Sofia - Former ice-skating world champion Maxim Staviiski is to spend 2.5 years in prison after an appeals court Monday overturned a lighter, suspended sentence handed to him for a deadly traffic accident he caused 16 months ago.

The court in the Black Sea port of Burgas said Staviiski must serve time for driving his massive jeep into another car in August 2007, killing a 24-year old man and gravely injuring an 18-year old girl, who remains in a coma and in a hospital in Israel.

Sofia (Bulgaria), Dec 31 : A team of archaeologists has found the most ancient civilization in Europe, near Yunatsite village, Pazardzhik District, in Bulgaria.

In 2008, a joint Bulgarian-Greek team had excavated the layers of a tomb that date back from the Halcolite age.

After finding the skeleton of a young woman, they have now found the fortifying system that includes a big 5m wide wall that has surpassed the settlement, according to a report by Focus News Agency.

Sofia - Police officers in Bulgaria on Sunday staged a second demonstration in a week for higher pay and better gear.

More than 500 officers gathered in front of the Interior Ministry in Sofia alone.

Heeding a call via the internet to "drink water," they carried bottles of mineral water.

Some officers displayed their worn boots to highlight their demand for better winter clothing.

Similar protests took place in other cities, such as Pleven and Silistra in the north, as well as Haskovo and Smoljan in the south.

Their demands follow a first protest that saw Christmas pay of 280 dollars being pledged.

Sofia - German energy giant RWE launched a joint venture Friday with the Bulgarian NEK to develop the Balkan country's second nuclear power plant.

The Essen-based company would invest 1.275 billion euros (1.84 billion dollars) for a 49-per-cent stake in the venture, the government in Sofia said.

The project with RWE would have an "enormous" impact for Bulgaria in context of the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said after the contract was signed.

Bulgaria appointed RWE as the strategic partner in the development of the plant at Belene on the Danube.

Sofia  - Bulgarian officials complained how the European Union stole their Christmas when it cancelled hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies because of fraud, but instead of putting thieves in prison, they blamed the global financial crisis.

After repeated warnings to its poorest member-state that subsidies aimed at improving the life of Bulgarians were being drained as a result of fraud, the EU in July suspended the payment of 486 million euros for various projects and demanded action from Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's cabinet.