Bulgaria

Attacks on journalists are a direct threat to the whole society, Bulgaria's bTV channel said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement comes after bTV journalist Genka Shikerova's automobile was set on fire Tuesday night. She was victim to a similar case of arson back in September, but the perpetrator was not found.

Bulgaria will cooperate with China in the prevention of and fight against crime, after a draft agreement between the two countries' governments has been approved, Wednesday.

Bulgaria's Customs Agency formed a new directorate for corruption prevention and counteraction, Wednesday.

The Professional Standards and Control structure is the result of changes in the Customs Agency regulations adopted by the government in mid-March, Dnevnik reports.

President Rosen Plevneliev discussed the situation of Syrian refugees in Bulgaria at a meeting with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels.

Bulgaria's toy market has seen BGN 20 M growth in 2013.

A Bulgarian family tends to spend BGN 120 on toys ahead of festive days, meaning more money is being put aside for them now than a few years ago, the website Investor.bg has revealed.

Deputy Prime Minister Daniela Bobeva has emphasized the government's efforts aimed at launching electronic government as a priority task.

Speaking Wednesday in Parliament, she noted that although previous governments had declared the launch of e-government services to be a primary issue, the results were plain to see.

Bulgaria mulls simplifying visa procedures for Russian citizens, the country's Ambassador to Moscow Boyko Kotsev announced.

"Visas will not be scrapped, but the regime could be facilitated, meaning a 2 to 3-day issuing and three to four minutes in a queue to receive them," Kotsev was quoted by Russia's Interfax agency as saying.

Currently, 65% of the water in Bulgaria's water supply networks is lost, according to Minister of Regional Development Desislava Terzieva.

There are more than 75,000 water pipes on the territory of the country, Terzieva said at the presentation of the management and development of the water sector strategy, BNGES reports.

Nearly 0.5 million Bulgarians, or 18% of the total of persons employed, are internal labor migrants, according to statistics of trade unions.

According to statistics of Bulgarian trade unions, the number of commuters exceeds 400 000 but their exact number remains unknown.

Bulgaria is ranked sixth in the world in terms of mortality rates in CIA's World Factbook for March 2014, published on the website of the agency.