The teams of the Institute of Art History and Archeology, and the Tetovo Museum performed excavations of the locale Gradishte, near Jegunovce village.

 

 

In 1444 Ottomans defeated the army of the Polish-Hungarian King Wladislaw III Jagiello Warnenczyk in a battle at Varna.

 

In 1944 the Fourth Bulgarian Army drove away the German troops from Veles (Macedonia).

 

In 1989 Todor Zhivkov was relieved of the post of the Secretary General at a plenum of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

 

 

 

Bulgarian Yacht Wrecked, Two of Four-Member Crew Missing.

Sofia, November 10 (BTA) - The Bulgarian yacht Yosif and Anna has been wrecked, two of its crew of four are missing, the other two are safe.

There is no evidence that the two Bulgarians who went unaccounted for off the Algerian coast died. A search and rescue operation still is under way, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lyubomir Todorov said.

The two rescued Bulgarians are in hospital in stable condition. They may be discharged in the coming hours to go to the Bulgarian Embassy, and from there to return to Bulgaria on Monday or Tuesday, Todorov said.

Quoting Agence France-Presse, BTA reported that the yacht capsized in a squall on the morning of November 8 in Annaba, 600 miles east of Algeria in the Mediterranean.

Two crew members, Roussi Rachev (25) from the Black Sea city of Bourgas and Alexander Velikov (29) from Sofia, managed to swim to the shore.

The two missing yachtsmen are from the Black Sea city of Varna, the yacht's owner Dimiter Dimitrov (52), and Ognyan Balevski (43), chairman of Varna Yacht Club.

The club's deputy chairman Ivan Ivanov learned the news from journalists. He talked with the two a few days ago, while they were in Tunisia, waiting to sail off to Gibraltar.

This is the first time the Yosif and Anna has sailed outside the Black Sea. Its seaworthiness must have been impaired because the owner made a partition on the vessel to take tourists on trips, according to Luchezar Bratoev, whose company manages the marina in the Golden Sands resort. The yacht has long been used for such trips along the coast.

The Yosif and Anna sailed off from Varna with the Sunny Queen on October 12. They stopped over in Tunisia and then left for Palma de Mallorca, where they were to meet with yachtsmen from Europe. They were to voyage to Florida.

The Sunny Queen, with Svetlyo Dimitrov as skipper, was not wrecked.

There is no proof that the two missing Bulgarians died, although the Algerian newspapers claim this is the case, Todorov said. Contact with the Sunny Queen was interrupted by the squall, only to be re-established on Saturday. It is on its way to Almeria, Spain, where it is due to arrive on Monday or Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

 

 

Standartnews
Elena Yaneva
Evgeny Goranov

Resignation of Paskalev is the ideal pretext for cabinet reshuffle, says the Sofia mayor.

Stefan Sofianski has no intention to become a member of the NMS government, it became clear after the sitting of the Union "Free Democrats" held yesterday in Pleven. We have taken the decision not to bring members of our party into this cabinet, stressed the Sofia mayor who is also the leader of the "Free Democrats". He specified that so far no one discussed with him the possibility of his participation in the government. We do need a radical change and thorough cabinet reshuffle, he added. In his opinion, the resignation of Kostadin Paskalev is the ideal pretext for structural changes in the government. Budget 2003 will for sure lower the living standard in Bulgaria, the Free Democrats maintain. We have to pinch on health care and welfare programs, repair works in schools and kindergartens, public transportation and potholes on the roads. He thinks that the municipalities can no further tighten belts. The political council of the UFD elected Diliana Grozdanova as the chief of the election staff of the party. For the first time the UFD chairman pinpointed the MRF as a possible election partner. The leadership delegated to the local structures the right to negotiate with the NMS and UDF. The new union of right-to-center forces is the only chance for centrist political formations to succeed, Sofianski maintains.

 

 

 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin was invited to turn the first sod for a Russian church in the town of Stara Zagora during his visit to Bulgaria on March 3 next year. Russian Patriarch Alexis II to consecrate the church. President Georgi Parvanov and Russia's Ambassador to Bulgaria will make their best Vladimir Putin to visit the town.

 

 

Standartnews
Krastina Marinova

The muppet of vice-premier Vassilev cannot do without a pair of rosy glasses, says Stelian Khadjiev. Culture minister Bozhidar Abrashev was the greatest challenge for the artist.

 

At the last protesting rally people in Dobritch and then in Sofia marched carrying around a muppet figures of vice-minister Vassilev and minister of education Vladimir Atanassov. The muppets made by Stelian Khadjiev have displaced the boring and trite political slogans. "My hands are really itching to make a muppet of culture minister Bozhidar Abrashev", says the artist. Stelian Khadjiev had only two days to make the muppets. He blew up the nose of minister Vassilev, slicked down his bang and perched pink eye-glasses on his nose-piece. After all Vassilev sees the economic situation in Bulgaria through rosy glasses when he's talking of our "economic growth", doesn't he? To make the bristling hair hedgehog-like hair of the education minister the artist put to use jute. His ears were pierced with A and B-shaped earrings. The studio of Stelian Khadjiev is walled up with his pictures, among them stands out a portrait of Peter Stoyanov - the politician whom the artist has never given up.

 

 

Standartnews
Albena Atanassova

Bulgarian movie and theater stars Anya Pencheva and Niki Sotirov and producer Boris Pankin came back from an awesome tour in the USA and Canada. They performed the theatricals "A Woman and a Man" in 11 cities - Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York, Washington, Detroit, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco.

Anya Pencheva: They didn't even want to let us go. We gave immediately out the hundreds bouquets we received, because I don't like picked flowers, I think there is something sad in them.

Nikolai Sotirov: The people who watched us were extremely excited. They came to us and they touched us - like Bulgarians, like a piece of our motherland, in flesh and blood.

Anya Pencheva: I don't want to think of the disgrace that happened in Canada. Not a single official from our Embassy in Ottawa attended the performance. The whole lot of immigrants talked about us - even those people who were in dire straits attended the performance. Save for Bulgarian diplomats. 11 people who get their salaries from the Budget never showed up. What are they there for, then? If they had urgent tasks, I would have excused them. But they had none. They even demanded that the organizers knocked the price of the tickets costing $20 each. And when the organizers did so, they still didn't come. And Niki and I are strict tax-payers. That's why I am indignant, as a citizen, who is aware of her duties. I think that they should be sanctioned. I can't explain it to myself, how it is possible to be so far away from your country, to have the rare chance to see a real Bulgarian performance and not to take your children to see it. I don't find it normal.