Thabang Makwetla, South Africa’s deputy defence minister who was hosted in exile in Bulgaria in the early 1980s, interviewed by The Sofia Echo Editor-in-Chief Clive Leviev-Sawyer.

The funding is provided under the foreign military sales programme of the US army's Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

Governments in Prague and Bucharest could soon join Sofia in instituting temporary moratoriums on shale gas exploration.

The option to postpone the due date was contingent on securing 55 million euro for immediate repayment of the amounts loaned by Belgium's Dexia and Japanese bank Mizuho.

World leaders acknowledged Putin's victory with reservations, and international observers say the election was skewed in the former president's favour.

Hollande's call for more spending and economic growth has struck a chord with French voters.

The UK nationals were arrested after throwing beer bottles at people after being refused entry to a restaurant that had closed for the night.

Restoration and development projects include Madara Horseman, Arbanassi fortress, Magura cave.

Sergei Shoigu, the newly appointed governor of the Moscow Region, recently proposed that Russia move its capital to Siberia. The idea was immediately squelched.

Gallup International Association poll gives president Sarkisian’s party 44 per cent, while three main challengers alleged ‘machinations’ by ruling party in what – in contrast to 2008 – reportedly was a largely peaceful election.

On average, the moon is about 378 195 km away. At its furthest it is nearly 400 000 km away. During a lunar perigee and full moon, however, the lunar surface can appear up to 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than any other full moon.

Coalition around ruling Democratic Party has largest share of vote in Serbia's parliamentary election, according to exit polls.

Centre-right New Democracy is said by exit polls to have largest share of votes, but diminished even from its 2009 defeat, while socialists Pasok – the 2009 victors – gets somewhere around 14 to 17 per cent.

Simeon Saxe-Coburg and his spouse Margarita opened a new heating and insulation system at the Tsar Ferdinand Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Iskrets, a project implemented thanks to the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Sofia and the Nando Peretti Foundation.

The Freedom House report says the media environment in the Middle East and North Africa underwent major improvements in 2011, but remained the worst-performing part of the world.

Dissatisfaction with jobs is a global phenomenon and two-thirds of workers all over the world intend to look for another job in the near future, the survey concluded.

According to the law's provisions, the commission will have the power to investigate individuals without prior notification and would not require a criminal conviction in order to launch an investigation.

Led by German chancellor Angela Merkel, leaders of several EU countries have called off scheduled visits to Ukraine during the Euro 2012

The number of unemployed people in the first quarter of 2012 in Bulgaria was 422 500, according to official statistics.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who came in third in the first round election last month, would not vote for either Hollande or Sarkozy.