Romania

The Romanian defence ministry said in a statement on Monday that a vehicle carrying explosives crashed head-on into the military vehicle in which Claudiu Constantin Vulpoiu and his five fellow servicemen were travelling.

The Romanian troops were on patrol in Zabul province, on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. Vulpoiu, 41, had served in six missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ten years after joining North Alliance Treaty Organisation, Romanian officials say the country has benefited from  membership overall, although they concede that the cost has been high in terms of the number of casualties during NATO missions and the money spent on military operations.

Trade turnover between Bulgaria and Romania has exceeded EUR 3 B for 3 years in a row, according to the director of the Commercial Section of the Bulgarian Embassy in Bucharest.

The EU-funded project worth some 3 million euro will begin at Putna monastery, in Bukovina, northeast Romania, and will last two years.

“The money will be used not only to restore and better preserve the monastery but also to improve its infrastructure,” Romania's Deputy Prime Minister, Liviu Dragnea, explained on Thursday.

Bulgaria will participate in the construction of a floating liquefied natural gas terminal near the Greek city of Kavala in a bid to secure constant access to natural gas.

Talks on the project are to be wrapped up by end-2014, according to the authorities in Athens, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

The EBRD is loaning Spain's EDP Renovaveis, a leader in the renewable energy sector, with 20 million euro to construct and run six solar photovoltaic parks generating a total of 50MW in the southern Romanian region of Oltenia.

A parallel facility costing 10 million euro will be provided by the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, according to a statement released on Thursday.

Bulgaria had the lowest hourly labor costs in the EU in 2013, yet it was the country to register the highest increase in the segment since 2008, according to Eurostat.

According to Eurostat data, in 2013 Bulgaria registered the lowest hourly labor costs among EU member states, at EUR 3.7, followed by Romania with EUR 4.6.

In February 2014, the number of the trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 249.5 thousand or by 1.4% above the registered in February 2013.

BELGRADE - Belgrade's Partizan advanced to the final stage of the European Water Polo Champions League tournament after a Preliminary Rounds Day 8 home win against Romania’s Oradea 9-7 (5-1, 2-1, 1-4, 1-1) late on Wednesday.

Clinching its fifth victory in Group B, Partizan is now tight in third place and has secured its spot in the Final Six.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has said his centre-left government will not revoke a controversial fuel tax coming into force on April 1, but promised compensatory measures.

“The measure will help ‘fair' transporters, without a history of tax evasion, who will be able to recover most of the costs [of the new tax],” Ponta said, without offering further details.