Geneva  - Swiss voters overwhelmingly supported a government- backed motion to extend cooperation with the European Union in a referendum on Sunday.

Sofia - Bulgaria was in shock Thursday over a macabre family murder in the south of the country which left two children dead and five others seriously injured.

Moscow - Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, on Thursday called for more urgency in building alternative pipeline routes to carry Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine.

The former Soviet state, which is almost wholly dependent on Russian gas for heat, was severely hit by a dispute between Russia and Ukraine last month that severed its supplies of gas for nearly two weeks amid freezing temperatures.

Sofia - Bulgarian farmers blocked border crossings and roads in the north and south of the country Wednesday, demanding higher prices for agricultural products, local media reported.

At Russe, the only bridge across the Danube along Bulgaria's border with Romania, was also blocked. The barricades were being briefly lifted once in every two hours to allow some of the waiting trucks passage to Romania.

To the east, at Vidin, police removed a human chain formed by protestors to end the blockade of a ferry across Danube and a roadblock was lifted on a road leading to Romania at Oryachovo, between Russe and Vidin.

Sofia - Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov would travel to

Athens - Greek farmers protesting low prices for their products continued to block the main border crossing with Bulgaria on Friday.

Thousands of farmers lifted their road blocks in the northern prefectures of Macedonia and Thrace after accepting an emergency aid package by the government.

In the past week and a half, thousands of farmers used their tractors to create more than 70 roadblocks along all the main highways across Greece.