ELDERLY BULGARIAN WOMAN PASSES OBITUARY NOTICES IN KOVATCHEVICA, 2003-05-30 (photo)

An elderly Bulgarian woman passes by a board with obituary notices in village of Kovatchevica on May 30, 2003. Several dozen, mainly elderly Bulgarians, are the only inhabitants in many high mountain villages such as Kovatchevica in Bulgaria's southern Rhodopi Mountains. Declining birth rate, rising mortality rate and high unemployment over the past decade have led to the desertion of many villages in the European Union-aspiring country. Recent statistics showed that some 1,500 villages in the country of eight million have less than 100 mainly elderly residents, of which some 500 villages have less than 10 residents. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov SN/CRB