LJUBLJANA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Slovenians took to the streets of the capital Ljubljana on Saturday calling for higher wages to cope with soaring price increases.

Organisers put the number of protestors at around 70,000, making it the largest labour demonstration in the country of two million since independence from from Yugoslavia in 1991.

EU and eurozone member Slovenia, which assumes the rotating EU presidency in January, posted robust economic growth of 5.7 percent in 2006 and is on course for an even better 5.8 percent this year.

LJUBLJANA, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia revised its 2008 budget deficit Saturday to 0.6 percent of gross domestic product from 0.9 percent forecast earlier.

'A solid economic situation over the last years, especially the strong economic growth registered this year, have changed the macroeconomic conditions on which we base our budgets,' Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk told reporters.

The parliament is expected to pass the 2009 budget -- that sees a 0.3 percent deficit -- and revised 2008 budget by the end of November.

LJUBLJANA, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Inflation picked up in Slovenia this month, rising to 3.6 percent on a 12-month basis, the Slovenian Statistical Office reported on Friday.

Using the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), the cost of living in Slovenia rose by 0.4 percent month-on-month in September and was 3.6 percent higher compared with September 2006, the office said in a statement.

In August, HICP had risen by 0.2 percent month-on-month and by 3.4 percent year-on-year.

LJUBLJANA, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia's government took emergency measures Thursday to help in the clean-up and reconstruction of areas devastated by floods and landslides in which six people have died.

Prime Minister Janez Jansa on Wednesday announced an initial 500,000 euro (700,000 dollar) emergency fund for areas hit by torrential rains.

The government also announced a day of national mourning for Friday.

LJUBLJANA, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - Four people died and four were still missing Wednesday, the day after the heaviest rains in 30 years hit Slovenia's northwest, causing flooding and mudslides, state radio said.

Two people were killed late Tuesday when a mudslide swept into a house in the Celje region, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Ljubljana, and two more died earlier in the day in the Cerklje region, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) northwest of the capital, the station said.

LJUBLJANA, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - Heavy rains hit Slovenia's northwest on Tuesday causing flooding and mudslides in the region where two persons went missing while a World War II museum was severely damaged, Slovenian state radio said.

Flash floods in the town of Zelezniki, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of capital Ljubljana, swept away about 150 cars, the report said.

Two people who were believed to have been in their cars, are still missing, police said.

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Monday proposed establishing a joint north Adriatic port by linking the Italian port of Trieste with the main Slovenian port of Koper.

'We should create a single port in the Trieste bay: Trieste and Koper are in fact the same port on the opposite side (of bay),' he told a joint news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa.

The ports of Trieste and Koper are situated north of the Istria peninsula and lie some 15 kilometres (10 miles) from each other.

LJUBLJANA, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenian gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.3 percent in the second quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2006, the Slovenian Statistical Office reported on Monday.

The economy expanded 1.2 percent from the first quarter, the office said.

'High export growth continued in the second quarter, increasing by 13.6 percent,' the office added.

It also revised its 2006 GDP growth, raising it 5.7 percent from 5.2 percent published earlier this year.

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Italy urged the European Union Monday to give Belgrade its political and economic attention immediately without waiting for a solution on the future status of Kosovo.

'We (the EU) need to act quickly and have to show Serbia immediately that we give it great political and economic attention,' Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi told a joint news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa.

MARIBOR, Slovenia, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - A Slovenian inmate completed an audacious prison escape attempt Tuesday by digging through a one-metre (three-foot) thick wall, jail authorities said Tuesday.

'By examining the security camera recordings, it was determined that the prisoner escaped through a hole dug through the wall on top of the workroom,' a statement from the prison said.

Although the escape from the institution in the northern Slovenian city of Maribor was discovered 10 minutes later, the 24-year-old former detainee remains on the run, it added.

LJUBLJANA, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia began accepting tenders Friday for a 49.13 percent stake in the state-owned telecommunications operator Telekom, amid pressure from the European Commission.

In an advertisement published in the British business daily Financial Times as well as the Slovenian and European Union official bulletins, the government invited potential buyers to present non-binding bids until October 15.

A commission will request binding offers from shortlisted bidders in a second phase of the process, the government said.

LJUBLJANA, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenian inflation fell to an annualised 3.4 percent in August from 4.0 percent in July, but still surpassed that of its eurozone peers, figures released Friday by the Slovenian Statistical Office showed.

Consumer prices increased by 0.2 percent on a monthly basis.

In July, they had fallen by 0.1 percent from the previous month.

The office said that the main price increases in August were seen in the food, municipal services and package holidays sectors.

LJUBLJANA, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said Thursday he had accepted the resignation of three ministers following strong criticism from the opposition and falling public support for his cabinet.

The three who handed in their resignations, Health Minister Andrej Brucan, Transport Minister Janez Bozic and Science Minister Jure Zupan, have come under intense fire from opposition parties in the last few months.

SOFIA, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - The Bulgarian privatisation agency said Tuesday that it had signed a contract to sell an energy plant in northeastern Ruse to the Slovenian power company Holding Slovenske Electrarne (HSE).

HSE offered 85.1 million euros (116.3 million dollars) for the Ruse plant in October, outbidding the French group Dalkia and German energy giant E.ON Energie.

Last year, Bulgaria sold another power plant in Varna to the Czech electricity group CEZ for 206 million euros.

LJUBLJANA, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - Seven people have died in a car accident on the outskirts of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, police said Monday.

'A 27-year-old driver of a vehicle with Romanian registration plates tried to make a U-turn on the highway crossing to the opposite lane where a car driving in the opposite direction crashed straight into it,' a police statement said of the incident which occurred Sunday.

Five people in the Romanian-registered car, whose identity and nationality are unknown, died as well as two Slovenian passengers in the second car.

BLED, Slovenia, Aug 26, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia and Croatia agreed Sunday to take a long-running border row to the International Court of Justice.

'We have agreed to ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to try to find a solution to the border dispute between the two countries,' Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said after meeting his Croatian counterpart, Ivo Sanader.

'We reached an agreement in principle that the arbitration should deal with the sea and land border on all the disputed points,' Jansa said.

ZAGREB, Aug 18, 2007 (AFP) - Dozens of residents of a village straddling the border between Croatia and Slovenia protested Saturday at European Union moves which will cut their community in half, Croatian radio reported.

They gathered at the ancient bridge across the Kupa river between the two parts of Cedanj, which like dozens more will be destroyed ahead of Slovenia becoming part of the EU's so-called Schengen area at the end of this year.

MARIBOR, Slovenia, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenian authorities have begun exhuming a mass grave in the Tezno forest, northeastern Slovenia, where over 15,000 victims slain after World War II by the former communist regime are supposed to be buried, an official said Thursday.

'It might turn out that the Tezno mass grave hides the largest atrocity after World War II exceeding even that of Srebrenica (the massacre in Bosnia in 1995),' Joze Dezman, the head of the government Commission on Concealed Mass Graves, told Slovenian state radio.

LJUBLJANA, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Smoking will be banned in virtually all public places in Slovenia starting on Sunday, under legislation adopted by parliament in June.

The new measures will enter into force at midnight on Saturday.

From then on, smoking will be banned in all public places, including hotels and restaurants except where they have installed special isolated smoking rooms.

LJUBLJANA, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia called Friday for new talks this month with neighbouring Croatia on a border dispute that has marred ties between the two former Yugoslav states since 2001 as well as other irritants.

The offer came just days after Slovenia proposed a compromise to Zagreb to resolve the frontier row.

'Croatia's reply to our proposal for solving the pending issues gives ground for further talks. Slovenia will propose intense negotiations to take place this month,' state radio quoted Foreign Minster Dimitrij Rupel as saying.

LJUBLJANA, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia's government on Tuesday denied a newspaper report that it would seek to persuade Serbia to grant Kosovo independence in exchange for a chance at EU membership.

'Slovenia sees the solution of the Kosovo status problem and Serbia's EU perspective as two parallel processes that cannot be linked among themselves,' the Slovenian foreign ministry said in a statement in response to an article published by Britain's Financial Times newspaper.

LJUBLJANA, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenian consumer price inflation in July rose to 4.0 percent on a 12-month basis, the Slovenian Statistical Office said Tuesday.

In June inflation had registered a sharp increase, reaching 3.8 percent on a 12-month basis from 3.1 percent a month earlier.

The strongest price increases in July were registered in the package holiday and food sectors while prices of clothing and footwear fell due to the summer discounts and sales, the office said.

LJUBLJANA, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia has proposed a compromise to Croatia to solve a long-standing dispute between the two former Yugoslav states, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said Monday.

'Slovenia has proposed a compromise on all the pending issues' between the two countries, Jansa said, without giving any details on the content of the document.

'We expect a reply soon.'

Relations between the two neighbours, which were part of Yugoslavia until 1991, have soured over the years because of disputes over fishing rights and borders.

LJUBLJANA, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Slovenia is on track to meeting a government target of matching the European Union's average gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said on Monday.

'So far this year the government has been meeting the commitments set by our development strategy program,' Jansa told a news conference in Ljubljana.