News archive of December 2016

"It is not right for the biggest political force to back a significantly smaller one," stated Deputy PM Rumyana Bachvarova in relation to the intention of President Rossen Plevneliev to hand a mandate for the forming of a government to the Reformist Bloc.

Turkey's water buffalo population has decreased to 100,000 from 1 million in 15 years due to extensive losses in wetlands in Turkey.

Experts say the country's water buffalo stock farming has suffered a huge impact due to degradations in Turkey's wetlands.

Voters in Austria will have to determine on Sunday who their new head of state will be.

For the first time since World War II, there is real possibility for the president of a Western democracy to belong to the far right.

Italian citizens vote on constitutional reform today in what some analysts see as the most significant political event of the year – even bigger than Brexit.

There is intense traffic at the Bulgarian-Turkish border at the border cross checkpoint Kapitan Andreevo, announced Border Police.

The situation is even worse at the Bulgarian-Romanian border. At the exit of border cross checkpoint Danube Bridge Vidin, there is a 4-km queue of cargo trucks.

ABU DHAB - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic on Thursday arrived on a two-day working visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Nikolic was welcomed by Minister of State for Higher Education Ahmad Belhoul.

BELGRADE - At a meeting with PM Aleksandar Vucic late Wednesday, World Bank (WB) officials expressed a readiness to back Serbian government efforts to strengthen the capabilities of the state administration in order to improve coordination among institutions and focus on achieving concrete results.

BELGRADE - Implementation of the Belgrade-Pristina agreement on the judiciary means that Serb judges and prosecutors will now participate in the work of judicial institutions in Kosovo-Metohija, which significantly boosts the chances of proceedings being based on law, rather than ethnicity, says Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija.

BELGRADE - The Serbian government on Thursday adopted the 2017 budget bill, with a planned deficit of 1.7 pct of GDP, the lowest-ever in the history of Serbia, the government announced in a statement.

The government is resolved to ensure economic growth and better life for citizens in 2017 as well, the statement said.

The adopted budget bill was sent to the parliament.

Italians will vote on Sunday on key political issues in a referendum that could cause economic turmoil, reported Focus agency.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced that he will resign if he loses.

According to economists, the negative vote could lead to the bankruptcy of already weakened banks and consequences will be felt all over Europe.