Spain

MADRID - Serbian tennis player Nenad Zimonjic and Canada's Daniel Nestor qualified for the Madrid Masters quarterfinal for men doubles as they defeated Spain's Marcel Granollers and Marco Lopez, 2-0 - 6-4, 6-2.

In the fight for the semifinal, Zimonjic and Nestor will cross rackets with Austria's Alexander Peya and Brazil's Bruno Soares.

Greek beaches have been awarded 408 Blue Flags for excellent water quality, putting the country in second place out of 51 countries after Spain, according to the Blue Flag program which is managed by the Copenhagen-based Foundation for Environmental Education.

The new European Parliament will have a group of right-wing nationalists around Marine Le Pen of the French National Front and Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom.

These are the results of the latest forecast which is part of the PollWatch2014 project funded by the European Parliament.

Bulgaria and Romania are quite often paired up in European and regional powers' approach to the Balkans. They are said to be both wrapped in political, economic and social problems, but usually do not provoke a huge interest from EU politicians.

Bulgaria's hospitality industry has recorded a recent 20% decline in the early bookings of tourists from Germany, Britain and the Scandinavian countries.

Bulgaria and Romania were the EU countries who posted highest reduction of carbon emissions in 2013, shows an Eurostat survey. 

According to the data, in 2013 they decreased in 22 member states. 

In Bulgaria the drop was 10.2% and in Romania – 14.6%. The average for the EU was -2.5%.

The semi-finals of the Eurovision, which started on Tuesday in Denmark, will include only six participants from the Balkan region - Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia and Greece.

Viewers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey will only watch Eurovision from their TV sets.

MADRID - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic got off to a winning start at the WTA Premier Series tennis tournament in Madrid by beating Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3 on Monday.

Justly seen as the favourite, Jankovic outplayed current world number 36 Svitolina without major difficulties, and now has a 2-0 head-to-head ratio against her.

Bulgaria remains among the three EU member states with the lowest life expectancy rates.

With a life expectancy of 71.5 years, Bulgaria fares better than Lithuania (74.1) and Latvia (74.1), against an EU average of 80.3 years, according to conclusive data of Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute (NSI) for 2013, as cited by dnevnik.bg.

The EU would extend the route for supplies through the Southern Gas Corridor and its pipes will make their way further into Europe's mainland, according to reports.

Russia's Vedomosti, which cites sources from the European Commission, suggests that pipes could lead into France and Spain and this could increase the amount of Azerbaijani gas received from the Union.