SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — The Socialists, who finished second in Bulgaria's election this month, were asked to form a new government Thursday, after the front-running party was unable to.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Iran and its militant Shi'ite Lebanese ally Hezbollah are "propping up" President Bashar al-Assad and giving him increasing support, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday. Speaking before a meeting of the Friends of Syria alliance in the Jordanian capital, Hague said Britain would urge international powers to set a date in the next few days for an international conference to try to end the two-year-old conflict engulfing Syria and threatening regional stability. (Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi VIENNA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Iran faces international pressure in two separate meetings over its nuclear program on Wednesday, but with the Islamic state focused more on a June presidential election no breakthrough is expected in the dispute. In Vienna, the U.N. nuclear agency will once again urge Iran to stop stonewalling its investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Tehran, which denies any intent to make such weapons. The talks are due to start around 10 a.m. (0400 ET). ...

By Ethan Bilby BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Addressing an audience of dignitaries in Luxembourg in 2005, Bulgaria's then prime minister extolled the virtues of European Union membership, declaring his nation ready to take its place at the heart of the continent. "Bulgaria is returning politically to the family of European nations to which it has always belonged," Simeon Saxe-Coburg announced as Bulgaria and Romania signed the documents that would bring them into the EU two years later, in 2007. ...