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The United Nations today sent its top humanitarian official, John Holmes, to Sri Lanka to push for more protection for civilians trapped in the island's war zone. The UN estimates nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed there in the last three months. The conventional war now appears to be in its final stages. But does that mean the island's civil conflict is finally at an end? NPR's South Asia Correspondent Philip Reeves reports.

The 38 degree Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) reading in Russian Siberia in June of last year should "sound alarm bells about our changing climate," the World Meteorological Organization says.

The United Nations has just released a grim report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan over the last year. Casualties rose 14 percent in 2013, with nearly 3,000 people killed and more than 5,500 injured.

In her highly anticipated second collection, Solmaz Sharif examines the language of rules — exploring conformity and naming losses. Migration, borders, and displacement are constants in these poems.

In Copenhagen on Sunday, scientists gathered to issue their latest assessment of the world's climate. Their report is considered the most comprehensive overview of the state of climate science.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says he supports a prominent Shiite cleric's calls for direct elections for an interim authority in Iraq. The cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, wants elections before the transfer of power the U.S. wants to occur on July 1. U.N. officials say elections by that date are unlikely, though they could occur late this year or early next year. Hear NPR's Deborah Amos.

The resolution would declare Sunday's referendum on leaving Ukraine invalid. Meanwhile, Ukrainian official say Russian troops took over an area outside of Crimea Saturday.

In a summit in Russia, President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un showed how geopolitical tensions have brought the two neighbors isolated by the West into closer alignment.

The violence includes "some of the most awful crimes we have ever seen," including beheadings and cutting children's throats, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein tells NPR.

David Greene talks to David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Programme, about the famines in Yemen and Nigeria, and how his agency is dealing with threatened funding cuts.