Bulgaria

Bulgaria's government mulls introducing a tax on capital market transactions following the model of the EU financial transaction tax.

Ivaylo Moskovski, Bulgaria's Transport Minister, has said that the project for the Hemus motorway will be implemented under the Transport Operational Program regardless of the fact that it is plagued by a shortfall of BGN 500-600 M.

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The woman who set herself ablaze in front of Bulgaria's presidency last week has died, doctors say.

Lidiya Petrova, 38, was taken to hospital on Monday and put under controlled respiration after severe burns covering 90 percent of her body surface.

Doctors had warned for days her condition was critical and there was slim chance of saving her life.

Petar Moskov, Bulgaria's new Health Minister, has vowed to make everything possible to make sure that Bulgarians have electronic medical records, electronic health insurance account, and electronic prescription forms by end-2015.

Bulgarians mark on November 10 the 25th anniversary of the overthrow of the communist regime amidst 150 days of protests against the Socialist-led government.

Boryana Dimitrova from Alpha Research, one of Bulgaria's leading pollsters, told the Bulgarian National Radio on Monday that a "nostalgic [and] idealized image of communism" is starting to dominate over society.

President Rosen Plevneliev and former caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki are due to outline the results of the interim government's three-month tenure.

The event follows the transfer of power on Friday at which Boyko Borisov took over from Bliznashki as PM and his minority coalition supported by nationalist Patriotic Front and left-wing ABV assumed office.

Depositors in Bulgaria's troubled Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB, Corpbank) will initiate collective action against the state at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Balkan drug lord Dragoslav Kosmajac was arrested in Belgrade early on Sunday.

Serbia's Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic announced at an extraordinary press conference that 61-year-old Kosmajac and seven of his accomplices had been arrested in a police operation, adding that they would remain in custody for a period of up to 48 hours.

25 years after the democratic turn in Bulgaria, the collective memory for the socialist period continues to fade away, according to a survey of polling agency Alpha Research.

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Bulgaria's new Environment Minister, Ivelina Vasileva, has vowed to keep the 2012 moratorium on the exploration and production of shale gas through hydraulic fracturing.

In a Sunday interview for bTV, Vasileva insisted that the authorities would not allow illegal and uncontrolled construction.
She pledged clearly mapped protected areas on the Black Sea coast.