Belgium

France prepared to fall silent at noon on Nov. 16 to mourn victims of the Paris attacks after its warplanes pounded the Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the jihadist group that has claimed responsibility for the slaughter.

* The first attacker to be identified was Omar Ismail Mostefai, aged 29, who is said to have been one of the group of at least three terrorists who spread fear, panic and death at the Bataclan concert on Friday. As police stormed the building he blew himself up, leaving police to identify his body through fingerprints.

French prosecutors said on Nov. 14 that three coordinated teams of gunmen and suicide bombers carried out a wave of attacks across Paris that killed 129 people, while one of the attackers' identity was determined.  

The EU executive approved new guidelines on Nov. 11 for labelling products made in Israeli settlements, a move Brussels said was technical but Israel branded "discriminatory" and damaging to peace efforts with the Palestinians.

REJECTED Kosovo failed to become a member of UNESCO

UNESCO has not accepted Kosovo as a member; the proposal failed to gain a two-thirds majority at the organization's General Conference in Paris on Monday.

142 countries voted - 92 in favor, 50 against, while 29 abstained. Pristina's bid required 95 votes in favor to be successful.

Between January and August 2015, Bulgaria had a negative balance of trade with the EU, which exceeded BGN 2.3 B.

This was revealed by preliminary figures of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), which were released on Monday.

Thirteen more people died over the weekend of burns-related injuries after a blaze started by fireworks at a rock concert at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest on October 30, bringing the number killed in the tragedy to 46.

Two more people succumbed Nov. 7 to their wounds from a horrific nightclub fire in Bucharest that brought down the Romanian government, bringing the death toll up to 43, a hospital official said.

The Bulgarian men's national football team climbed 12 positions to 66th place in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, which was released on Thursday.

At present, Bulgaria has 497 points and occupies the place between the teams of Panama and the United Arab Emirates.

The renowned Greek poet and singer left Greece at the age of 13 during Greek military junta of 1967 and relocated in Belgium, while from 1981 she has been staying in Paris.

Angelique Ionatos performs in Paris, Spain, Italy, Germany, Canada, while she rarely visits Greece. In 2009 had a concert in Mytilene, Samos and Athens.