The Iraqi army has urged people living in the centre of the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi to leave before an operation to retake it is launched. Leaflets have been dropped by planes, warning residents the army planned to storm the city within the next 24 hours. Source: BBC
Hundreds of truck drivers blocked roads across Bulgaria on Thursday (17 May) as European Union leaders met in Sofia, protesting against proposed EU rules they say would cost them their jobs and put their firms out of business. Source: Euractiv
At the 23 March EU summit, Rajoy told his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov that he would not attend the EU-Western Balkans summit organised by the EU Bulgarian Presidency in Sofia because he did not want to sit on the same table with Kosovo. Source: Euractiv
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has begun talks with President Vladimir Putin on her first visit to Russia since 2015. The meeting, at Mr Putin’s summer residence in Sochi, comes with bilateral relations in a trough over the war in Syria and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Source: BBC
