News Headlines - 21 March 2014

▽Russia agrees to accept having international monitors sent to Ukraine | Fox News

Russia has accepted sending an international monitoring team to Ukraine that officials say will have free access to regions "throughout the country."
The development Friday follows more than a week of stonewalling by Russia of a push by all other members of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to send such a mission.

▽Pope tells Mafia: Stop evil or prepare for hell - Haaretz

Pope Francis, in an annual ceremony held to remember the hundreds of innocent people murdered by the Italian mafia, made a solemn plea for mobsters to change or else "end up in hell"... At the end of an emotional ceremony in Rome in which the relatives of those murdered read the names of about 900 innocent mafia victims, the pope said the mafia "has no pity even for a child".

▽Thailand court scraps election results, extending political gridlock - latimes.com

Thailand's constitutional court Friday nullified the Feb. 2 election won by supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra amid an opposition boycott, prolonging the country's 4-month-old political crisis and threatening a deeper toll on its tourism-dependent economy.
Opposition supporters celebrated the 6-3 court ruling that said the vote was invalid because not all polls were open to receive voters on the same day. Antigovernment protesters had blocked registration in 28 constituencies, forcing election workers to delay voting at the affected polls.

▽Michelle Obama Begins Good-Will Tour in China - NYTimes.com

Michelle Obama, on the first day of a good-will tour to China with her daughters and her mother, tried her hand on Friday at three quintessentially Chinese specialties: calligraphy, table tennis and mathematics.

▽South Korea, Japan to hold three-way summit with US: Seoul

South Korea and Japan will hold a three-way summit with the United States next week, Seoul said on Friday, in a breakthrough after Washington urged the pair to mend badly strained ties.
The meeting in The Hague, on the sidelines of an international nuclear conference, will mark the first formal talks between President Park Geun Hye and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe since they took office more than a year ago, Yonhap news agency said.