Joe Biden’s Western Balkans agenda

Calls for Kosovo to pressure Biden to lobby harder for more recognition for the fledgling state, while the topic may be skimmed in Serbia as the US seeks to rebuild ties.

Actor Michael Palin guest of honour at 13th Sofia International Film Festival

Headlining the focus on British films at the 13th Sofia International Film Festival will be the presence of British actor and TV presenter Michael Palin, and special projections of his films and television programmes, festival director Stefan Kitanov said at a festival press conference on January 28. The festival takes place from March 5 to 15 2009 in Sofia, with extensions until the 22nd in Sofia, Plovdiv and Bourgas.

Controversial businessman Plamen Galev to remain under arrest

Controversial businessman Plamen Galev, who was arrested for having allegedly intimidated a journalist, will remain under arrest, Sofia City Court decided on December 12, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported. The court hearing was conducted behind closed doors since police had used wire-taps in the course of the investigation against Galev.

Controversial businessman arrested for assaulting journalist - report

Controversial businessman Plamen Galev was detained by the police for 72 hours, Interior Ministry sources confirmed to Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily on December 5 2008. Galev, commonly referred by Bulgarian media as one of the "Galevi brothers", was detained shortly after he was declared as "wanted" by the police for having assaulted a journalist from his home town of Doupnitsa in southwestern Bulgaria.

Skopje takes Athens to International Court of Justice over Nato membership invitation veto

Macedonia is taking Greece to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), saying that Athens's veto at the Bucharest Nato summit of an invitation being given to Macedonia to join the alliance was a "flagrant violation" of a 1995 bilateral agreement between the countries. The move is the latest twist in the long-running "name dispute" between the two countries, which was the reason that Greece issued the veto.

EU weighs progress of Western Balkans

BalkanInsight.com

Good news for Croatia, bad news for Macedonia. These are some highlights from the European Commission progress draft report on the Western Balkans, to be published on November 5, to which Balkan Insight has gained exclusive access.

Athens and Skopje squabble after Greece detains journalists

Greece has accused Macedonia of distorting the truth about an October 13 incident in which four Macedonian journalists were detained near a protest in northern Greece against military exercises in the area.

MANAGER PROFILE: Is crime bigger than Bulgaria?

Misha Glenny gives a perspective on crime issues in Bulgaria that have been challenging the country for the past 20 years

Misha Glenny could not have chosen a better time to promote the Bulgarian language version of his book, McMafia. A few days before the book launch, Bulgarian society was scandalised by the brutal attack on journalist Ognyan Stefanov, who was almost beaten to death by four masked men. Just two days later, the State Agency for National Security (SANS) - the one given a green light by the Prime Minister to fight

Unblock your ears: `Big Bang' postponed to 2009

Optimists and devotees of science must, along with pessimists dreading - or eagerly anticipating - the destruction of the universe, wait a bit longer. The `Big Bang' experiment involving the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been postponed to spring 2009. According to a September 20 2008 statement on the LHC website, "during commissioning (without beam) of the final LHC sector (sector 3-4) at high current for operation at 5 TeV, an incident occurred at mid-day on Friday 19 September resulting in a large helium leak into the tunnel".

Weekend Blog special edition: The Thabo Mbeki legacy

History will probably be a great deal kinder to South African president Thabo Mbeki, who has agreed to step down, than commentators about him in the days that he prepared to succeed Nelson Mandela or for that matter, many of his detractors on the left wing of the African National Congress and his Western critics who have highlighted South Africa's failures on Zimbabwe and HIV-AIDS.

Bulgaria and the `big bang' in The Sofia Echo

One of the most fascinating and controversial scientific experiments, involving the largest particle accelerator ever built, was scheduled to be held in Switzerland on September 10 2008 - and of the team of more than 6000 scientists involved, 100 are from Bulgaria. In a story especially written for The Sofia Echo published on September 12, science correspondent Bozhidar Stefanov explains the meaning of the experiments involving the "God particle".

The Sofia Echo on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

A special feature, dedicated to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, will be only one of the highlights of Issue 31 of The Sofia Echo, coming out on August 1. The four-page supplement delves into the Olympic industry and trivia, hosts an interview with Boris Georgiev - the first Bulgarian athlete ever to win an Olympic medal - and includes the various places to watch the Olympics in Sofia, among others. On the domestic front,

Bulgarian opposition walks out of security council meeting, mulls impeaching President

Opposition parties walked out a special meeting of Bulgaria's consultative council on national security on July 17 2008 after failing in attempts to put a national controversy about EU funds and alleged links of top state officials to organised crime high on the agenda. The opposition MPs said that they would discuss initiating procedures to impeach President Georgi Purvanov, and that during the meeting, Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria leader Ivan Kostov had, to his face, called on Purvanov to resign.

INSIGHT: EC report on Western Balkans

Despite some economic progress, corruption, organised crime and ethnic tensions are continuing to obstruct progress in the Western Balkans, according to the European Commission's annual progress report, issued on November 6, on the countries that seek to join it.

While Albania is recognised as a country that continuously played a constructive role in regional stability, the European Commission considered that "political parties' lack of will to co-operate continued to hold back reforms, particularly in the electoral and judicial field". Judicial reforms have made very limited progress during the year and the judiciary's functioning has been of a poor standard because

Serbs stampede for Bulgarian and Romanian citizenship

Nikola Lazic in Bujanovac and Suzana Bozinovic in Zajecar

Since Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union on January 1 2007, an increasing number of Serbian citizens from the southeast have been trying to obtain citizenship from the two neighbouring countries. While Serbian passports allow little mobility in the context of the EU's stringent visa requirements, bearers of Romanian and Bulgarian travel documents can travel across Europe and have the same rights as all

Foreign Briefs

INSIGHT: Mitrovica Serbs hold their breath amid talk of unrest

Serbian leaders in Kosovo predict unrest may erupt in the mainly Serbian north of the region if Kosovo is granted some form of independence. Warnings came shortly before the UN special envoy, Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari, was due to visit Belgrade and Pristina on February 2 to present his proposals on the territory's final status. According to unofficial reports, his document does not mention the word

Christmas corrected

This is my first Christmas without a special friend who, since we have known each other, never missed attending our Orthodox Christmas supper with deep conviction, despite his Protestant belonging. Back in December 1989 at his miniature British museum home in London, our family sat down on the floor of his loaded-with-theatrical-photographs dining room, among whom figured one of our friends as Napoleon, of

Pamporovo builds up

Administrative and bureaucratic procedures and the ill-developed infrastructure at the Pamporovo mountain resort were the main obstacles for building companies, according to Borislav Stoyanov, manager of the building company 21st Century. Stoyanov said this on April 29 at the Real Estate Expo held in Sofia. The same day, he announced that the construction of the Perelik Palace holiday complex in

Bulgaria's Stara Zagora to host rock concerts

Stara Zagora is the next Bulgarian city after Kavarna to host names from the world rock and rap scene, according to an April 22 report in the Stara Zagora daily National Business Post (NPB). In 2006, Stara Zagora will offer performances by Uriah Heep, Nazareth, Scorpions, David Coverdale's Whitesnake, Axel Rudi Pell with Mike Terana on drums, Doro Pesh, Silent Madness, Busta Rhymes and most likely Michael Schenker

New Bourgas complex to help children

Bourgas mayor Yoan Kostadinov officiated at the April 12 opening of a new day care centre for street children. The centre is on San Stefano Street in the Bratia Miladinovi neighbourhood. The construction of an adjoining two-storey building is under way. This building will host a community support centre. The two centres are to be united in a complex for family and social services. The opening ceremony was

Rising concern about flood danger in Bulgaria

Local authorities in the Plovdiv region are concerned about the risk of further flooding when the next rainfalls come. The region has been hard-hit twice, during last summer and autumn's long spell of deluges, and earlier in March this year. Villages were flooded, road and rail connections disrupted, and a state of emergency declared during the March 13 floods. The issue has become a matter of international

Big investments in Bulgaria's Stara Zagora

An investment by Italian entrepreneur Edoardo Miroglio of 22 million euro in a winery near Stara Zagora is the latest large such investment in the south central Bulgarian town. The investment was announced during the annual Vinaria wine exhibition in Plovdiv, where the wines from the vineyard in the village of Elenovo were exhibited for the first time. Miroglio is the largest-scale Italian investor in the country. In the

FAMILY MATTERS: Family ties

It is three years since my last Family Matters column. In my time I had written about a whole variety of topics relating to my own background, including the blessings of a mixed marriage and growing up multilingual. Reflecting on our recent trip to India, which was my first as a wife and mother, I was reminded of the wealth and joy of being part of a large extended family. It was interesting to witness the effect on my husband

NOTES FROM HISTORY: Baba Vanga

WHAT do the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl disaster, Boris Yeltsin's electoral victory, the date of Stalin's death, the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, and Topalov's victory in the world chess tournament this year have in common? Before conspiracy theorists get carried away; they are all events said to have been foretold by "Baba Vanga".

READING ROOM: Recommended reads

WHY people write has always perplexed. To record one's thoughts, to engender thoughts in others, to record one's life, to incite life in others; to control, to influence, to encourage and to depress. Thousands of writers, thousands of texts, words, ideas, memories, passions, instructions. And out of so many, only few remain relevant enough for posterity.

Sounding Board - Some random observations

I AM English, I live in France at the moment, with my Sofian wife and our child. I first visited Bulgaria three years ago, and had the impression of visiting "third world Europe".

Reading Room - Storks and pelicans at Kozlodui

THE photographers of the large media group that travelled to the Nuclear Power Plant near Kozlodui on the Holiday of Workers of Energy industry, June 21, were trying to capture a rare picture.

Expatriate repatriation

HIS name is Nicholas Throckmorton but to people in Washington DC he is simply Nick Vrachanski (of Vratsa).

Norway is breaking the ice

NORWEGIANS know too little about Bulgaria, says the Norwegian ambassador to Sofia, Rolf Baltzersen.