Local government

Sofia City Court is expected to launch the trial against Bulgarian lawmaker Aleksandar Metodiev.

Metodiev, who represents the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) in Parliament, is facing the court after allegedly ignoring a police stop baton waved at him over a traffic violation and later trying to intervene as officers were writing a ticket to another person.

Chief corruption prosecutor Eleni Raikou on Thursday ordered a search of the company offices of Stavroula Nikolopoulou, the spouse of BoG governor Yannis Stournaras, as well as the couple's home.

Albanian law experts are expressing alarm over what they call "MPs' negligence" in providing constitutional transitory arrangements designed to enable the normal work of current law institution until new ones are created.

Public prosecutor Evsevia Kormikari has asked a council of prosecutors to reject an appeal by Greek-Cypriot pop singer Michalis Hatzigiannis not to stand trial over charges of failing to declare 5 million euros in his tax declarations during the 2010-2011 period.

The appellate specialised criminal court ruled on Tuesday that the controversial mayor of the Bulgarian village of Galiche, Tsenko Chokov, is to remain in custody.

At the end of May, Chokov was detained in a specialised police operation on charges of heading an organised crime group involved in usury, racketeering, kidnapping, setting property on fire, inflicting physical injuries.

A mission of European Commission experts will arrive in Sofia in late June to analyse the performance of Bulgarian prosecutors in a bid to give a boost to the country's efforts to reform its judicial system.

Bulgarian prosecuting authorities will demand that the mayor of the village of Galiche, Tsenko Chokov, should remain in custody after being arrested in a police operation on Thursday.

Chokov has already been indicted on charges of heading an organized criminal gang, the Chief Prosecutor's spokesperson, Rumyana Arnaudova, has told private NOVA TV broadcaster.

A local prosecutor has appealed to the country's top election body and the Interior Ministry as part of an ongoing investigation into the leak of a database which contained the personal information of nearly 50 million Turkish citizens.

When Gabriela Birbora lost her husband on December 24, 1989, it was more or less the end of an era for her.

Since then, this widow who lives in Resita, in western Romania, has dedicated her time and energy to finding out who was responsible for the death of her husband during the protests in 1989 that brought down the communist regime.

Territorial and administrative reform in Albania, which has changed the map of the country, reducing 400 local units to 61, is proceeding slowly and has created confusion, a mission of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities that visited Albania in February says.