered the country earlier this month seeking political asylum. State media said the 24-year-old man was being held for improper behavior.It said he'd entered the country on a tourist visa which he immediately tore up.