News archive of December 2016

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are parents again! The couple have welcomed their second child, a baby boy, their representative has announced. The new arrival was born on Wednesday 30 November, and joins big sister Wyatt Isabelle, two. The couple has yet to name the baby boy born on Wednesday, the website E! News reported.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry doubled down on its position that the Aegean islands of Imia were Turkish territory, responding to the reaction by the Greek Foreign Ministry that the isles were Greek soil, by stressing that Turkey’s stance had been known to the international community since 1996.

Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has returned the mandate to form a government on Friday after receiving it from President Rosen Plevneliev.

Borisov has only kept the mandate for less than a minute.

He has made clear his party, GERB, which is the biggest in Parliament, will not seek a new cabinet within the current legislature.

The Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office launched a probe against more than 190 judges and prosecutors on Dec. 1 over their alleged links to the Fethullah Gülen movement, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.    

A total of 191 judges and prosecutors were suspended as part of the investigation, said a judicial source.

Serbia will hold presidential elections on April 9 next year, the Belgrade-based daily Blic writes.

According to the same source, early parliamentary elections could also be organized on that day.

The omnibus bill the government is preparing to cover the prior actions required for the second bailout review is in its final stage of drafting and will include tax exemption cuts and abolitions.

External pressure is probably being applied on Bulgaria to avoid the formation of a nationalist-led cabinet, Patriotic Front co-leader Krasimir Karakachanov has said.

In an interview with private bTV broadcaster, he has pointed to the PF's desire to change relations with the EU as the main reason for non-Bulgarian actors to work against a possible cabinet composed by his coalition.

The first landmark construction to be built on the site of Athens's former international airport at Elliniko as soon as the privatization procedure is finalized will be an integrated casino resort facing the Aghios Cosmas marina.

Three soldiers were killed and six were wounded in an operation against outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in the eastern province of Hakkari early on Dec. 2, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Belgrade wants a continuation of the dialogue with Pristina in a status-neutral way, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said.

That also implies that Pristina does not begin every discussion with references to "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing" allegedly committed by Serbia, he told a regular news conference in Belgrade on Thursday.