News archive of September 2019

The Hellenic Capital Market Commission on Monday approved a bid by Czech-based Sazka Group to take full control of gaming firm OPAP.
Greece sold a 33 percent stake in OPAP to Emma Delta, currently owned by Sazka Group and Georgios Melissanidis, in 2013 for about 650 million euros as part of an international bailout.

Insurance companies are demanding the exemption of spending on insurance policies from taxpayers' taxable incomes in a bid to create an additional incentive for people to get covered. This has emerged in the context of the dialogue between the sector's enterprises and the government to strengthen the so-called third pillar, private insurance.

All countries of the European Union must do their part in helping Greece deal with the recent uptick in the arrival of migrants to the islands of the eastern Aegean, US Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt said on Monday at the 6th Annual Economic Forum of the Hellenic Association of Entrepreneurs.

At Kostas Mouhtaridis' silk factory in Soufli, the non-stop "clunk-click" of the weaving machinery is a loud but welcome sound.
The factory is a few hundred meters (yards) from the Evros River, which forms Greece's natural border with Turkey. It is one of Europe's most heavily militarized areas, patrolled constantly to deter illegal immigration into the European Union.

Traffic congestion is formed at Bulgaria's main border checkpoint with Turkey - Kapitan Andreevo. The queue of heavy trucks entering Bulgaria's southern neighbour is over 20 km long. Currently, the last tracks are shortly after the Shell gas station, located between Lyubimets and Svilengrad.

SNTGN Transgaz SA inaugurated, on Monday, the Jupa Natural Gas Compression Station, which is part of the BRHA project, the Ministry of Economy informs. The value of the execution contract at August 31, without maintenance, for the Jupa STC is of 103.56 million lei. The value of the two compression units installed at the Jupa STC is of 12.6 million euro.

Bulgarian Athletics star Ivet Lalova qualified for the 200m semifinals at the Doha World Championship. The competitor finished first in the second series with a result of 22.79 seconds, gong.bg reported.

Ivet Lalova managed to outpace her competitors in the final meters at Khalifa International Stadium.

Police in China have arrested a fugitive criminal who has been hiding for 17 years. His hiding place was discovered with the help of a drone. Song Jiang, 63, was sentenced to prison for trafficking in women and children, but in 2002 managed to escape from a prison camp. All these years he lived in a miniature cave and did not interact with people.

The consultative summit meeting convened by President Rumen Radev in connection with the invitation expected to be extended to North Macedonia to start EU accession negotiations in October, decided that a national position on the matter should be developed with clear-cut requirements and criteria that will uphold Bulgaria's national interest, BNR  reported.

The  European Commission said it "deeply deplores" the death of a woman and injury of her child during a fire inside the overcrowded migrant camp of Moria, Lesvos, over the weekend, describing it as a "truly tragic event."