Belarus

The use of the death penalty in Belarus does not allow the country to be a member of the European Council. This was stated yesterday by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen after a meeting in Vienna with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, TASS reported.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic on Friday signed a free trade deal with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, EAEU, in Moscow, after the EU warned that it will closely monitor such relations, as Serbia is a candidate for joining the European Union.

Beside Brnabic, the deal was signed by the Prime Ministers of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

Six Bulgarian banks rank in the Top 100 of the largest financial institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. DSK, First Investment Bank and UBB are making significant progress in the ranking compared to last year. It is composed by RIA Rating Agency on the order of Russia's leading financial site Prime.

Journalists gathered on Monday in the Bosnian capital to demand an end to violence against reporters, two days after the news website Radiosarajevo.ba reported that group of hooligans had forced their way into their office and threatened journalists into retracting an article.

Bulgaria will also finance lung transplants in countries outside the European Union. This intention of the Ministry of Health has so far suppressed the protest of those waiting for a lung transplant in Bulgaria and their relatives.

After the opening 3:0 win against Belarus on Thursday and a 3:1 win against Finland on Saturday, Slovenia scored another 3:0 win yesterday, pleasing the crowd of some 6,000 people in Stožice Arena.

For the first time, the post will be occupied by a woman.
Turkey sends new ambassador to Sofia. For the first time in the history of Turkish diplomacy, a female diplomat will occupy the post of ambassador to Bulgaria, BTA reports.

The players cannot wait for the tournament to start after training together and playing warm-up matches for three months, as they will be cheered by the home crowd in Ljubljana's Stožice Arena.

This year too Romania dominated the European Under-23 Rowing Championships in Ioannina - Greece, winning 9 gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the finals this Sunday. The girls' squads won 5 gold medals, and the boys 4.

Sarajevo, which withstood a bloody siege by Bosnian Serb forces for 1,425 days during the 1992-95 war, has long been viewed as a city of tolerance, a cultural capital and a city that exudes resilience.