So. The world won't end this year: Someone saved some bears.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - After a lifetime of brutal treatment, including walking on burning embers, Bulgaria's last three dancing bears will get to rest their paws at a mountain sanctuary, in an apparent end to the centuries-old performance tradition in the Balkans.

Activists on Friday bought the freedom of Mima, 8, Misho, 19, and Svetla, 17.

A member of Bulgaria's Stanev gypsy family plays with the family owned 19-year-old male bear called Misho in their home yard in the village of Getsovo some 400 kms. (250 miles) east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Friday. "The three bears dubbed Misho, Svetla and Mima will not dance on hot surfaces anymore. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov)

Bulgaria is believed to have been the last country in the Balkans where dancing bears still performed, even though the practice was outlawed in 1993, when there were 20 to 30 such bears in the country.

The three bears will join another 20 brown bears on Mount Rila at a 12-hectare sanctuary for former dancing bears about 180 kilometres south of Sofia.

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