Eurasia

BRUSSELS, – European Union ceasefire monitors may soon be the only observer mission in Georgia yet still have no access to breakaway regions and face continued hostility, the mission’s head warned on Thursday. The official, Hansjoerg Haber, said observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were …

Armenian National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan met Thursday with Georgian Ambassador Revaz Gachechiladze, who is completing his mission in the republic. The Armenian Speaker thanked Ambassador Gachechiladze for his contribution to the development of the Armenian-Georgian cooperation. The two discussed possibilities to strengthen interparliamentary ties and other issues of mutual …

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 …