Romania

As of Wednesday until September 11,  Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city, will host one of the most prestigious events in the tourism sphere - the annual awards of the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers - FIJET.

A sailing boat race begins on Thursday from the Black Sea port of Constanta, with two top-class sailing boats from Bulgaria departing from Varna.

The SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta, one of the world's top sailing-boat races, this year includes the ports of Varna, Russia's Sochi and Novorossiysk, and Romania's Constanta.

In its latest Convergence Report released on Tuesday, the European Central Bank (ECB) concluded that Bulgaria does not fully comply with the euro convergence criteria.

Apart from Bulgaria, the report examine the six other member states which do not participate in the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II), namely the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden.

The mayors of 11 of Romanian counties who were re-elected in the local polls on June 5 have either been accused of or are under investigation for corruption.

According to exit polls, the PSD won Sunday's local elections, as previously predicted, securing 37.5 per cent of the vote and giving it a boost ahead of parliamentary elections later this year, while the right-wing National Liberal Party, PNL won a projected 28 per cent.

Romanians were choosing 3,200 mayors, 41 chairs of district councils and more than 40,000 council members.

The acquisition of nine surplus F-16 figher jets modernised by Portugal is an option, which Bulgaria is analysing as part of plans to replace its ageing fleet of Soviet-made MiG-29s, according to janes.com

Romanian police conducted over 20 searches on Tuesday at medical offices in a case involving 31 hospitals and clinics, following claims that doctors conducted unauthorized clinical trials on some 250 patients in order get money from sponsors.

The Public Prosecutor's Office has accused the doctors in charge of bribery, abuse of office and forgery of private documents.

Bulgaria and Romania will construct a back-up natural gas pipeline under the Danube river. This was announced by the transmission system operator in Bulgaria - Bulgartransgaz on Tueday.

In the beginning of April, Bulgartransgaz and its Romanian counterpart Transgaz signed a contract for the construction of the main gas pipeline of the Danube river undercrossing.

Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff, arrived on a three-day official visit to Bulgaria at the invitation of the Chief of Defence General Constantin Popov, the Defence Ministry in Sofia announced on Monday.

Torrential rain has dashed hopes in Romania of setting a Guinness Book world record for Greece's famous syrtaki dance.

Romanians were attempting to break the world record for the dance made famous in the 1964 movie "Zorba the Greek" before a storm struck this Black Sea port on Saturday.