Sofia City Court is to hear Thursday one of the cases against the notorious ex-head of Sofia's Toplofikatsia heating utility, Valentin Dimitrov, accused of committing crimes against business establishments. Prosecutors claim Dimitrov has breached Article 219 of the Penalty Code of Bulgaria. About ...

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Barack Obama has been sworn in as US president for the second time in two days, because one word was given out of order during Tuesday's inauguration ceremony, BBC reported. The oath has been administered by Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts, at the White House. Official report...

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A man was shot dead by unknown attackers while driving his car in Sofia's neighbourhood of Lyulin shortly after midnight on Thursday. The victim, whose identity has not been revealed yet, lost control over his Mercedes after the fire on him had been opened. As a result the vehicle hit against a po...

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All three crossing points at the Bulgaria-Greece border were closed as of 11 am on Friday because of the continuing protests of the Greek farmers who are demanding their unpaid EU subsidies. While the two crossing points at the western part of the border Kulata-Promahon and Ilinden-Eksohi have alr...

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A man wanted to become a monk so he went to the monastery and talked to the head monk. The head monk said, "You must take a vow of silence and can only say two words every three years." The man agreed and after the first 3 years, the head monk came to him and said, "What are your two words?" "Food c...

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Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov met with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev in Baku Thursday, and both Presidents declared their unwavering support for the construction of the EU-sponsored Nabucco gas transit pipeline. Both Parvanov and Aliev agreed that Nabucco had to be realized as soon as ...

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Bulgaria's gold medalist in Women's Single Sculls at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Rumyana Neykova triumphed over the EU Commissioner Megelena Kuneva in a very close race, in which the readers of Novinite.com voted her Personality of the Year for 2008! Congratulations! The final results of Novinite.com...

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The US Ambassador to Sofia Nancy McEldowney said Thursday in the Danube city of Ruse that America's cooperation with its friends such as Bulgaria was expected to deepen under the new President Barack Obama. McEldowney was in Ruse to deliver a lecture for the information forum of the Initiative for...

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UK pop star James Blunt is coming for the first time in Bulgaria to stage a memorable show on his birthday - February 22. The concert will be in the National Palace of Culture in the capital and ticket prices range between BGN 30 and BGN 70, organizers said. At the moment James Blunt tours South A...

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The Lybian leader Muammar Gaddafi suggested Wednesday that Israel and Palestine should united in one single state called "Isratine", BGNES reported. According to Gaddafi, who spoke to Georgetown University students by video conference, that was the best solution for Israel because it would always ...

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The two airports of Bulgaria's Black Sea cities Varna and Burgas serviced 3,4 million passengers and 32 100 flights in 2008, their administration announced Thursday. The Varna Airport got 15 129 flights in 2008, which is a 1,06% increase compared to their number in 2007. The Burgas airport service...

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Bulgarian international Stiliyan Petrov is reportedly to be offered a new contract with Aston Villa. The 29-year-old moved to Villa Park from Celtic for £6.5million in the summer of 2006 and has managed to settle in as a first-team regular despite initial patchy performance. "He is playing great...

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The Director of the InvestBulgaria Agency Stoyan Stalev said Thursday that in 2008 Bulgaria had attracted almost EUR 6 B in foreign direct investments, the Pari Daily reported. The exact data is not available yet but the prognosis of the Agency coincides for FDI of almost EUR 6 B coincides with th...

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Two men were sentenced to death on Thursday and the chairwoman of a dairy company received a life sentence for their roles in the contaminated-milk scandal that killed six children and sickened nearly 300,000, Xinhua reported. Tian Wenhua, the former head of the Sanlu company, which is at the cente...

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Representatives of Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy and of the Ukrainian company Smart Group met to discuss the potential purchase of the troubled steel-maker Kremikovtzi. No decision about the future of the plant could be made after meeting as the Ministry is still supposed to have talks with the o...

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Hungary is to host a summit on January 27 to discuss the construction of the Nabucco gas pipeline, planned to carry gas from Central Asia to Europe. Representatives from the European Union, Caspian Sea gas producing countries and gas transit states will attend the summit, RIA Novosti quoted a dipl...

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About 100 Greek farmers with tractors invaded Bulgaria's territory briefly at about 1 am Thursday close to the Kulata Border Crossing Point, the BGNES news agency reported. Many of the Greek farmers are reported to have been drunk. Their group was accompanied by teams from three Greek TV channels....

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Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the European Union, the EC said, confirming commitment to ensure proper screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer in the bloc. Breast, cervical and colorectal cancer accounts for 32% of cancer deaths in women and 11% in men. With an agei...

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The 2008 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) shows the EU making substantial progress in its innovation performance preceding the financial crisis. The relative innovation gap with the US and Japan was reduced, in particular amid strong progress by many new Member States such as Cyprus, Romania a...

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Bulgaria's Minister of Energy and Economy Petar Dimitrov said Thursday that the government would ask the European Commission for aid if the country's losses from the recent natural gas shortage crisis top 0,6% of its GDP. The Minister announced in the Parliament that the Bulgarian economy had lost...

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The Bulgarian Parliament approved Thursday the final version and changes of the country's Labor Code. One of the changes provides that fathers, who wish to do so, would be able to take a 15-day paid leave from work after the bird of their child. With the mother's consent, fathers would also be ab...

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Bulgaria's Interior Minister is to give Thursday some explanations to the members of the Internal Security and Public Order Committee about the way the police acted during the protest against cabinet last week. The hearing will be held at the insistence of the opposition who managed to gather enoug...

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The US President Barack Obama took the first steps toward reducing the number of his country's troops in Iraq, telling his generals to start planning the military drawdown, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The order has been issued during a meeting of the new president with his national security team ...

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Bulgaria's Preident Georgi Parvanov stated that the second nuclear power plant to be constructed in the country near the town of Belene is not an alternative to the first one in Kozloduy. The head of state said in an interview for Darik Radio that the cabinet should insist for the restart of units ...

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A panda bear walks into a restaurant. He orders the special and eats it. After eating, he pulls out a pistol, kills the waiter and starts to walk out the door. The owner of the restaurant says, "Hey, what are you doing? You come in here, you kill my waiter and walk away without saying a word. I don...

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The Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov declared Friday that Bulgaria had been and would be an active factor in EU's effective energy policy. The President said this in his statement during the traditional reception for all foreign ambassadors accredited in Bulgaria, which took place in the Sun Ha...

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Prostitutes from Southwestern Bulgaria are the only ones profiting from the blockade of the borders with Greece, the Darik Radio reported citing truck drivers who are stuck in a huge traffic jam as they are waiting to cross into Greece. A group of some twenty prostitutes are offering their service...

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The Head of the Bulgarian State Tourism Agency Aneliya Krushkova predicted Friday in the city of Ruse that Bulgaria's tourism enterprises would have a poor season in the coming summer, as quoted by the Pari Daily. Krushkova said the main problem for the tourism agencies would be the late bookings ...

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From The Evening Standard By Joshua Rozenberg City lawyers are hoping that Brussels will begin legal action this month against an EU country they accuse of stifling competition. Firms including DLA Piper, CMS Cameron McKenna (CMcK) and Austrian practice Wolf Theiss lodged a formal complaint again...

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Several European law firms, who filed a formal complaint against Bulgaria with the European Commission in November, are expecting that the Brussels institutions would start legal action on their claims by the end of January, the UK newspaper The Evening Standard has reported. The lawyers are accus...

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Cooperation between researchers into a potentially massive new source of sustainable energy and European supercomputers promises to speed up work that could supply the energy needs of the planet. The European Commission have announced they will give scientists all over Europe working on nuclear fu...

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The Bulgarian government failed to select a new investor for the ailing steel-making giant Kremikovtzi even though the trade unions had set January 21 as a deadline for that. In an interview for the Darik Radio the trade union leader Vasil Yanachkov said the factory's bondholders had to put off th...

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The prices of apartments in Bulgaria decreased by an average of 4,1% in the final quarter of 2008 compared to the third quarter, according to the latest data of the National Statistical Institute released Friday. The apartment prices dropped in 23 of Bulgaria's 28 main district cities. The prices ...

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After its supplies of Russian natural gas have been restored, Slovakia has given up on its efforts to restart the nuclear reactor at the Jaslovke Bohunice power plant, the BGNES news agency reported Friday citing the Slovak Ministry of Economy. Slovakia's Economy Minister ?ubomír Jahnátek is qu...

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Football legend Hristo Stoichkov has been offered to become manager of Qatar's national football team, Bulgarian daily sports newspaper Meridian Match reported. According to the paper, the Qatari offer was the reason Stoichkov announced he will not accept a management position in the Bulgarian Foot...

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Bulgaria's Minister of Agriculture Valeri Tzvetanov awarded Friday the best Bulgarian farmers for 2008 at a special ceremony in the Ministry. The Manager of the Biotex Single Member Ltd firm from the northern city of Pleven Viktor Skravenski received the "Eurofarmer 2008" prize. Another agricult...

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The miraculous rocks at the northwest Bulgarian town of Belogradchik have been nominated for the global campaign to select the new Seven Wonders of the world, the BGNES news agency reported. The Belogradchik Rocks will be competing with 260 other landmarks from 220 nations all across the world. Th...

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A grenade hit barracks of Kosovo's new army west of the capital Pristina on Thursday, but no casualties were reported. A shell was launched at the barracks, near the football stadium in the town of Pec and experts suspect a hand-held grenade launcher was used. According to the Kosovo Police Servic...

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Britain has officially entered recession for the first time since 1991, official data showed Friday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that gross domestic product (GDP) had shrunk by 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the previous three-month period, when it contrac...

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Bulgaria's Minister of Energy and Economy Petar Dimitrov met Friday with the Deputy Director of the Russian energy giant Gazprom Alexander Medvedev, who came on a surprise visit to Sofia, BGNES reported. During the meeting, Dimitrov handed Medvedev a letter from the Bulgarian side formally demandin...

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A women's downhill scheduled for Friday at Cortina d'Ampezzo was called off after snow storms canceled the practice sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. According to International Ski Federation (FIS) rules, a minimum of one training run is compulsory for any downhill race, and organizers now hope t...

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The Invest in Bulgaria 2009 Summit, which is to take place at the Sheraton Hotel in Sofia on March 5-6 is going to feature more than twenty-five top business leaders and Bulgarian government officials. The Bulgaria Business and Investment Summit is organized by the European Finance Convention - a ...

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Two children and one adult have been stabbed to death at a Belgium creche, according to media reports. The frenzied attack took place at a child care centre in Dendermonde, west of the capital Brussels. The director of Dendermonde's ambulance centre, Peter Cleymans, said that as many as 20 other ch...

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Fidel Castro doesn't expect to be alive to witness the end of Obama's first term in office, says an article, written by the former Cuban president on an official government website. "I have had the rare privilege of observing events over a long period of time. I get information and meditate carefu...

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The Bulgarian member of the European Parliament Kristian Vigenin was part of an official delegation of the Party of European Socialists which met Thursday with Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan over the Nabucco gas transit pipeline. The Chair of the PES group at the European Parliament Martin Schult...

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A two-year-old child was ran over by a train close to the Black Sea city of Burgas, and died minutes later in the emergency ward of the Burgas hospital. The kid's family is from the town of Byala, Varna District. The family came to visit relatives in Burgas. They two-year-old went out to play in t...

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The Bulgarian Business Leaders' Forum gave out Thursday night its annual social responsibility in business awards for 2008 at a special ceremony in Sofia's Boyana Quarter. The software developer LLP Sofia won first prize in the "Investor in Society" category for its project "Summer Theater School" ...

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The Bulgarian Parliament decided Friday that the government must consider all the different opportunities for restart of two of the shut reactors at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. The Parliament's decision states that this should be done in cooperation with the European Commission, and that the...

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