RUSSIA ISOLATED IN UNITED NATION CRIMEA VOTE.

                 According to an international broadcasting network,many people in Crimea have been holding pro-Russian rallies before sundays referendum.Russia has vetoed a draft UN resolution criticising sunday's secession referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region.The only security council member to vote against the measure.China regarded as a Russian ally on the issue,abstained from the vote.Western powers criticised Russian's veto over the referendum,which will ask Crimeans if they want to rejoin Russia.Kiev has accused Russian forces of seizing a village just north of Crimea and demanded they withdraw.Ukraine's foreign ministry said 80 military personnel backed by four helicopter gunships and threee armoured vehicle had taken the village of Strikove.An unnamed Russian official quoted by Pravda Ukraine said they had taken action to protect a gas distribution station from terrorist attacks.Russia intervened in the Crimean peninsula after the fall of Ukraine's pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February.Mr Yanukovych had sparked months of unrest across Ukraine by pulling out of a deal on closer ties with Russian .The Crimean region was part of Russia untill 1954 and most of it's residents are athnic Russian,many of whom would prefer to be governed by Moscow rather than Kiev.Russia's black sea fleet is also still housed in Crimea but Russia has signed agreements promising to uphold Ukraine's territorial intergrity.Crimea's regional parliament instigated the secession referendum after MPs voted overwhelmingly to support rejoining Russia.The national parliament in Kiev ruled the referendum unconstitional,and earlier on Saturday voted to disband the regional assembly.At the United Nations,13 members of the security council backed a resolution that called for all nations to respect Ukraines territorial intergrity and condemned the referendum as illegal.