Picture Of Bulgaria

FOREIGN MINISTER PASSY: (in Bulgarian) Good morning. It is a great pleasure for me to say good morning here in Bulgaria to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a great friend of ours, with whom we spent almost four full years, hand in hand as allies and friends. I want to thank him for all the support that he personally, and through him the US administration, provided to Bulgaria. Those were four exceptionally successful years. In the course of these years, Bulgaria conducted and finalized the NATO accession negotiations, finalized the negotiations with the E ... [Read More]

US Department Of State Post Report

AERA, CLO, and the Marine Security Guard Detachment work together to organize holiday gatherings for the Embassy community and friends. The annual Marine Birthday Ball is one of the highlights of the fall season, followed by the International Women’s Club (IWC) Charity Bazaar in early December. Opportunities abound to devote time to charity. Many institutions for orphans and handicapped welcome volunteeres. There are two English-speaking international clubs for women, the above-mentioned IWC, and the Women’s Network, made up chiefly of working women in Sofia. Official Functions Nature of FunctionsLast Updated:  12/2/2003 11:36 AM In Sofia, there ... [Read More]

2004
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USIA, Economic Perspectives, May 1998 -- IPR

Take the case with Sweden and Denmark, for example. Our softwareindustry needs the right to conduct surprise searches of thepremises of a corporation if the corporation is using copies ofU.S. software without authorization. Denmark and Sweden feelthat the right to have surprise searches is limited to criminalcases, not civil cases. The U.S. copyright industry prefers tobring civil complaints because it has a hard time persuadingprosecutors to consider software piracy comparable to murder,robbery, and such. Yet software companies can't make their caseagainst these corporations unless they can have these surprisesearches. So that's the dispute we're having with Sweden andDenmark. It's a rather sophisticated issue compared to theabsence of a copyright law. We have broader problems ofinadequate enforcement in Greece and Italy. ... [Read More]

Bulgarian Youth Town Hall

US- Bulgaria relations are going very well. We are so honored that Bulgaria is now a member of NATO. It is going to be fully within the EU in the not too distant future. It is so active in OSCE. and has been willing to take the chances of sending its troops to places like Afghanistan and the Balkans and Iraq. And I regret that some of those troops lost their lives, but freedom sometimes has that cost associated with it. And people say why should troops be from Bulgaria? Why should the people of Bulgaria be concerned about the freedoms of the people of Iraq or Afghanistan? But if you want to be part of the international community, and for a nation that had lost its freedom for a long period of time, I think it’s noble that you should be willing, your country, your people be willing to undertake these kind of challenges and make these kinds of sacrifices. And my heart goes out to the families of those who lost their soldiers or the two truck drivers who were so brutally ... [Read More]

IV. Country Narratives: Europe and Eurasia

The Government of the Czech Republic specifically criminalizes the trafficking of individuals for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and the Cabinet has recently approved for submission to Parliament criminal code amendments to criminalize other forms of trafficking, such as trafficking for forced labor. Currently, Czech authorities prosecute forced labor cases under human-smuggling provisions. A special division of the Organized Crime Investigation Unit of the State Police is specifically trained and dedicated to trafficking crimes. This unit is authorized to use special investigative techniques such as electronic surveillance and undercover operations. During the reporting period, Czech authorities arrested 19 and convicted five other individuals under trafficking statues. Of the five convicted, only one received a prison sentence of one to five years; four received conditional sentences, akin to suspended sentences. Czech authorities also arrested 103 and convicted 80 individua ... [Read More]

G-8 Global Partnership

State recognizes that advancing nonproliferation in Russia and the NIS is difficult. As members of this committee can attest, much of this work involves increasing the security of facilities so sensitive, host governments are reluctant to let in either U.S. program officials or congressional delegations. That said, we have made a lot of progress with a very small budget. Senator Lugar, I know you were interested in getting access to bio-weapons facilities in the Kirov area. We are too. For example, we have begun discussions with the Kirov 200 BW facility on the potential production of drugs to combat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. We hope this is the first step toward greater engagement of scientists and facilities in that region. ... [Read More]

Dr. Lesser said that 10 years ago, nobody was talking aboutMediterranean in a very serious way. Today, we are here andtalking about the future of Mediterranean. This is thequalitative and quantitative change. Ten years ago we wouldhear a different rhetoric, one more concerned with ideology. Today, we do not talk about the clash of civilizations,fault-lines, and about the possibility of convergence. It is a newworld and it is a new situation. The problem is, from theTurkish point of view, that Turkey perceives the world asdifferently as the world perceives Turkey. We do not liveseparated from the realities of the world. But differentperceptions exist -- in Europe, in America, in the rest of theworld, and in Turkey. ... [Read More]

U.S. Foreign Assistance Programs

Mr. Chairman and other distinguished Committee members, I am pleased to participate in your examination of U.S. foreign assistance programs. U.S. assistance is key to achieving our foreign policy goals in Europe and Eurasia, and we greatly appreciate your current and past support in providing us with this important diplomatic tool. I am pleased to have with me today Dr. Kent Hill, my counterpart from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Also, sitting behind me is Ambassador Carlos Pascual, the Coordinator of Assistance to Europe and Eurasia. We are fortunate to have in our Bureau a Coordinator with statutory authority over assistance in our region; we think this helps maintain a strong link between foreign policy objectives and assistance programs. A ... [Read More]