Burgas

A court in the Black Sea city of Burgas has ruled an Iranian woman living in Bulgaria should be granted asylum.

The decision comes after the State Agency for Refugees (DAB) of the country had rejected the woman's asylum request.

The number of holiday bookings for Bulgaria has been surging, with tour operators expecting to make up for decreasing numbers of Russian tourists registered last year.

German tour operator TUI will increase by 35% its charter flights from Germany to Varna and Burgas, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, in Summer 2016 compared with last year, Bulgaria's Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova has said.

Russia's Ural Airlines will launch regular weekly flights in the summer from the city of Perm to Bulgaria's Burgas, on the Black Sea coast, TASS has reported.

The Yekaterinburg-based airline would offer direct flights from Perm to Burgas on Wednesdays from June 1 until September 21, the Russian news agency quoted a Perm Airport spokesperson as saying on Thursday.

Bulgaria and China signed agreements for cooperation in the areas of air and water transport.

The agreements were signed during the visit of Bulgaria's Deputy Transport Minister Anton Ginev to Shanghai and Zhengzhou between March 2 and 6.

Bulgarian police have detained 45 illegal migrants and five Bulgarian citizens who transported them in three separate cases in the southwestern Burgas Region on Tuesday.

Bulgaria's anti-trust regulator has launched a probe of seven petrol and diesel retailers over suspected price-fixing.

A separate investigation of potential abuse of dominant wholesale market position has been launched against Bulgaria's sole oil refinery Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in a statement on Thursday.

An agreement for a fast railway connection between China and Europe passing through the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas will be signed in March.

This was announced by the mayor of Burgas, Dimitar Nikolov, after a meeting with a Chinese government delegation on Sunday.

Options for Chinese companies to build a second bridge over the Varna lake were one of the items on the agenda of a meeting between Chinese investors and Varna Mayor Ivan Portnih, regional authorities report.

A Chinese government delegation will visit the Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Varna and Burgas to study opportunities for investment in their transport infrastructure, the transport ministry in Sofia announced on Friday.