Bulgarian striker Dimitur Berbatov has recovered from a groin injury and is available for selection for the last Tottenham Hotspur game of the season, against Liverpool at White Hart Lane on May 11. It could be the Bulgarian's last game for Spurs, whose manager Juande Ramos admitted earlier this week that he was resigned to the fact that Berbatov would leave Spurs in the summer.

Early indications in Serbia’s May 11 elections were that voter turnout would be higher than in recent elections, Serbian and international news agencies reported. Voting was reported to be proceeding calmly, and no problems were reported as Serbs in northern Kosovo’s Mitrovico joined in voting. Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence on February 17, has been backed by several Western countries in opposing the inclusion of its territory in voting for Serbian elections.

The coalition of parties headlined by president Boris Tadić' Democratic party (DS), won the Serbian parliamentary election on May 11, according to the preliminary data released by the country's election body RIK, but faces difficult talks to form the new government. The coalition, which ran under the name For a European Serbia, won 38.75 per cent, RIK said, having counted 97.8 per cent of all ballots. That would give it 102 MPs in the 250-seat assembly.

Security is being beefed up in the run-up to the visit of Queen Elizabeth II of England and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to Turkey on May 13 on an official visit. The 82-year-old monarch and her 86-year-old husband have accepted an invitation from President Abdullah Gül. The Queen will be visiting Turkey for inly the second time; her first visit was back in 1971.

The Dutch coach of Zenit St Petersburg, Dick Advocaat, will have a “happy hour” on May 14 when his team will challenge Glasgow Rangers for the UEFA Cup trophy. “The final has already been billed as the ‘friendly final’ due to our close association with Dick Advocaat and a large contingent of the Rangers family will travel in good spirits to Manchester,” Rangers’ chief executive Martin Bain was quoted as saying by football365.com on May 6.

When on February 17 Kosovo announced its secession from Serbia to become an independent state, it was clear to everyone that the consequences would be far-reaching. Few, however, could have guessed that within less than a month, Belgrade would be left without a government and facing two months of hard campaigning ahead of a crucial snap poll bound to determine the future of the country. And determine it for a long time to come.

The European Commission said on May 6 that it had sent Bulgaria written warnings, the first step in the infringement procedure, for failing to issue new or updated permits for industrial installations, and also for obstructing the free flow of capital through discriminatory taxation of inbound and outbound dividends. In a statement, the EC said that Bulgaria was among nine countries that had failed to issue on time, in line with the directive on integrated pollution prevention and control, new or updated permits for industrial installations in operation by the date of their accession to the European Union.

A letter sent by the European Commission to Bulgaria on May 8 2008 showed the EC's firm position on how Bulgaria managed its EU funds spending. The full text of the letter was published by Bulgarian news agency Focus on May 13 2008 and shows the EC's attitude towards Bulgaria's efforts in overcoming the problems that led to EC halting payments under all pre-accession programmes.

One side effect of Bulgaria’s growing economy is something that is causing a headache for municipalities - a shrinking number of parking places. Designed by communist-era urban planners, Bulgarian cities’ centres are no longer capable of accommodating the ever-increasing number of motor vehicles that Bulgarians can afford to buy, due to the large number of leasing companies and the low prices of second-hand motor vehicles.

Pending official results expected in the next two days, as polls closed in Serbia’s May 11 elections, the outcome was expected to be close with a relatively low turnout seen as likely to boost nationalist forces seeking to turn the country’s back on the West. The snap parliamentary elections were held on a date originally meant only for local elections, and were called after the Serbian government foundered over divisions about the country’s possible future with the European Union. Serbia’s EU policy hit turbulence after Kosovo declared independence on February 17 2008.

Bulgaria’s armed forces showcased their elite units and best military equipment on May 6, St George’s Day (Gergyovden), which is also celebrated as the Bulgarian Army and Bravery day, in front of hundreds of onlookers in central Sofia. Greatly scaled down compared with similar parades from the communist era, it served as a fresh reminder that 2000 troops would be made redundant this year and that their equipment was either second-hand or outdated.

Steel maker Vorskla Steel, which reportedly has close ties to Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Zhevago, one of the bidders for Bulgaria's biggest steel mill Kremikovtzi, signed an agreement with the steelworks' labour unions on May 10, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported. The deal sees Vorskla Steel guarantee the funding that would keep Kremikovtzi operational, its workers paid and a chunk of the profit invested in the steel mill's modernisation, BTA quoted the chairman of the Metalurzi labour union, part of the Podkrepa labour union bloc, Lyudmil Pavlov as saying.

Three Portuguese companies that own 51 per cent in the consortium awarded the concession on Trakiya Highway are set to pull out of the contract next week, Kapital weekly reported on May 10. The companies were given until May 14 to secure funding to complete the highway, estimated by Regional Development Minister Assen Gagaouzov in January at 590 million euro. The Portuguese firms have not managed to do so and will make an official announcement to that end next week, Kapital said, quoting sources familiar with the situation.

The European Union has lost faith in the ability of Bulgarian authorities to push ahead with reforms and was considering sanctions, ranging from freezing the 6.7 billion euro worth of structural funding the country is set to receive until 2013 to suspending some of its rights in the bloc, Bulgarian-language Kapital weekly reported on May 10. Under article 7 of the Treaty of Nice, in case of "a serious and persistent breach of fundamental rights", the Council of the EU may, by a qualified majority of four fifths and co-ordinating with the European Parliament, suspend certain of the rights of the country concerned, including the right to vote in the Council of the EU.

He's a softly spoken chemical engineering graduate, devoted family man, talented linguist and budding writer with an IQ rumoured to be nudging 160. I'm meeting him at his workplace. But it's not a science lab. Neither has my interviewee just penned a scientific treatise. Actually, he's been driving across Bulgaria, pursued by Russian mafia villains. Don't get alarmed. You see, the academic also has a penchant

Last Tuesday my wife and I were strolling around Chelsea in London. Visiting London is great, once you get your head round the incredible prices. We got off the tube at Sloane Square, heading down the Kings Road and all the fashionable stores, continuing on to Chelsea Harbour where we found a quaint pub by the river to enjoy a ploughman's lunch.

Poor infrastructure, polluted beaches, low standards of construction, noisy building sites, poor service and bankruptcies will put Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts under pressure this summer, British newspaper The Telegraph reported on May 9. Problems with the power supply, refuse waters and pollution have persisted last summer and have made an appearance this year already, although the tourist season is yet to start properly, the paper said.

An Israeli committee that oversees the implementation of the country’s 1957 law on compensation for persecution by Nazis during the Holocaust ruled on May 11 that any Jew who lived under curfew in Bulgaria and Romania in World War 2 would be classified as a survivor, even though they were not sent to death camps. Reporting the decision, Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz and news agency ynetnews said that the decision could have an impact on thousands of Jews in Bulgaria and Romania.

Structural changes within the Interior Ministry and the Cabinet’s healthcare policy are expected to be on the busy agenda of the leaders of the three ruling parties at their May 10 to 11 meeting in Bansko. The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) will discuss the “updated” governance programme of the Cabinet and the need for structural changes within the executive branch, the Government press service said, with the onus being on “social welfare, health policy, justice, interior issues, crisis management, economy and finance”. The weekend meeting will be attended not only by the leaders of the three parties – Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev (BSP), Simeon Saxe-Coburg (NMSP) and Ahmed Dogan (NMSP) – but by all 18 Cabinet ministers and 149 MPs of the three parties.

On May 7 2008, Macedonia and the US inked a declaration on strategic partnership, world news agencies reported. The agreement expressed the two countries' intention to develop their cooperation in the fields of security, economy and culture, as well as to extend their military ties.