Latvia

Bulgaria defeated Hungary and Latvia in its matches from Europe/Africa zone Group 1 of the Fed Cup.

On Wednesday, Bulgaria won against Hungary with 2:1, while on Thursday it defeated Latvia with the same score.

Bulgaria is represented by its highest ranking female tennis player Tsvetana Pironkova, Elitsa Kostova, Isabella Shinikova and Dia Evtimova.

"Europe has forgotten that history is fundamentally tragic," said Manuel Valls, the French prime minister. "If Europe can't protect its own borders, it's the very idea of Europe that could be thrown into doubt. It could disappear - not Europe itself, not our values, but the European project, the concept we have of Europe, that the founding fathers had of Europe."

The European Union wants to examine the contracts which Gazprom has signed with European companies, amid suspicions that the Russian state energy giant has imposed unfair prices which breach the bloc's trading rules, a German newspaper reported.

The latest figures of Eurostat released on Tuesday show that Bulgaria's unemployment rate was below the EU average in the last month of 2015.

In December last year, Bulgaria registered an unemployment rate of 8.8 %, with the EU average being 9 %.

Bulgaria's unemployment rate retained its level from November 2015, decreasing by 1.4 % compared to the same month in 2014.

Bulgaria absorbed 85 % of the EU funds available under the 2007-2013 programme period.

Bulgaria's absorption rate was below the average for the EU, which stood at 88.9 %, with the country ranking 22nd in this respect.

Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc traveled around the world and photographed many women to show that beauty is everywhere.

“In the past two years I traveled around the world and I photographed hundreds of women in diverse environments,” she wrote on Bored Panda. “My goal is to show that beauty is in our differences, not in trends, money or race.” she said.

The Bulgaria city of Ruse hosts a festival of ice sculptures on Svoboda (Liberty) square between December 14 and 22.

The Ruse Ice Fest will bring together sculptors from eight countries - Bulgaria, Belgium, France, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Russia and Ukraine.

Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma announced on Monday her resignation.

The announcement was made after a meeting between Straujuma and Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, The Baltic Times informs.

Russia's plans to extend its gas link to Germany run counter to European Union interests and risk further destabilizing Ukraine, 10 European governments said in a letter to the European Commission that called for a summit-level debate on the issue.

The 4th annual Economic and Trade Forum between China and 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe started on Tuesday in China's eastern coastal city of Suzhou.