In a strategic move to bolster their market presence and enhance user experiences, Merkur Group has forged a long-term partnership with gaming innovator Spintec.

Luxembourg - Slovenia resisted European Union pressure on Monday to give immediate backing to a plan aimed at easing Croatia's EU membership path, officials at a meeting of EU foreign ministers said.

Slovenia has been blocking Croatia's EU bid in a row over the two neighbours' maritime border.

Last week EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn proposed a compromise which would see the two countries nominate five judges tasked with solving the problem. Croatia and many EU member states welcomed the proposal.

Ljubljana/Vienna - Slovenia's government on Thursday decided to field former diplomat Ernest Petric as a candidate to lead the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), further widening the pool of potential successors to Mohamed ElBaradei.

Petric, 72, serves as a judge on Slovenia's Constitutional Court. He previously represented his country as ambassador to Austria and international organisations in Vienna, including the IAEA.

Ljubljana  - Slovenian foresters used tranquilizer darts to capture a young brown bear after it wreaked havoc by appearing and disappearing in the capital Ljubljana Thursday.

The first sighting of the bear was in a park at 4 am, but the search was called off eight hours later after forestry workers failed to locate the animal.

After the barricades were removed and the park re-opened, the bear again appeared and was eventually tranquilized 150 metres from the US ambassador's residence and 400 metres from the Slovenian parliament.

Ljubljana - Stand still, play dead, because the beast can outrun, outjump and out-climb any human: These instructions were broadcast in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana Thursday morning, as the search for a brown bear roaming in the city began.

The animal had first been sighted at 4 am (0200 GMT) in the central city park. An alert was issued and a search launched after a head-count in the Ljubljana zoo confirmed that both resident bears were safely locked up.

Police said the bear probably became lost after crossing from the hilly woodlands across the highway belt encircling the city and warned people to stay away from the area of the sighting.

Ljubljana - Slovenian steeplechase champion Bostjan Buc on Tuesday dismissed media reports which mentioned him in connection doping scheme exposed in Austria.

"I have no idea why I was brought into this context," Buc, 28, sauid in a telephone interview with the German Press Agency dpa in Ljubljana.

On Monday, news reports had alleged that Buc was part of the scheme exposed in Austria around sports manager Stefan Matschiner, with the Delo daily saying: "The wave (of doping) washed over the Alps (into Slovenia)."