Plovdiv

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's party GERB on August 15 named its candidates for mayors of Plovdiv, Rousse, and Haskovo in the forthcoming local government elections in October 2019, reports BNT

The incumbent mayors in the three cities are from the GERB party, but they are not among the newly named candidates.

Maxima Bulgaria, owned by Maxima Grupė, has submitted a notification to the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition of entering into a long-term lease agreement regarding the rental of the stores from the local retail chain Triumph. The stores are situated in the city of Plovdiv, the second biggest city in the country.

A capsule with messages for future generations was built at the Rome Forum in Bulgaria's second-largest city of Plovdiv. Its reconstruction is part of a major renovation in the city's main square. The capsule contains information about the history and life of the ancient city, as well as interesting facts about 2019, the year in which Plovdiv is the European Capital of Culture.

Smilyana Zaharieva knew she had a gift when she saw her audience tremble or cry during her performances. Now an official Guinness world record confirms that the Bulgarian singer has one of the most powerful voices on the planet, which can stay pitch perfect despite being as loud as a rock concert.

In the morning, clouds will break and the rain will stop for a while, but even before noon it will start again from the west and will cover most of the country. In the evening the rain will gradually end from the northwest but will continue in the southern and eastern areas overnight, significant amounts expected there. Thunderstorms and hail more likely in southern Bulgaria.

More and more Chinese tourists are showing an interest in visiting Bulgaria, data from the country's largest online travel agency showed, reports China Daily. 

The number of Chinese visitors booking flights to the southeastern European country soared 280 percent in the first half (H1) of 2019 compared with the same period last year, according to Ctrip.

The Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) proposes a ban on imports of diesel cars that do not meet the Euro 4 standard, which entered into force on January 1, 2005, according to the 24Hours newspaper.

55% of people who do not live in their own home intend to buy one, with nearly half of them indicating housing credit as the primary means of financing it. The data is from a nationally representative online survey conducted by Gemius Bulgaria on Postbank's request. On the second place, 25% of the respondents said that it it is possible to finance the purchase with their own funds.

Just for the first three months of 2019, 5,800 abortions were committed in Bulgaria, making the country among the leading countries in Europe by abortion. This is a statistic of the National Center for Public Health and Analyses (NCPHA). Of these, over 3600 pregnancies were ended of patients' own free will.

The population of Bulgaria will never be more than the current just under 7 million people, according to the latest UN forecast. In the best scenario at the end of the century, there will be 5.5 million people in the country. But the data on population-accelerated population projections seem to increase the likelihood of worst-case scenario occurrence.