Bulgarian authorities plan to invest in tourism projects in “beautiful and lesser-known places around the country” and build them up to their former splendor and prominence. The first areas to benefit from the initiative are the town of Trun in western Bulgaria, the village of Sitovo near Plovdiv and Goleshevo …

New financial leasing contracts in Bulgaria continued to dwindle in the final quarter of the year, totalling 936 million leva, down 15% from the three months before, showed central bank data. As the financial meltdown began to make its way into the Bulgarian economy, the sector started to lose momentum …

KABUL (AFP) –  British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Wednesday applauded the deployment of 17,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan, but said his country had no plans to follow suit. Britain’s commitment to Afghanistan remained strong, despite the cost in cash and soldiers’ lives, the visiting Miliband told a news …

ASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama approved the deployment of 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, a surge in numbers promptly welcomed by the Kabul government Wednesday as it battles a Taliban insurgency. Stressing that “the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action,” President Obama ordered …

Thousands of Albanians took to the streets with flags and banners to celebrate the first anniversary of Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Tuesday, but excitement was dampened by the realisation that the secession from Serbia was not a quick fix to the nation’s many problems. Car horns, traditional music and …

While Kosovo’s Albanians celebrated the one-year anniversary of their declaration of independence on Tuesday, Serb and Kosovo Serb politicians gathered defiantly in the northern Kosovo town of Zvecan on Tuesday to proclaim their rejection of the secession and flaunt Belgrade’s reach in Serb-controlled parts of Kosovo where Pristina has no …

Kosovo’s parliament held a special session on the first anniversary of its declaration of independence on Tuesday, with senior leaders conveying their wishes for the future and promising that the coming years will be more productive and positive. “Our first year was a year of proud for Kosovo,” said Prime …

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic will meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday, exactly a year after Kosovo seceded from Serbia, to speak about Kosovo and to inform him of Belgrade’s expectation that the six-point plan will be implemented in full as approved by the Security Council.. Serbian Foreign …

NATO is concerned about the possibility of Slovenia holding a referendum on Croatia’s membership in the alliance, worried both about delays and a vote denying their neighbour NATO accession. Two Slovenian nationalist groups on Monday initiated a referendum on Zagreb’s accession to NATO, saying Croatia should not join the alliance …

Kosovo is not an independent state despite seceding from Serbia a year ago, Serbia’s President Boris Tadic told AFP in an interview For Serbia, the Feb. 17 anniversary is “a day when the authorities in Pristina declared the independence of Kosovo in an illegal way, based on international law,” Tadic …