News archive of December 2016

Approximately 650,000 farmers are expected to receive notices for their new hiked contributions covering the first half of 2016. Following a series of changes and tweaks, the new system for calculating contributions for professionals, farmers and scientists will take effect as of January 1, 2017.

CSKA Sofia will give part of its revenues from hosting its next game to the family of Filipe Machado, who died in the plane crash in Colombia earlier this week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed the grave situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by phone on Nov. 30 for the third time in a week, with the two "agreeing on the need for a ceasefire," presidential sources said. 

Bulgaria's capital Sofia will have a living Christmas tree for the first time and will light it up on Thursday, the local administration says.

Unlike previous years, the tree is not located in front of the Sofia Municipality building, near the Sofia Court House.

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is helping Turkey find two of its soldiers that went missing in Syria, a British general stated on Nov. 30.

The world’s top supermodels strutted their stuff, Wednesday, at Victoria Secret’s runway in Paris. Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Taylor Hill, Jasmine Tookes, Kendall Jenner, sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid, and Lily Aldridge walked for the US lingerie giant in Paris.

Bulgaria's leading party, GERB, has said it will not support either of its former coalition partners - the Reformist Bloc, or the Patriotic Front - if the President mandates them to form a new government within the current parliament.

Recent political tensions between Croatia and Russia are not the only factors behind the steady decline in the value of trade between Russia and Croatia, experts say.

Economic analyst Damir Novotny told BIRN that falling trade levels, mostly caused by a fall in imports from Russia, are not "a dramatic issue for Croatia".

Artan Demhasaj, director of the Pristina-based NGO Cohu, said the increasingly routine decision of courts to close high-profile corruption trials to the public gaze will undermine faith in Kosovo in the justice system.

"While the courts are constantly closing such sensitive cases, it is causing a deterioration of the situation in terms of transparency," Demhasaj told BIRN.

Mobile operators will now be obliged to give out information about the whereabouts of persons who have gone missing in the mountains.

Under amendments passed by Parliament on Wednesday, telecoms will have to provide rescue teams with the respective data within two hours of the signal being submitted.