Separatists claim success in Ukraine – The kidnapped Nigerian girls are reportedly sighted – And an earthquake orphan is finally home after three years – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine say their “self-rule” referendums were a raging success, claiming the ballot was overwhelmingly in favor of splitting off.  The leaders of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” election claimed that 89 percent voted in favor of self-rule.  But reporters say the vote was chaotic:  Polling places had no electoral registrars, armed men in balaclavas voted alongside grannies, and threats of violence abounding.  Kiev called these referendums a “criminal farce” organized by Russia.

Rebels and government forces are already blaming each other for breaking the latest ceasefire in South Sudan, just hours after it came into effect.  The UN confirms new fighting in oil-producing regions, where a rebel attack on the city of Bentiu raised fears of ethnic cleansing.  Thousands of people have been killed and at least 1.5 million have been displaced since December’s start of the civil war.

The governor of Nigeria’s troubled Borno state claims he has information on the whereabouts of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram.  Governor Kashim Shettima says he does not think the girls had been taken across the border to Chad or Cameroon, as had been reported.  Boko Haram’s name translates as “Western education is forbidden” – the group admits it abducted the girls and says they never should have been in school, under its interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

The international response to the kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls is growing.  President Goodluck Jonathan says an Israeli counter-terrorism team would arrive in Nigeria to help in searching for the schoolgirls.  And French President Francois Hollande called for a regional summit on the threat posed by Boko Haram, to include Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.  The US, UK, and EU are also likely to send representatives.

Terrorists attacked an Iraqi military barracks in Northern Iraq, killing at least 20 soldiers.  Eleven of the bodies were discovered after the fighting, bound and shot execution style.  No group claimed responsibility, but the modus operandi was the same as two earlier attacks by “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria”, a militant group so vile that even al Qaeda has washed its hands of their tactics. 

An immigrant boat carrying 130 people capsized off Libya’s largely unpatrolled Mediterranean coastline, and the death toll is unclear – but it’s bad.  The Navy says 54 people were rescued and 24 bodies were recovered.  But the Interior Ministry says forty more bodies washed ashore since the capsizing.  Libya’s police and military is in disarray since the fall of dictator Moammar Qaddafi, and country has been the launching point of choice for smugglers sending would-be asylum seekers to Europe.

People across Vietnam protested China, after the ships from the two countries clashed on the South China Sea last week.  Vietnam doesn’t usually allow demonstration, and it appears these had the government’s approval.  China claims most of the South China Sea as its exclusive zone, despite it extending a ridiculous 1,600 kilometers from China’s actual coastline.  But Hanoi’s attempts to get support from its fellows in the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) group are faltering.  ASEAN broke up a weekend meeting in Myanmar without mentioning the dispute.

Crikey, there’s never a ladder around when you need one.

Mexico has commenced swearing in members of a new self-defense force in Michoacan state, hoping it will replace vigilante groups that have been successful in chasing off the Knights Templar drugs cartel.  But the vigilantes have also clashed with police.  Authorities now plan on arresting and charging anyone carrying unregistered weapons, even if they’re protecting their towns and villages from the drug gangs.

Venezuela has released most of the 243 people arrested when police moved in and disassembled protest camps in the affluent neighborhoods in Caracas last week, although a cop was shot in the back by a sniper.  Eleven people were held on drugs and weapons violations, and 15 were ordered to undergo medical treatment for drug abuse.  Out of all the people arrested since the opposition unrest began against the democratically elected government in February, only 160 remain in jail – and that includes police officers accused of going too far in breaking up barricades.

Bolivian inventor proves one man's trash is another man's drone.

The earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan’s northeast coast on 11 March 2011 killed thousands and left many, many more homeless – but one has finally found its way back home.  Takeo and Kazuko Yamagishi’s cat Suika bolted and got lost that terrible day.  Their house survived but Suika never made it home, until they got a phone call last week.  Suika had recently showed up at an animal shelter 15 kilometers away.  Workers noticed that that cat had a collar, and on it was the name Yamagishi and a phone number – barely perceptible after three years, but just enough to get Suika reunited with mom and dad on Mother’s Day in Ofunato City.