Ukraine’s parliament began a procedure to dissolve the regional assembly in Crimea after it asked to join Russia, Ukraine’s interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said Thursday. 

Crimea’s Parliament voted to join Russia on March 6 and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum within 10 days on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula. 

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf’s counsel Thursday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the decision of a special court not to allow the high treason case against his client to be held in a military court.