Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you updated on the most important stories happening in the world. Here are the news we're reading today.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have reached a new high, as dozens of armed men with no identification occupied two airports in the Ukrainian southern region of Crimea. Ukraine accuses them of being Russian, and calls their presence an "armed invasion," the CNN reports. Russia for now doesn't confirm nor deny, and the armed men have refused to identify themselves, according to the BBC.
In Venezuela, the protests against and in favor of the Nicolas Maduro government continued on Thursday. The same day, Maduro called for peace talks, but most of the opposition declined to take part in, reports Euronews. Meanwhile, Carnival celebrations kicked in. The Maduro government extended the celebrations hoping to quell the protests, but according to USA Today, several students said they're going to stay in the streets.
The second storm in three days is bearing down on California. The towns of Glendora and Azusa, in the suburbs of Los Angeles have ordered mandatory evacuations for fears that the heavy rain might cause mudslides and flooding just a month after a devastating wildfire, the Associated Press reports.
The latest Snowden leak revealed that the UK spy agency GCHQ collected millions of pictures from Yahoo Messenger users webcams. Yahoo slammed the NSA's British counterpart, and promised, once again, more security.
After shutting down on Tuesday, Mt. Gox has finally filed for bankruptcy, saying it lost 850,000 bitcoins — the equivalent of $476 million. The Japanese Bitcoin exchange also reported $63.6 million in outstanding debt, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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