Dozens are hacked to death by assassins in a busy train station – Ukraine attempts to remain calm as Russian forces secure Crimea – Mob violence in Venezuela is attracting the UN’s attention – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Ukraine's acting President Olexander Turchynov has the army on full alert and is urging people to remain calm.  This, as the Russian parliament gives President Vladimir Putin permission to use the military in the Ukraine’s Crimea region. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who was standing next to Turchynov, said he was “convinced” Russia would not intervene militarily “as this would be the beginning of war and the end of all relations”.  Russian troops and their supporters are pretty much already in control of Crimea.

The United Nations Security Council held a meeting on the growing crisis in Ukraine, but there’s little hope it can do anything.  Russia has veto power over anything the US,  Britain, and France might suggest.  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had earlier said that he is “gravely concerned about the deterioration of the situation” in Ukraine. 

Ban Ki-Moon will also meet with the Venezuela’s Foreign Minister about the worsening situation there.  The meeting is set for Tuesday in Geneva.  Anti-government protesters took to the streets of Venezuela's capital on Saturday, calling for the release of dozens of activists who have been arrested during three weeks of violent demonstrations.  At least 18 people have died in protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s elected government, even though the pro-government demonstrations have dwarfed the antis. 

Meanwhile, South American leaders are growing more vocal about the trouble in Venezuela.  Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner denounced the “attempted soft coup against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” and said it was necessary to stand by the democratic system “in every country of the region, whether from the left, the right or from behind.”

At least 28 people died in an attack by knife-wielding men in a train station in Kunming, China, in the southwest.  At least 113 are recovering from injuries.  Authorities say it was an “organized, premeditated, violent terrorist attack,” although they’re not yet talking about a motive.  Witnesses says the men in black stormed the Kunming Train Station in Yunnan Province and started attacking people in the late evening before cops shot and killed five of them.  Another five appear to have gotten away.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is bluntly warning Tokyo not to dilute its 1993 apology for Japan’s use of sex slaves during World War II.  “True courage lies not in denying the past but in looking squarely at the history as it was and teaching growing generations the correct history,” said President Park.  Japan’s nationalist government has been caught in a series of missteps in recent weeks, playing down the country’s wartime atrocities.

Egypt’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi remains defense minister in the new cabinet that will organize the next presidential election, in which al-Sisi is expected to stand.  He’ll have to step down from the military before he can run, but al-Sisi is widely popular and his opponents aren’t as well-known.

A UN report says 703 people died in violence in February in Iraq.  It’s a higher death toll than the same time last year, and approaching the sectarian strife the followed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Ireland’s most notorious mobster John Gilligan is reportedly fighting for his life after being shot in Dublin.  He was hit several times in the chest and leg, although some reports indicate he survived because he was wearing body armor.  Gilligan was released from prison last October after serving 17 years for drug trafficking.  He’s also suspected in the murder of a newspaper investigative reporter in 1996.