Sofia

Bulgarian journalists protested in front of the Interior Ministry's headquarters in Sofia, to show their solidarity for the arson attack on bTV's Genka Shikerova.

Shikerova's car was set alight on Tuesday night, parked in front of her home. This was the second such act against her, after her previous car was inflamed last September.

Pictures from Macedonia's capital Skopje can be seen at the European Parliament's visitors center in a short film dedicated to Sofia.

The story presented by the film starts with the 1997 protests that rocked Bulgaria's capital and goes on with later years of transition to market economy in the country.

The repair of the Central Railway Station in Sofia has been launched with an official ceremony Thursday, announced Bulgaria's National Railway Infrastructure Company.

Bulgaria ranks 13th in size of its shopping mall space in Europe, a report has shown.

Data quoted by British newspaper The Guardian suggest that Bulgaria, which is often described as the EU's poorest country, is positioned at the upper part of the list.

Bulgaria urgently needs to modernize its air force, in the light of the situation in Ukraine, said Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin. 

According to him, the country needs to reorganize its military air force and buy new type of fighter jets, in order to terminate its dependence on Russia for their technical maintenance. 

Government to publish agreement with Etihad

BELGRADE -- The government has received the approval of Etihad to publish the deal on strategic partnership with Air Serbia, says an advisor to Deputy PM Aleksandar Vučić.

The agreement will be made public soon, Siniša Mali said on Wednesday.

Around 900 flights were cancelled during the first day of German airline Lufthansa's strike.

The strike, which will last 3 days, could affect another 3,000 flights and 425,000 passengers, the BBC reports.

Lufthansa is re-booking passengers to other airlines or train services in order to ease the disruption.

BELGRADE - The Serbian government has received the approval of Etihad Airways to publish the agreement on strategic partnership with Air Serbia, and it is a matter of day when the agreement will be made public, Sinisa Mali, advisor of the first deputy prime minister, said on Wednesday.

Bulgaria's national football team will play Canada in a friendly match on May 23.

The two football federations agreed to stage the match in the Austrian town of Ritzing, approximately 80km from the capital Vienna.

Refugees in Bulgaria are staging a protest to demand papers allowing them to head for Germany or another EU member state.

The protest is to be held Wednesday in front of the European Commission Representation in Sofia, according to reports of Trud daily.