News archive of November 2016

Turkey's Limak Holding, Russia's VTB Capital and Switzerland's Flughafen Zuerich will together bid for the 35-year operation rights of an airport in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, a source close to the matter told Reuters. 

In September Bulgaria extended the deadline for bids in the tender by a month, to Nov. 18, due to increased interest in the process.

A senior U.S. State Department official on Oct. 31 said the movement of Pennsylvania-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen has a set up that resembles an organized criminal network, which makes it not a "benign religious movement."

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has voiced its support for reinstating capital punishment, if the Justice and Development Party (AKP) puts forward a constitutional amendment. 

"The people want [the implementation] of the death penalty. If the AKP is ready, the MHP has always been ready," MHP head Devlet Bahçeli told his party's lawmakers on Nov. 1. 

A total 2.12 mln tourists visited Serbia between January and September 2016 -12 pct more than last year, a statement of the Tourist Organization of Serbia said.

In the recorded period there were 1.15 mln domestic tourists - 13 pct more than last year and 11 pct more international tourists - 977,000.

Activity in Greece's manufacturing sector contracted again in October with the key indicator hitting a five-month low as production and new orders declined, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Greece could start returning to financial markets next year if it keeps up with economic reforms, the head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone's bailout fund, said on Tuesday.

"We've assisted five countries during the crisis: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus. Four of these are now success stories," Klaus Regling told a conference in Nicosia.

The head of a state-owned fisheries company has been appointed as chair of Bulgaria's Executive Agency of Fisheries and Aquaculture (EAFA), officials say.

The head judge in the trial into the alleged criminal activities of far-right Golden Dawn had to suspend proceedings on Tuesday morning after scuffles broke out between party supporters and anti-fascist activists.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has made a gaffe during an interview with RTL Danas, as she spoke about the U.S. presidential elections.

"Americans will decide who our next president will be - I mean, their next president," she said, thus "quickly correcting herself, and smiling faintly because of her verbal gaffe," Croatian website index.hr has reported.

Turkey's Embassy in Bulgaria has issued a statement condemning the attack on Krasimir Kanev, the head of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee who on Thursday was subjected to an attack in downtown Sofia.

The statement, sent to Novinite, reads as follows: