New Year's Day

"Since the virus has not entered the country by St. Nicholas Day, it does not have time to enter and become dominant until Christmas and New Year. However, it needs some time, when the virus enters the country, to run wild and replace the current variant, which is aggressive enough and will not be given so easily. It will take 2-3 weeks." This is what the mathematician Prof.

Maribor – A pop song without which Slovenians can hardly imagine a New Year’s Eve is celebrating its 50th anniversary. To mark the anniversary, a museum in Maribor honoured its singer and citizen Alfi Nipič with an exhibition which traces his 60-year career while he marked the anniversary in hospital ill with Covid-19.

Istanbul is taking the lead in the ticket sales of the New Year's lottery with a prize money of 120 million Turkish Liras ($8.8 million), daily Milliyet has reported.

The western province of İzmir, the northwestern province of Kocaeli and the capital Ankara follow Istanbul in the ticket sales, the daily reported on Dec. 8.

Bucharest, Sept 6 /Agerpres/ - Prime Minister Florin Citu and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ludovic Orban, gave speeches on Monday during the Jewish New Year celebration ceremony, in which the head of the Government spoke about the period of repentance, "practice that can be helpful at any time and to anyone", and Orban said that at present there is "a crisis of values".

The new year threatens to lay bare the real repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, on the Bulgarian economy, its labour force, the survival of the government and the mental health of the people.

Ljubljana – Since they are not capable of planning, the Slovenian authorities had been inspiring the one quarter of the Slovenian population involved in the education system with false hope that things would start to normalise as of new year, Delo says in its front-page commentary on Monday.

The Electricity System Operator (ESO) reports record low power consumption during the New Year holidays. Bulgarian energy system is prepared for the expected cold spell. All power grids repairs have been completed in time, ESO told the Bulgarian National TV (BNT).

Lower House Speaker and Liberal Chairman Ludovic Orban remarked in his New Year's message that 2020 was "perhaps the toughest year in our recent history", "a year of war that isn't over yet, but which we hope will end soon." Orban also voices his confidence that by mid-2021 vaccination will bring the pandemic to a halt.

Officers of the Hellenic Police (ELAS) issued more than 1,000 fines and made six arrests on New Year's Day alone over violations of health safety measures, ELAS said in an announcement on Saturday.

According to ELAS' press release, officers carried out a total of 57,498 inspections, including 13,159 at Athens International Airport.

Communion in prayer, kindness of the heart and cooperation in good deeds can work wonders, turning fear into courage and hope, Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church said as he delivered the New Year's blessing service, the Akathist of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the Patriarchal Cathedral.