Fri, Feb 10 2012
US intelligence has proves that Bulgaria was not involved in assassination attempt targeting Pope John-Paul II on May 13 1981, a former CIA agent said in a documentary film aired by French Canal+ television.
CIA received evidence from spies working undercover in Bulgarian intelligence, French Le Monde reported.
A Bulgarian and a French shot the documentary.
The authors proved that Italian secret services officer convinced Ali Agca, who committed the crime, to blame the communist block for the assassination attempt.
Italy's secrets services reached Agca through a mafia boss, who was in prison with Agca.
The documentary shows Bulgarian Sergei Antonov, accused of organisating the attempted murder in 1985. Later, Antonov was found not guilty. Currently Antonov is just an old man with shivering hands who works for local air company as ordinary employee, Le Monde said.
The gunmen who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II could end up in the army despite his supposed religious and philosophical opposition to bearing arms
Bulgarian-born French journalist Roumyana Ougurchinska’s 2007 book The Truth about the Attempt on the Life of John Paul II prompts a group of organisations to call on President Georgi Purvanov to confer a high state honour on her.
Foreign ministries criticise website that calls on visitors to lodge complaints against immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.
‘I am delighted we managed to identify and attract some of the brightest and best people from Bulgaria and Romania to come and work at the European Commission,’ EC Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said.
The current ‘negative Arctic Oscillation’ – a weather phenomenon which leads to cold conditions in Europe and relatively warmer conditions in the Arctic – should shift into a more neutral pattern within the next two to three weeks.
The extreme cold has been blamed for almost 400 deaths across Europe. In Ukraine, where temperatures have fallen below minus 30 degrees Celsius, the cold is blamed for at least 122 deaths. Many of the victims were homeless.
At the end of Q3 2011, the highest government debt to GDP ratio was in Greece, at 159.1 per cent.