Croatia

PARIS - Serbia ranks as 67th out of 180 countries ranked according to the Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in the annual evaluation released on Thursday, stressing that media freedom suffered a "drastic decline" worldwide last year.

"Media freedom declines worldwide, including Serbia"

Serbia ranks as 67th out of 180 countries ranked according to the Press Freedom Index, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) annual report.

The organization stressed that media freedom suffered a "drastic decline" worldwide last year.

The development of plans for the construction of a Vertical Corridor connecting the gas grids of Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania has reached an advanced stage, according to Romanian authorities.

Bulgarian PM Boiko Borisov and his former colleague, currently Party of European Socialists (PES) leader Sergei Stanishev have both agreed on the issue of the accession of Bulgaria in the Shengen area, a press release stated on Thursday.

Borisov's center-right party GERB is also a member of the European People's Party (EPP) holding majority in EU parliament. 

PM to attend inauguration in Zagreb

BELGRADE -- Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will attend the inauguration of Croatia's newly elected president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the N1 broadcaster said.

The Belgrade-based outlet said it received confirmation for this from the government.

BELGRADE - The Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade will host an exhibition titled Slavic Carnivals, authored by curators of 12 museums in Slavic countries, in June.

The exhibition, organized by the Forum of Slavic Cultures, under the auspices of UNESCO, will also feature a round table on new forms of carnival as tourism potential.

Ivan Vrdoljak, Croatian Economy Minister, on Wednesday confirmed reports carried  by the Serbian daily newspaper Blic about Serbia's likely inclusion in the planned gas pipeline running from Croatia to Hungary.

Amid the continuing fall out over the HSBC scandal, a journalistic project in Romania has named a key figure in the ruling party as one of those who held secret accounts in the Swiss branch of the British bank.

Belgrade’s monuments commission said that Serbian victims of the 1990s wars will get a memorial in the capital, after lobbying by refugees who fled the conflict in Croatia.

Croatia: Glavas in hate speech campaign

ZAGREB -- Branimir Glavas, who has recently been released from prison, has paid to promote "a campaign of hate speech" on Facebook.