Member states of the United Nations

Known for kidnapping, public stonings, lashings and executions, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who had recently renamed itself as the Islamic State (IS), is now expanding into tourism, taking jihadists on honeymoon and civilians to visit other parts of its "caliphate".
      

Conference raises 1.8 billion euros for Balkan flood relief

A prosecutor on Tuesday brought multiple charges of theft against a 37-year-old man alleged to have stolen votive offerings from two churches in the region of Kastoria, northern Greece, and to have sold them in neighboring Albania for 1,600 euros.

The man was caught in the act of breaking into the collection box at Aghia Paraskevi Church in the village of Vasileiada on Sunday.

Ukraine's general consul in Suceava (northeastern Romania) Vasily Boeciko has sent on Tuesday condolences to the families of victims in the airliner crash of July 18 and condemned the actions of the "terrorists" in Donetsk, branding that day "Ukraine's blackest day ever".

The United Nations Security Council has denounced militant persecution of Christians and other minorities in Iraq, warning such actions can be considered crimes against humanity.

The Islamic State, which last month declared a “caliphate” straddling large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria, has threatened a Christian presence in the region.

The defense ministers of Bulgaria and Macedonia have expressed their mutual desire and will for cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries.

Macedonian Defense Minister Zoran Jolevski met with his Bulgarian counterpart on Tuesday as part of an official visit to Bulgaria.

France could renounce the sale of a second Mistral-class amphibious warship if EU leaders adopt tougher sanctions against Russia.

President Francois Hollande also announced it depended on "Russia's attitude" to the conflict in Ukraine whether the deal would be carried out, Bloomberg reported.

Some 59 skeletons were found in 1964, lying together in a gravesite beside the Nile Rıver, near what is now the Egyptian-Sudanese border. They died between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago, and some of them seemed to have died in battle. That was big news half a century ago, when most people still believed organized killing was an invention of civilization.

Balkan armies promise greater co-operation in catastrophes

The Ministry of Defense has announced the building of a fence designed to curb the influx of migrants at Bulgaria's border with Turkey has finished.

Over the next days, the Chief Directorate Border Police is take over all sections of the installation, the construction of which had been assigned to the Defense Ministry.