Bulgarian pres. uses Colo. photo in speech

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SOFIA, Bulgaria, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev attracted ridicule when he used a picture of mountains in Colorado as an example of his country's beauty.

Plevneliev received praise for taking a more emotional approach than that of his predecessor, Georgi Parvanov, in the first televised New Year's speech of his term, but some online commentators made jokes at the leader's expense after a picture of Colorado's Rocky Mountains was shown during a section of the speech about Bulgaria's natural beauty, Novonite.com reported Wednesday.

Vladimir Doychinov, a well-known collage maker who works under the name Lado, was the first to notice the error and spread the news on social networks.

"Occupy Bulgaria," one of the country's largest Facebook groups, joked online about their country apparently being annexed by the United States.

The same picture held up by the president was found to have been used by tourist company Balkantourist and Bulgarica.com to advertise the Pamporovo ski resort.