Bulgaria

The UN refugee agency issued a report saying there was a sharp rise in asylum claims in 44 industrialized countries in 2013. driven primarily by the crisis in Syria.

UNHCR's "Asylum Trends 2013" report says 612,700 people applied for asylum in North America, Europe, East Asia and the Pacific in 2013, which is the highest total for any year since 2001.

Bulgarian Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev has rejected accusations that the current government is to blame for bringing the South Stream gas pipeline project to a standstill.

A new cocaine route for Europe goes through Bulgaria said the National Addictions and Drugs Center. 

According to its director Momchil Vasilev, in the past two years through Bulgaria was established a new drug channel, which takes cocaine from South America via Western Africa through Greece and Bulgaria, for Western Europe. 

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom will be visiting Bulgaria on 24-25 March, with regards to the refugee situation in the country.

EU Commissioner Malmstrom will participate in a conference "The Common European Asylum System: Challenges and perspectives", Monday.

The district court in Bulgaria's city of Lovech has decided to temporarily dismiss Teteven's mayor Milen Milev.

The measure will also be applied to his deputy, Detelin Parlev, and will prevent the two men from trying to dispose of any documents that could be relevant to the trial, Dariknews.bg has reported.

Concessioners have complained that the winter weather has shrunk beaches along the southern part of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.

Drug use in Bulgaria is gradually increasing, according to data from the annual statistics of the National Focal Point on Drugs and Drug Addictions.

The quantities of confiscated heroin have drastically declined in recent years, however cocaine use among Bulgarians is on the rise, the survey shows.

Significant amounts of natural gas could be extracted from Bulgaria's Khan Asparuh deep-water block, OMV believes.

Austrian energy company's expectations have so far been fomented by the discovering of vast amounts of gas at Neptun, a deep-water block in neighboring Romania situated next to Khan Asparuh.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) provides UniCredit Bulbank with EUR 50 M for financing Bulgarian SMEs in agriculture, industry and services. 

The first half of the credit line was presented by Mihai Tnasesku, EIB vice president and UniCredit Bulbank's CEO Levon Hampartzumian. 

Deputy Prime Minister Daniela Bobeva has started negotiations with the international creditors of Bulgarian State Railways who have agreed to reschedule loans for 10 years.

The Holding's total liabilities currently amount to BGN 620M compared to BGN 704M in May, 2013, CEO Hristian Krastev told in an interview for Trud Daily.