The UK today pledged to send a small team of experts to Nigeria to aid the search for over 200 abducted schoolgirls.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron, who spoke to Nigeria’s president, Wendesday, condemned the act as ‘pure evil.’

The experts who will be on the ground within a few days will provide planning and advice on co-ordination to Nigerian authorities, reports the BBC.

The United States is to legally recognise offices of the Syrian National Coalition as a "foreign mission", reported Reuters.

Gunmen suspected of being from the militant group Boko Haram kidnapped 8 from a village in north-eastern Nigeria, reports Reuters.

Lazarus Musa, a resident in the village of Warabe, said the armed men looted the village whilst firing their guns indiscriminately. 

The Russian Foreign Minister, Serei Lavrov, today, ruled out any talks in Geneva to defuse the situation unless representatives of the pro-separation groups were involved, reports the BBC.

The announcement comes as Ukrainian forces have in a series of offensives killed and injured several pro-Russian protesters.

The United States said today that it would investigate claims  by Vietnamese officials that the movement of a Chinese oil rig encroached Vietnam’s territorial waters. 

The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, called for caution from both sides whilst the US looked into the matter.

The United States today, imposed sanctions on two senior leaders from each side of the worsening ethnic conflict, reports Reuters.

The sanctions targeted an army commander loyal to the opposition and the head of the presidential guard. The US decision will freeze all their assets in the states and stop US entities from dealing with them.

Burma’s government should immediately end arbitrary arrests of journalists and ensure that media laws promote a free press, said Human Rights Watch on World Press Freedom Day.

Citing several cases of arbitrary detention, the Human Rights Watch deputy Asia Director, Phil Robertson, said,

Ukrainian police headquarters in Odessa were stormed to free pro-Russian protestors that were detained in an Ukrainian offensive on a barricaded government building, reports The Telegraph.

The pro-Russian protestors were greeted by crowds of people as Ukrainian police were forced to let them free.

The Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, was released without charge yesterday after being questioned for four days about a case of kidnap and murder during the Northern Ireland Troubles, reported The Guardian.
 

Colombian government peace-talks with the FARC rebels took a progressive turn today as the two parties released a joint statement outlining progress in talks, reports Reuters.

“We are making significant progress. It’s a good environment. I would say it couldn’t be better,” said the leader of the separatist FARC movement, Ivan Marquez.

The Nigerian President broke his silence on the kidnapping of hundreds of school girls by the suspected militants Boko Haram, reports the BBC.

“We promise that wherever they are we will surely get them out,” said President Goodluck Jonathan.

Syrian Airstrikes on a market in Aleppo killed at least  33 people last week , reported the BBC.

According to the UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attack happened in the northern Halak district.

The attack came shortly after the Syrian government bombed a school in southern Aleppo killing 18 people.

South Sudanese government forces launched an offensive on the strategic oil hub of Bentiu in fresh attempts to reclaim the region from the rebels, reports the BBC.

The offensive comes as the South Sudanese president, told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he was ready to hold peace talks with the rebels.