Europe

The referendum on the status of Crimеa was once more moved to an earlier date and will be held on March 16. 

According to Crimea's first deputy-prime minister Rustam Temirgaliev, Crimeans will be asked  to decide if the autonomous republic stays part of Ukraine or joins Russia. 
There will be two questions on the ballots. 

“Our aim is to support the Russian people in the name of the Serbian people,” a Serbian volunteer named Milutin Malisic said.

“We are representing Chetnik movement, which is similar to the Russian Cossacks,” he told the Russian agency Itar Tass.

Bulgaria ranks first in EU terms of stroke mortality rates, according to the Health Strategy 2014-2020.

Some 160 out of 100,000 Bulgarians die of stroke, compared to the average EU mortality of 51 people, Bulgarian Pressa reports.

The EU cannot plug the holes in Ukraine's economy, according to Bulgarian socialist MEP Ivaylo Kalfin.

Speaking at a meeting with Bulgarian journalists in Brussels, Kalfin argued that Ukraine could get assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the IMF was the body which could solve the country's immediate problems.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rating has remained at a two-year maximum level for the last two weeks.

According to the data published by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM) on March 6, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency, 67.8% of the respondents approve of Putin’s work. 

Tension has been rising in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk as pro-Russian demonstrators seized a government administration building on Wednesday.

Some of the activists barged through the police protecting the area and entered the government building by smashing windows and entrances, Euronews reports. The Ukrainian flag on the roof was replaced by a Russian one.

The Ruse history museum published a series of postcards with ancient Roman fortresses along the nowadays Bulgarian stretch of the Danube, with Roman recipes on the reverse side. 

Socialist MP Yavor Kuyumdzhiev has assured that electricity prices in Bulgaria will not increase for years.

"Anybody may request an increase in power rates but what matters is what the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) permits, and the demands of power distributors are unrealistic," Kuyumdzhiev said Thursday in an interview for Nova TV.

The EU freezes the bank accounts of 18 former government officials of Ukraine as of Thursday. 

The list of names is not officially announced, but among them are the ousted president Viktor Yanukovich, his two sons, the former chief prosecutor Victor Pshonka, interior minister Vitalii Zaharenko, justice minister Olga Lukash and heads of Yanukovich's administration. 

War crimes verdicts improve Kosovo-Serbia relations, experts say

The Belgrade court decisions on war crimes committed in Kosovo will help improve the relationship between Albanians and Serbs, experts and citizens said.

Future verdicts by the Belgrade High Court War Crimes Chamber could help improve relations between Serbia and Kosovo. [AFP]