Eurasia

ROME  – When police arrested two Romanians for the rape of an Italian teenager in Rome, Il Giornale, a paper owned by the family of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reported: “The Romanian beasts have been caught.” Three weeks later, prosecutors admitted the “beasts” could not be guilty — DNA tests …

Bulgaria’s Ministries Council granted authorization Thursday to design and build a waste treatment facility in the “Sadinata” site, near the village of Yana, in Sofia’s “Kremikovtzi” district. The “Integrated System of Facilities for Treatment of Household Waste from Sofia’s Municipality” will be built on nearly 333,000 square meters of lands …

Bulgaria’s Parliament Speaker Georgi Pirinski is visiting Ankara Thursday amidst a growing scandal regarding some Bulgarian cities recognizing the 1915 Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire. Three Turkish cities have broken their twin cities agreements with Bulgarian ones and nine more are about to do so due to …

Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivaylo Kalfin, has underlined the need for more energy security in the Baltic region and across Europe during a meeting late Wednesday with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza. Their meeting was attended by the US Department of …

Before the incoming census in both Kosovo and Albania, the Bulgarian Government has mobilized and is on a quest to find Bulgarians among the Gorans (Macedonian muslims) in Kosovo. For this purpose offices have been opened in both Kosovo and Albania where Bulgarian citizenship is offered to anyone who walks …

Twelve Turkish municipalities have severed ties with their Bulgarian sister cities, because the latter have classified the deaths of hundred of thousands of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 as genocide, Bulgarian National Radio said, citing Turkish-language newspaper Hürriyet.

The recognition of Kosovo’s independence by the Maldives has created a furore in this small chain of Indian Ocean islands. After a good of lobbying by Kosovo politicians, the Maldives recognised the country on February 19. But just two weeks on, President Mohamed Nasheed has ordered police to investigate allegations …

Russians aged under 18 will get free tourist visas for Bulgaria when making group visits, the Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev was quoted as saying by Focus news agency on Thursday. Teachers accompanying the groups will also get a free visa provided there is one teacher for every 15 …

Austrian diplomat is now all but certain to become the international community’s representative. An Austrian diplomat, Valentin Inzko, has been appointed to be the European Union Special Representative (EUSR) to Bosnia and Herzegovina after the United States government dropped its opposition. The appointment was made by EU member states in …

BAKU, March 12 – Russia’s foreign minister told his Azerbaijani counterpart on Thursday that Russia wants to continue using the Gabala early-warning radar after the current lease expires in 2012. “Russia is interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan in using the Gabala radar station, and will seek appropriate agreements with our …