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Macedonia offers olive branch to Bulgaria

Alex Bivol — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:51:00 +0200

Under pressure from Brussels on the name issue dispute with Greece, Skopje seeks to re-build relationship with with Sofia.

Kosovo’s governing coalition breaks up – reports

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:12:00 +0200

Parties that governed together in Pristina fall out because of their battle in Kosovo’s local government elections.

White tigress slaughtered by lions

Gabriel Hershman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:42:00 +0200

The white tigress is a rare animal resulting from a special recessive gene

Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine to form military brigade

Krakow Post — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:11:00 +0200

The agreement was signed in Brussels earlier this week but it's still a long way off before the Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian brigade can be formalized as an international agreement.

Regional fallout from Macedonia name dispute

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:38:00 +0200

Media reports say that the EU will pressure Athens and Skopje to come up with a solution to the Macedonia name dispute by December 7, or Brussels will take a cooler approach to Macedonia’s EU hopes; while a row breaks out in Belgrade after Serbia’s foreign minister takes sides in the dispute.

Flu slows down Kyiv

Kateryna Grushenko - Kyiv Post — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:17:00 +0200

Affected by quarantine and panic, life in Kyiv has been subdued in the past few weeks.

A special purpose base

Tsvetelina Manolova, Panayot Angarev — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:01:00 +0200

Russia’s planned humanitarian base in Serbia could hold deeper strategic interests

Mixed reactions to Van Rompuy, Ashton taking EU top jobs

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:56:00 +0200

Welcomed by the UK government, France and Germany, as well as the US, the naming of Belgium’s Herman van Rompuy as European Council President and Catherine Ashton as foreign policy chief has caused misgivings in some circles, including Turkey which believes that Van Rompuy will oppose Turkish membership of the bloc.

Renewed bank re-assurances for Romania despite stalled bailout-mandated reforms

Alex Bivol — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:48:00 +0200

The IMF has withdrawn its mission, which was due to assess Romania's compliance with the terms of the bailout, and now expects Romania to miss the fiscal deficit target set by the bailout agreement.

European Council set to make a meal of it

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:35:00 +0200

The dinner meeting of EU leaders to decide on the European Council President and the bloc’s new foreign minister and head of secretariat could take a few hours or all night, says host Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden’s prime minister.

Hungary declares flu epidemic

The Budapest Times — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:22:00 +0200

Hungarian health authorities declared a flu epidemic on November 17, saying the number of patients reporting flu symptoms to doctors had reached 22 100

Serbia speaks on Macedonia name dispute – reports

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:13:00 +0200

Greece’s alternate foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas in talks in Belgrade at the start of a Western Balkans tour.

Is the EU ready to face another Russian gas crisis?

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:13:00 +0200

Russia and the European Union have agreed on an early warning system if another natural gas cutoff looms. Some say that Bulgaria, among other countries hard-hit by the January 2009 crisis, is now better prepared. Not everyone is convinced.

Poll: Number of Russians worrying about A(H1N1) growing

Kyiv Post — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:11:00 +0200

The number of Russians worrying about contracting the A(H1N1) flu virus grew to 70 per cent in November from 57 per cent in September.

Bulgarians under arrest in Moscow possibly also prosecuted in Bulgaria

Rene Beekman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:58:00 +0200

The three have already been formally charged in a Russian court and face up to six years in prison.

Kosovo elections praised by allies, slammed by Serbia

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:17:00 +0200

While the US, UK and Swedish presidency of the EU praise the conduct of Kosovo’s first local elections since its self-declared independence, Belgrade slams the vote as illegitimate.

Riots break out in central Athens on 36th anniversary of the Polytechnic massacre

Nick Iliev — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:51:00 +0200

The Polytechnic University or Politechniu in Greek, was the scene of a massacre in 1973, when Greek army tanks broke into the University and shot students indiscriminately, killing dozens of youths.

Moderate earthquake jolts Albania

Nick Iliev — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:20:00 +0200

Tremor was felt in many areas in the country but there are no reports of injuries or damage as of yet

Czechs relive the Velvet Revolution

Gabriel Hershman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:49:00 +0200

Former Czech Republic president Vaclav Havel addressed the crowd 20 years after the uprising and warned that authoritarianism was not dead

Fewer Bulgarian students at US universities

Nick Iliev — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:36:00 +0200

The number of foreign students in the US has decreased, but in a year, the number of Bulgarians studying in the States dropped by 10 per cent.