Hundreds of pro-Russian protesters staged a rally in the the eastern city of Mariupol on Thursday after Ukrainian soldiers killed three people during a raid on their barracks.

The three assailants were killed and 13 others wounded when around 300 people attacked the interior ministry troops in the industrial port city overnight with firearms and petrol bombs, according to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

A new report by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has found that Iran is complying with the terms of a November interim deal calling for a partial nuclear freeze, diplomats said Thursday.

The diplomats, who had seen the monthly update by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told AFP everything was in order.

The European Union said it had agreed Thursday to hold talks with Russia on its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine, warning Moscow its reliability as an energy source was at stake.

The EU "agrees on your proposal for consultations with the Russian Federation and Ukraine with regard to security of gas supply and transit," European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said in reply to an April 10 letter from President Vladimir Putin.

Several people were wounded in South Sudan Thursday after gunmen attacked civilians sheltering inside a U.N. peacekeeping base in the war-ravaged town of Bor, the U.N. said.

The top U.N. aid official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said he was "outraged" by what he said was an "attack of armed youth in Bor on civilians seeking protection".

French President Francois Hollande warned Thursday that EU sanctions on Russia could be strengthened if there is no progress at talks in Geneva on the Ukraine crisis.

"We could raise the level of sanctions if no solution emerges (in Geneva), but that is not our desire," Hollande said at a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.

Japan's foreign minister has postponed a visit to Russia due to "scheduling issues", the ministry said Thursday, as Tokyo finds itself in a delicate position over the crisis in Ukraine.

The ministry did not give a new date for a visit by Fumio Kishida, who had been due to attend a now-canceled intergovernmental committee on trade and economic issues with first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov.

An Iranian mother spared the life of her son's convicted murderer with an emotional slap in the face as he awaited execution with the noose around his neck, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The dramatic climax followed a rare public campaign to save the life of Balal, who at 19 killed another young man, Abdollah Hosseinzadeh, in a street fight with a knife back in 2007.

India hosted its biggest day of voting Thursday with the ruling Congress party battling to stem a further slide in the polls against the opposition Hindu nationalists after another week of damaging headlines.

Voters lined up in 121 constituencies across a dozen states on the sixth day of staggered voting in the election extravaganza which ends with results May 16.

Rebels in South Sudan battled government forces Thursday in a renewed offensive targeting the young nation's key oil fields, the army said, amid famine warnings by the United Nations.

Fighters loyal to rebel chief Riek Machar recaptured the town of Bentiu on Tuesday, the state capital of oil-producing Unity, with U.N. peacekeepers reporting corpses littering the streets.

Russia and Ukraine sat down Thursday for Western-backed talks on the escalating crisis in the former Soviet republic as Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the authorities in Kiev of dragging the country towards the abyss.

In a dramatic worsening of tensions in the restive east, three pro-Moscow separatists were killed in an overnight gunbattle with Ukrainian troops in the southeastern port city of Mariupol.