Austria

Former president: Serbia should be compensated

BELGRADE -- The energy agreement between Serbia and Russia was good and government representatives "should not mislead the public on that issue," said Boris Tadic.

MOSCOW - Russia is prepared to continue discussions with Serbia, Austria and Hungary on ways out of the situation in the wake of the abandonment of the South Stream project, Vladimir Chizhov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the EU, told the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

Russia to continue talks with Austria, Hungary, Serbia

MOSCOW -- Russia is ready to continue talks with Austria, Hungary and Serbia, Russia's Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said on Wednesday.

"Ways out of the situation that developed as a result of the closure of the South Stream project" would be discussed, he said, TASS reported.

Bulgaria will not allow to be used as a coin in relations between Russia and the West, the country's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in Brussels on Wednesday evening.

Prior to meeting the EU's top officials on Thursday, Borisov discussed the demise of South Stream with Elmar Brok, who chairs the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Bulgaria lacks coherence if one judges by its attitude to various energy projects, Russia's permanent envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, has claimed.

Chizhov said Moscow was ready to continue South Stream talks with Austria, Hungary and Serbia, but due to the complicated political situation in Bulgaria the country is not considered "reliable".

Alois Brunner, one of the world’s most wanted Nazi war criminals responsible for sending tens of thousands of Jews including 44,000 Greeks to death camps, died four years ago in Syria, it has emerged.

The suspects were detained on Friday in a police operation codenamed Palmira which was aimed at alleged terrorists and recruiters of fighters in foreign conflicts such as Syria. 

Around 900 police and other officials were involved in the operation which was described by the Austrian authorities as the biggest "in the history of Austrian state security".

BELGRADE - The departure of the Viking Amble from the Belgrade port on Friday, with its cargo of US passengers, marked the end of this year's tourist season when it comes to shipping, which saw around 70,000 passengers enter the city on cruisers.

BELGRADE - The Serbian Ministry of Economy will by the end of November decide on privatisation models for each of more than 500 companies, while the Privatisation Agency will publish calls for binding bids to privatise them, the chairman of the Agency's Board of Directors Muamer Redzovic has announced.

The number of Bulgarians travelling abroad fell by 1.8% year-on-year in October, reaching 300,900, the statistics office said on Thursday.

While trips by Bulgarians to Serbia, Romania, Italy and Austria decreased last month compared to October 2013, trips to France, Germany, the UK, Greece and Turkey picked up, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a statement.