News Headlines - 24 February 2014

▽BBC News - Ukraine crisis: Russia steps up Ukraine rhetoric

Russia has stepped up its rhetoric against Ukraine's new Western-leaning leadership as tensions rise over the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev said interim authorities in Kiev had conducted an "armed mutiny".

▽Report: Israeli airstrikes hit eastern Lebanon near Syrian border | Fox News

Lebanon's state news agency says Israeli aircraft have carried out two airstrikes in eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border.
The Israeli military declined comment.
The National News Agency says the air raids took place late Monday near the village of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley.

▽AFP: Britain's Dixons, Carphone Warehouse in merger talks

British electrical goods specialist Dixons Retail Group and mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse are in merger talks, the pair announced on Monday... The pair stressed the discussions are at a "very preliminary" stage, adding there was no certainty that they would result in a deal.

▽BBC News - Anne Frank's Diary vandalised in Japan libraries

More than 100 copies of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl have been vandalised in public libraries in Japan's capital Tokyo, officials say.
Pages have been ripped from at least 265 copies of the diary and other related books, they added.
It is not clear who is behind the vandalism. A US Jewish rights group has called for a police investigation.

▽Gem found on Australian sheep ranch is the oldest known piece of Earth, scientists find

Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in Western Australia is the oldest known piece of our planet, dating to 4.4 billion years ago.
Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday, the researchers said the discovery indicates that Earth's crust formed relatively soon after the planet formed and that the little gem was a remnant of it.