The European Commission is reporting Monday before the European Parliament on measures it has taken to lift Canadian visa regime for Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic. These are the last three countries in the European Union that sill have visa restrictions with Canada, the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, reported. Some Members of the European Parliament have voiced the opinion that the lifting of the visa regime must be bind with the current trade agreement negotiations between Canada and the EU. ...

By Dubai Chronicle* Many travel options from Dubai to Bulgaria are available, but here are few of the most convenient and recommended by experienced Bulgarian travelers. Bulgaria is located approximately 5000 km North/West from the United Arab Emirates....

The 11% discount on gas supplies from Russia is tied to fast-tracking the South Stream gas pipeline, according to Delyan Dobrev, Bulgaria's Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism. In a Monday interview for the morning broadcast of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), he specified that Bulgaria was to wrap up the paperwork on project by November 15, with Russia planning to start construction works in December. Dobrev announced that Bulgaria's next gas supply contract with Russia would be signed directly with Gazprom Export and would not include intermediary companies. ...

A week of Bulgarian cinema will be held in June in the capital of Qatar Doha to showcase the country's best movies and TV series. The news was reported by the Bulgarian Standard daily, citing Culture Minister, Vezhdi Rashidov. A special council is to decide which movies and TV series will be featured, but from the latter, the TV hits "Glass Home," "Seven Hours Difference," and "Undercover" will be certainly included. ...

The Netherlands will wait for the report of the European Commission on Bulgaria under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism before deciding if it would support the country's joining of the Schengen area. The news emerged during talks in Chicago between Bulgaria's President, Rosen Plevneliev, and Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte. Plevneliev is on his first official visit to the US as Head of State and is taking part in the NATO summit held in Chicago on May 21 and 22. ...

Bee Gees' singer Robin Gibb has died at age of 62 after a long battle with cancer. The news was reported Monday by BBC, one among many leading news agencies to pay last tribute to the musician. Gibb's family is quoted saying that they were making the announcement with "great sadness" and asking that "their privacy is respected at this very difficult time....

The number of victims from the deadly earthquake that struck Northern Italy in the early hours Sunday has risen to seven. More than 50 were injured and the death toll is expected to grow since many are said to be buried under rubble. Thousands of people were left homeless, spending the night in shelters and tents as aftershocks continue to hit the region....

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Bulgarian Christian Orthodox mark Monday the feast day of St. St. Konstantin and Elena (Constantine and Helena). ...

The candidate of the opposition, left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, Georgi Rumenov, has won the Sunday mayoral runoff election in the southern Bulgarian town of Saedinenie. The information was announced personally by Sergey Stanishev, the reelected leader of Bulgaria's main opposition formation, Chairman of the Party of European Socialists, PES, and former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The other top contender was the nominee of the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, Sasho Dinchiyski. ...

The entire territory of Bulgaria is covered by the first stage of NATO's missile defense shield, according to Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov. Mladenov spoke at the NATO summit in Chicago, held on May 21 and 22. State and government leaders of NATO members announced the establishment of the shield's first stage. ...

Incumbent Boris Tadic has lost the presidential elections in Serbia to his opponent, Tomislav Nikolic from the Serbian Progressive Party. Nikolic has won 49.2% of the votes in the runoff of the Serbian presidential elections on Sunday vs....

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has insisted that "there will be no rush for the exits" in Afghanistan regardless of the intention of new French President Francois Hollande to withdraw France's troops from the ISAF. "Our goal, our strategy, our timetable remain unchanged," Rasmussen said Sunday, as cited by international media. Rasmussen said that new position does not indicate fresh cracks in the alliance....

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has ruled out any possibilities of holding early parliamentary elections. Borisov thus snubbed a forecast made a day earlier by opposition ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) leader Ahmed Dogan, who said he could "smell" early elections in October-November 2012 as a result of a collapse of the Cabinet of Borisov and his center-right party GERB. Dogan's prediction coincided with the holding of the 48th Congress of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, which reelected its Chair and ex PM Sergey Stanishev with calls for toppling the GERB government. ...

The new concessionaire of Bulgaria's Gorubso Madan Mines, wealthy businessman Nikolay Valkanov, has created jobs for 60 workers from the troubled Lead and Zinc Complex (LZC; OTZK) in Bulgaria's Kardzhali. This has been announced by Plamen Dimitrov, head of the Confederation of Independent Bulgarian Syndicates (KNSB), on Radio K2 on Sunday. Dimitrov explained that Valkanov, who is the owner of Minstroy Holding, opened the new jobs at the request of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. ...

Russian opposition activists and renowned cultural figures participated in a protest walk across Russia's second largest city St. Petersburg on Sunday. Only about a hundred people, including famous musicians, artists, and also film director Alexander Sokurov, started their stroll across St....

Bulgarian Deputy PM and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has been elected chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Bulgarian Finance Ministry announced. Djankov, who got the new job at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has thus become the first government minister from the former communist bloc to be elected at a top position in the EBRD since the bank was established in 1991. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) uses the tools of investment to help build market economies and democracies in 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia. ...

Hollywood star Selena Gomez has been enchanted by Poli Genova, a Bulgarian singer who represented her country at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Duesseldorf. Selena Gomez, who is shooting The Getaway together with Ethan Hawke in Bulgaria's Sofia until May 25, attended a party at Sofia's Yalta Club Friday night during which Poli Genova and the LaTiDa band presented their new song "Pants Only". The summer reggae song is said to have impressed Gomez who took a video of the performance with her mobile phone, Genova's PR consultants have announced. ...

Bulgaria is not going “to get in a conflict” with Romania over the natural gas deposits in the Black Sea, according to Bulgarian Economy, Energy, and Tourism Minister Delyan Dobrev. Dobrev pointed out that no conflict is to emerge since both Bulgaria and Romania have natural gas deposits in their Black Sea economic zones, as cited by BNR Sunday. Dobrev apparently referred to the dispute between Bulgaria and Romania over 17 square km of their economic zones in the Black Sea that was raised as a public issue by Romanian Foreign Minister Crisian Diaconescu in the spring of 2012. ...

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer who convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, died Sunday. The 60-year-old al-Megrahi, responsible for one of the most barbaric international terrorism acts of the regime of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has died nearly three years after he was released from a Scottish prison to the outrage of the relatives of the attack's 270 victims. Scotland released Mr....

An initiative committee has held a protest rally in Sofia demanding the resurrection of the project for the construction of a second Bulgarian nuclear power plant in the Danube town of Belene. Sunday's rally in Sofia was organized by a committee called "I Don't Give Up on the Belene NPP, Do You?" The protesters have insisted on the holding of a nation-wide referendum on the fate of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project, which was killed by the rightist Cabinet of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the GERB party in March 2012, after years of uncertainty ever since the previous, Socialist-dominated Bulgarian government signed a construction contract with the Russian state corporation Atomstroyexport back in 2006. ...

Sergey Stanishev, the reelected leader of Bulgaria's main opposition formation, the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, declared Sunday that the recent split in Socialist rang must be healed now. Stanishev, who is also a former Prime Minister and current Chairman of the Party of European Socialists, PES, was reelected late Saturday evening to lead BSP. The delegates of the party's 48th congress had to choose between him and Georgi Kadiev, former candidate for Mayor of Sofia....

Bulgaria's Health Minister, Desislava Atanasova, launched Sunday the National Day of Sports in the capital Sofia's South Park. The Minister spoke about the harmful effects of smoking and voiced satisfaction from the fact that fewer children are tempted by trying cigarettes. The day continued with the mass participation of children of all ages in games of volleyball, basketball, badminton, martial arts, jogging and football at special fields set across the park....

The Danish Member of the European Parliament, Dan Jorgensen, from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, has sent a letter to Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, asking him to not allow the euthanasia of stray dogs. The letter has been issued by the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals in the European Parliament. It declares serious interest in the stray dogs' problem in Bulgaria and the strong concern of the members of the European Parliament with the possibility of changes in the Animal Protection Act which will legitimize the useless mass destruction of homeless dogs in the country. ...

The southern Bulgarian town of Saedinenie is electing its mayor at run-off Sunday. 63.16% of the 5 500 voters cast a ballot at first round one week ago. ...

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has wed his long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan. The wedding was announced on the social network after Zuckerberg updated his status to "married." ...

Bulgaria can join the Eurozone in 2 to 3 years, but no one can give an exact date, according to the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov. The news was reported Sunday by the Bulgarian news agency BGNES, citing a statement of the Minister before Reuters on the occasion of the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, EBRD. Djankov notes that from the 27 EU Member States only 4 have fulfilled the Maastricht Treaty criteria, one of them being Bulgaria, which is not in the Eurozone....

President, Rosen Plevneliev, attended Saturday an emotional meeting with the Bulgarian community in Chicago. Plevneliev, who is on his first official visit to the US as Head of State, addressed the expats ahead of the NATO summit in Chicago. The city is home of the largest Bulgarian diaspora in North America. ...

Serbia is holding run-off presidential elections Sunday, with voters having to choose between incumbent reformist Boris Tadic and nationalist Tomislav Nikolic. The outcome of the vote may influence both Serbia's EU future and the future of the former province of Kosovo which declared independence in 2008, BBC analysts write. Tadic, who has already served two terms in office, calls the vote a referendum on EU membership. ...

Northern Italy has been shaken by a very strong earthquake just hours after a 16-year-old girl was killed and other students were injured by bomb in front of a school in Brindisi in the south. BBC reports Sunday, citing local officials, that the quake has killed at least three people and caused thousands of others to flee into the streets. The 5....

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev was reelected late Saturday evening to lead the main opposition party in the country, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP. The delegates of the party's 48th congress had to choose between him and Georgi Kadiev, former candidate for Mayor of Sofia. According to flash results, 75% have voted for Stanishev and 22% for Kadiev. ...

Former Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov has dropped from the race to head the Bulgarian Socialist Party, paving the way for the reelection of incumbent chair and ex PM Sergey Stanishev. Parvanov quit the race late Saturday night, before the some 800 delegates at the 48th Congress of the BSP cast their votes for a party leader. For months, he and his former protégé Sergey Stanishev were locked in a leadership battle, with Parvanov, who was the President of Bulgaria in 2002-2012, hoping to regain the chairmanship of the Socialists that he held in 1997-2002. ...

The South Stream gas pipeline is project of high priority for Bulgaria, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has declared. Borisov has pointed out the financial benefits of projects like South Stream that make use of his country's geostrategic location. He added that the money gathered by Bulgaria from this project will be used for "retirement pensions, salaries and asphalt," the latter referring to ruling centrist-right GERB's priority on the construction of highway. ...

The left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) needs a stronger leader figure, according to former President Georgi Parvanov, who is running to take over as the party's new chair. "It is with regret and envy that I have observed how Boyko Borisov has been pulling GERB like a locomotive since 2009," Parvanov told BSP members at the party's 48th congress on Saturday, referring to Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his centrist-right political formation. The left-wingers would stand a chance if they have a "authentic and strong leader," Parvanov reckons. ...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has declared that his government is determined to fight crime and not allow the country returned to its violent and "subversive" past. Monti's written statement followed a bomb explosion that took place on Saturday outside a school in the southern Italian city of Brindisi. The blast killed one 16-year-old girl and injured at least seven others. ...

Ahmed Dogan, the controversial leader of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, has predicted that early elections will take place in the country. Dogan believes the ruling centrist-right GERB is governing the country in a brutal and chaotic manner and without any vision. He has stated that GERB would resort to all possible moves in its bid to keep itself in power....

Investigators are yet to find evidence suggesting the bomb that went off outside a school in the southern Italian city of Brindisi is the work of the mafia, according to the country's Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri. A blast went off as students were arriving at Brindisi Francesca Morvillo Falcone vocational school at around 07:45 local time on Saturday, killing one 16-year-old girl and injuring 7. "It's not the usual (method) for the Mafia," Cancellieri told Sky TG24 in a phone interview, as cited by international media. ...

Bulgarian MMA fighter Blagoi Ivanov who was stabbed nearly fatally on February 7 has declared that he is determined to return to the fighting ring and score more victories. Ivanov gave a brief conference at Sofia's Pirogov hospital on Saturday, his first media appearance since he was stabbed in a Sofia night club. He is expected to leave the hospital next week. ...

No one can split the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), according to Bulgaria's former President Georgi Parvanov, who is eager to take over as the political formation's leader. "Forget the word split when it comes to BSP," Parvanov told reporters on Saturday, referring to statements that the leadership battle between him and the BSP's current chair, Sergey Stanishev, may prove divisive for the party. BSP's leader is expected to be elected late on Saturday at the party's 48th congress, with Parvanov believed to be the underdog. ...

A 16-year-old girl was killed and at least six students were injured as a bomb exploded in front of a school in the southern Italian city of Brindisi on Saturday. The blast went off as students were arriving at the Francesca Morvillo Falcone vocational school at around 07:45 local time. Mimmo Consales, the mayor of Brindisi, has blamed local mafia for the explosion....

The Sofia City Court ruled Saturday to keep permanently behind bars alleged top criminal Evelin Banev AKA Brando. Banev was arrested on May 16 in the Black Sea town of Sozopol on suspicions of money laundering. The Prosecutor requested the measure on grounds he planned to secretly escape from Bulgaria to avoid the money laundering charges and trial. ...

The trail against Kalina Ilieva, the notorious former head of Bulgaria's Agriculture Fund, charged with forging her university diploma, will be launched at the Sofia District Court on June 4. Ilieva faces up to eight years in prison over the fake master's degree diploma scandal. The young woman is also charged with forging four other documents claiming she had graduated from the University of Engineering and Economics in Berlin. ...

The worldwide famous harvest has begun Saturday in the 'valley of the roses' close to Kazanlak in central Bulgaria. From May 19 to June 24, the town Kazanlak will host the 2012 Rose Festival. The program each week is dedicated to the elements of nature – fire, water, air, and earth, and to the Bulgarian rose. ...

The leader of the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, Sergey Stanishev, delivered a long keynote address at the party's 48th congress, focusing on the victory in the 2013 general elections. In it, he outlined ways to prevail over the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, his strong will to overcome, the Socialists political platform, team spirit and good organization, adequate coalition policy, clear commitments and fair elections. The main intrigue at the congress, held Saturday, is the election of the new party leader. ...

Bulgaria's Unit for Combatting Organized Crime, GDBOP, and the US' DEA have jointly carried out a special police operation codenamed "The Launderers." The Bulgarian special anti-mafia Prosecutor's Office led the operation. ...

The official opening of the 2012 and 57th edition of the Eurovision song contest is being held in the capital of Azerbaijan Saturday evening. The ceremony will take place in downtown Baku, not far away from the so-called Crystal Palace or Crystal Hall, which has been built especially for the event. The semi-finals will be on May 22 and 24, while the final is on May 26. ...

Bulgaria will be among the first five countries in Europe to be covered by NATO's missile defense shield, according to President, Rosen Plevneliev. Plevneliev, who is on his first official visit to the US as Head of State, spoke ahead of the NATO summit in Chicago. "The first five countries to be covered by the shield are in Europe and Bulgaria is one of them....

Code yellow for potentially dangerous weather has been declared Saturday for 14 Bulgarian regions due to the forecast for torrential rains. The warning has been released by the Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS. The alert is effective for the regions of Gabrovo, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse, Razgrad, Silistra, Dobrich, Shumen, Varna, Burgas, Sliven, Yambol, Haskovo, Kardzhali, and Stara Zagora where the expected precipitations can reach 20 to 30 liters per square meter. ...

The Sofia City Court is going to rule Saturday on the prosecutor's request to keep permanently behind bars alleged top criminal Evelin Banev AKA Brando. The Prosecutor has requested the measure on grounds he planned to secretly escape from Bulgaria to avoid money laundering charges and trial. The Sofia City Prosecutor, Nikolay Kokinov, informed his office has very serious evidence for the above....

The left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, is holding its 48th congress Saturday to elect the new party leader. The front runners are the current leader and former Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev, and former President, Georgi Parvanov, who served 2 terms in office (2002 – 2012). There are 842 delegates – 107 are 35 years of age and younger, 771 have college degrees....