Diplomatic rank

President Traian Basescu pointed out that some procedures were necessary before Mihnea Motoc, nominated as foreign minister, can be appointed. Namely, to avoid incompatibility, Motoc should resign from the diplomatic corps and be dismissed from his position of ambassador to the European Union, through a decree countersigned by the prime minister.

Six Romanian nationals were killed and two were injured in a road accident on a motorway in Italy, the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) reported in a press release on Saturday.

The Bosnian Foreign Minister and Social Democratic Party leader, Zlatko Lagumdzija, met the Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy, Nicholas Hill, on September 23, to rebut charges of neglect and corruption contained in a recent blog post by two senior US officials.

Honorary consuls of Bulgaria will be obliged to present reports on their activity to the Foreign Minister every four years.

The measure is part of a change to an ordinance on honorary consuls which has been approved by the government.

The amendment seeks to tighten control over the work of honorary consuls and monitor its efficiency.

Valentin Poryazov and Rumen Aleksandrov are to be deputies to interim Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov, the Bulgarian government's press office has said.

Both of them are career diplomats, with a number of years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic analysed on Friday the security of the foreign embassies in Serbia and the country's diplomatic offices abroad.

"25 ambassadors, consuls to be appointed"

BELGRADE -- Serbia currently has some 25 unfilled ambassadorial and consular positions abroad, but plans to appoint heads of these offices by the end of the year.

Serbia's Foreign Minister, Ivica Dacic, said that Serbia is about to appoint 20 new ambassadors, including to US and China, in the next four months.

The initial plan was to appoint ten new ambassadors to posts in July. However, Dacic told the daily newspaper Danas on August 8 that there had been a delay after the ministry realised the number needed to be doubled.

BELGRADE - The new heads of around 20 Serbian diplomatic missions abroad will be appointed in the next four months, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, who is also foreign minister, has announced.

Ekaterina Zaharieva has been appointed caretaker Deputy PM in charge of economic policy, caretaker Minister of Regional Development and Caretaker Minister of Investment Planning

She was born on August 8, 1975.

She graduated from the the Bertolt Brecht Foreign Language High School in Pazardzhik, specializing in German.