Bulgarian bagpipers set new world record

The 333 Bulgarian folk musicians gathered in central Sofia, blowing their kaba-gaidas -- bagpipes from the Rhodope mountains in the south of the Balkan country -- to set the first such Guinness world record. Dressed in traditional colorful Rhodope costumes, bagpipers started with a famous folk song -- Delyu Haidutin -- which was included in a Voyager golden record with the songs and sounds of our planet and sent as a message to space by NASA in 1977. The event also aimed to bring a spot of joy to a nation which a survey showed was among the most unhappy on the planet. Having joined the European Union in 2007, it is still the bloc’s poorest member and recovering from a deep recession. Sofia Reuters