Ukraine parliament backs partial mobilisation

Ukraine's parliament, seeking to boost the country's military force in the face of Russia's takeover of the Crimea peninsula, endorsed on Monday a presidential decree to carry out a partial mobilisation involving 40,000 reservists.

Andriy Parubiy, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, told parliament that 20,000 reservists would be deployed within the armed forces and the rest would be used within the newly-created National Guard.

(Reporting by Natalya Zinets, Writing by Ron Popeski)