Czech Republic

The Bulgarian business of US coffee chain Starbucks, which is currently held by Greek firm Marinopoulos Coffee Company, will change its owner.

AmRest Holdings SE, the largest independent chain restaurant operator in Central and Eastern Europe, announced in a media statement on its website that it was acquiring the Bulgarian and Romanian businesses of Starbucks.

KOPAONIK - Mt Kopaonik has hosted the Snowboard Europa Cup, with Yekaterina Kosova (Russia), Lea Jugovac (Croatia) and Angelina Milutinovic (Serbia) winning the women's Slope Style event, and Arturus Cukudre (Lithuania), Petar Gosharkov (Bulgaria) and Dusan Kriz (Czech Republic) the winners of the men's event.

Novinite has interviewed H.E. Pavel Vacek, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Bulgaria, on various bilateral issues, but mostly on issues in Bulgaria's energy sector and the repercussions they have on Czech companies.

BELGRADE - The International Building Trade Fair will be held at the Belgrade Fair on April 15-19, featuring all segments of the construction sector.

BELGRADE - Slovak punk band Ine Kafe will for the first time gig in Belgrade at Dom Omladine on March 7, thus marking 20 years of their work.

On March 6, they will perform in Backi Petrovac.

Ine Kafe was established in 1995, and so far they have held over 1,300 concerts across Slovakia, in the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

BELGRADE - One of the world's biggest classical guitar festival, Belgrade Guitar Art Festival (GAF), will run from March 10 to 15.

GAF founder and director Bosko Radojkovic told Tanjug that the forthcoming edition of the international festival will be a real treat for guitar lovers.

Turkish tennis player Marsel ?lhan has climbed to the top spot of his career in the new world rankings announced March 2, jumping 27 places to sit in the 77th spot.

The spot is also the top ranking a Turkish player has ever held.

BELGRADE - Speaking at the main event marking the National Library of Serbia Day and the National Book Day, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said on Friday that, as the patron of the National Library of Serbia (NBS), he will back its work and development, noting that the role of the NBS is unavoidable in preserving the Serbian language, the Cyrillic alphabet and the cultural heritage.

In January 2015, Bulgarians completed more than 295 000 travels abroad, which represents an increase of 8.3 % compared to the same month of 2014.

This became clear from the latest figures of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), which were released on Friday.

BELGRADE - Austrian group Swarovski will open a new plant in Subotica, which will exert influence on other major world investors to include Serbia in the list of potential investment destinations, President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS) Marko Cadez said on Friday.