Member states of the Union for the Mediterranean

Bulgaria's caretaker cabinet is proposing a dual accreditation for Bulgaria's ambassador to Italy Marin Raykov as ambassador to Malta.

The cabinet decided at its weekly meeting on Wednesday to propose to President Rosen Plevneliev to appoint Raykov as Rome-based envoy to the Mediterranean island nation where Bulgaria has no accredited ambassador.

By Stathis Kousounis

The big increase in the number of tourists visiting Greece has led to a 10 percent hike in hotel rates around the country this year compared with 2013, according to Hotels.com, one of the biggest travel booking websites in the world.

"Smugglers charge Kurdish migrants up to EUR 4,000"

PODGORICA -- Turkish citizens are enlisting the help of transportation firms and taxi drivers from Montenegro to smuggle illegal migrants, mostly Kurds.

Israel downed a drone over the occupied Golan Heights on Aug. 31, the army said, amid mounting tension on the U.N.-patrolled armistice line with Syria on the strategic plateau.

Air defences "successfully intercepted an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that breached Israel airspace above the border with Syria," an army statement said.

The presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia signed a landmark declaration aimed at speeding up the search for people still missing from the 1990s conflicts.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel took to Twitter on Thursday to insist that relations between him and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and between the two countries “are perfect” after being on the receiving end of a homophobic tweet from an independent Greek MP.

The United Nations confirmed that an armed group captured 43 UN peacekeepers on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights on Thursday, saying it was doing everything to secure their release.
      

Folk dancers from Panama participating in Earthdancers, an international dance and music festival, performed in Syntagma Square, central Athens, on Wednesday.

In its fourth year, the festival began on Wednesday and is to run through Sunday with more than 300 dancers and musicians from nine countries participating in performances across Attica.

VIENNA - Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurtz has said that Vienna sees this year's conference on the Western Balkans, held in Berlin, as the cornerstone of the EU's enlargement in the region.

The European peace project and the EU itself will not be complete without the Western Balkans, he stated.

Serbia "committed to missing persons' issue"

BELGRADE -- Serbia is absolutely committed to finding a solution to the missing persons' issue and not a single body or individual has ever done anything to prevent it.