Parliament passed three separate resolutions on Thursday, calling for urgent political dialogue with Uganda and Nigeria under the Cotonou Agreement on the recent laws against homosexuals; calling on the Russia to review the sentences passed on the Bolotnaya Square demonstrators; and calling for coordinated regional action to tackle human trafficking in Sinai.

Turkey is faced with the most critical progress report yet in its bid to join the European Union, due to recent allegations of fraud and massive corruption and concerns over the lack of a separation of powers. "Justice is the key issue," explained Ria Oomen-Ruijten, a Dutch member of the EPP group who wrote the report. "Turkey shouldn't do it for us. They should do it for the modernisation of the country. It's to the benefit of Turkish citizens." MEPs adopted her report on 12 March.

We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission, call on the Russian Federation to cease all efforts to change the status of Crimea contrary to Ukrainian law and in violation of international law. We call on the Russian Federation to immediately halt actions supporting a referendum on the territory of Crimea regarding its status, in direct violation of the Constitution of Ukraine.

As the Lithuania's politicians consider the country's Presidency of the European Union (EU) Council as successful and at the same time express their nuisance related to the stopped EU-Ukraine negotiations over the Association Agreement, Ambassador of Georgia to Lithuania Khatuna Salukvadze say that Vilnius Summit has become the historic event for Georgia.

The European Economic and Social Committee's President, Henri Malosse, was a special Guest and speaker at the ceremony of the 55th anniversary of the Tibet uprising that took place today in Dharamsala (India). As the first president of a European institution to visit the government of Tibet in exile, he wanted to pay tribute to the victims of the repression in Tibet and through them to all the people deprived of liberty in China and everywhere in the world.

From 10 to 13 March, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius will be paying a working visit to Tokyo and will hold meetings with the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, the Chair of the Lithuania-Japan Parliamentary Group for Friendship Hirofumi Nakasone, and other high-ranking officials.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people crashed into the sea, reports Vietnamese state media citing a Navy official. The craft disappeared from radars early on Saturday morning over Vietnamese airspace.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė is attending an extraordinary meeting of the European Council where the situation in Ukraine is being discussed. In Brussels, the heads of state or government of the 28 EU member states and Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk debated the EU's concrete support for Ukraine to stabilize the situation in the country and exchanged views on the security of the whole of Europe and potential measures to strengthen it.

Bordering both Russia and the European Union, Ukraine has wavered for a long time between closer ties with the east or the west. Last year the country was about to sign an association agreement with the EU. When political leaders pulled out at the last minute, it led to months of protests on Maidan, demonstrators being tortured and shot, president Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the country and Russia threatening to intervene militarily. Ukraine's future is in the balance.

On Tuesday, Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) presented the list of the 18 Ukrainian government's officers to whom Lithuania's sanctions will be imposed. The 18 Ukrainian government's officers will be prohibited to arrive in Lithuania.