News archive of December 2019

Greek retail sales by volume rose 7.1 percent in October compared to the same month last year after an downwardly revised 5.0 percent increase in September, statistics service ELSTAT said on Tuesday.

Retail sales were led higher by purchases of medicines and cosmetics, followed by stationery, the data showed.

Minister of National Defense Nicolae Ciuca, and Chief of Defense Staff, Lieutenant general Daniel Petrescu, on Tuesday held a video conference call with the command teams of the structures deployed to the theaters of operation and external missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Republic of Mali and Poland.

The British government is raising red flags over the Ayia Napa rape verdict, after a 19-year-old Briton was found guilty of lying to police about being gang raped by Israeli teens.
According to British media, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said in a written statement that London had reservations over the legal proceedings in a Paralimni courtroom on Monday.

The Bosnian state prosecution issued a series of indictments on Tuesday charging wartime former members of the Bosnian Army, the Bosnian Serb Army, the Croatian Defence Council and Serb-led Territorial Defence and reservist police forces with a variety of crimes.

According to the NSI business inquiries in December2019, the industrial confidence indicator increases by 0.9 percentage points in comparison with November 2019, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a press release.

Every third Bulgarian expects a better 2020 than the previous, 2019. These numbers are according to a poll conducted by the Gallup International poll agency.

Globally, Bulgaria is close to the average of optimism. However, when it comes to personal happiness, we are still in the extreme places of the charts, sociologists comment.

The lucky man has guessed all six of the numbers on Monday.

The game "Lotto 6 of 47" was won on New Year's Eve. The lucky man has guessed all six of the numbers from Monday night's lottery draw. Thus, he won a jackpot of BGN 2 million, including a house, a sports car and a 10-day vacation for two in Dubai.

Turkish police detained five Syrian nationals in Ankara preparing a terrorist attack on New Year's Eve celebrations, according to a TV station quoted by BGNES. They are affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist group.

At present, there are terrorist groups only in Syria's Idlib province. The government army has launched an offensive against them. 

The Russian Ministry said that "the unity and solidarity of the Orthodox world, as well as the preservation of its centuries-old foundations, are crucial for ensuring the normal development of society."

A director of the department responsible for Attica's motorways was sacked on Tuesday for omissions and mistakes that led to the shutdown of a section of the national highway connecting Athens to Lamia on Monday.