Environmental Protection Agency

The death toll from the South Korean Sewol ferry disaster has climbed to 242, according to local officials.

According to the South Korean coast guard, as cited by the CNN, 60 people are still missing.

The search-and-rescue operation is impeded by swift currents and high waves.

All 7 kidnapped observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who were held by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine since 25 April, were freed, Saturday.

Five Ukrainian officers taken with them were also freed, according to Russian media reports.

Russia has called UN Security Council's meeting on the conflict in Ukraine on Friday, warning the government in Kiev to stop its military operations in the east of the country.

Three-day mourning was declared in the Ukrainian city of Odessa after Friday's riots, which took 41 lives and injured nearly 200 people.

"May 3, 4 and 5 are declared mourning days," the city council has announced in a statement on its website.

Romania's Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean has requested a strengthened presence of US and NATO forces in the country in response to the Ukrainian crisis.

At least four people died in southern Ukraine's city of Odessa in clashes between pro-Russian activists and Maidan supporters on Friday.

An unknown people were injured, but according to UNIAN news agency at least three police members were among them.

Only 5% of Poles firmly support the idea that their country should join the Eurozone, a survey by the GfK Polonia Institute has shown.

Nearly three-quarters of Polish citizens do not want to abandon the zlota, Poland's national currency, with 42% of them being "strongly against" and 32% being "against" the euro, as Bulgaria's bTV

Ukrainain special forces claimed Friday to control "half of Slaviansk", hours after Kiev renewed its operation against pro-Russian separatists.

Officials from the Security Service of Ukraine regained significant parts of the city in what authorities describe as an "anti-terrorist" operation.

Unemployment in Bulgaria retained in March its level of 13.1%, according to latest data by Europe's statistical body Eurostat.

A total of 443 000 Bulgarians were without a job in that month, 60 000 of which were under 25, as Investor.bg reports, citing the agency.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has replaced its "number top" cadre in political hierarchy, Choe Ryong-hae.

In a report on May Day events by North Korea's mouthpiece KCNA it was revealed that Hwang Pyong-so would be the new military politburo chief, according to The South China Morning Post.