Demography

More than 2,600 migrants were rescued by the Italian navy this weekend, authorities said Monday, as police searched for new arrivals who landed by night on Sicily's southern coast.
      

Around 75 migrants are lost at sea in the Mediterranean according to survivors of a shipwreck off Italy who were plucked to safety by the navy, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.
      
A group of 27 people rescued on Tuesday off Sicily reported that there another 75 people on board their boat, who are therefore believed lost at sea, the agency said in a statement.

The birth rate in Bulgaria has increased somewhat, said Dr.Victor Zlatkov, head of the largest maternity hospital in Bulgaria, Maichin Dom, quoted by Dnevnik.bg.

For the first half of 2014, in the hospital were born 2088 babies, while in the same period of 2013 their number was 1921.

The refugees who apply for aid from Bulgaria, will be settled across the country and will get free housing, language and professional training for a year, reports Sega daily. 

The municipalities who accept refugees will receive additional state financing. This is provided for in the draft Strategy for integration of persons who received international protection. 

BELGRADE - The U.S. government will donate USD 10 million to the Regional Housing Program for refugees and internally displaced persons in Serbia, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration Simon Henshaw announced on Thursday during his visit to Krnjaca Collective Center.

GENEVA - More than 50 million people were forcibly uprooted worldwide at the end of last year, the highest level since after World War Two, as people fled crises from Syria to South Sudan, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

The number of people driven from their homes by conflict and crisis has topped 50 million for the first time since World War II, with Syria hardest hit, the UN refugee agency said Friday.
      
The UNHCR said there were 51.2 million forcibly displaced people at the end of 2013, a full six million higher than the previous year.
      

Local construction projects will need approval by the Environment and Urbanization Ministry rather than municipalities and public opinion will also be taken by polls, according to a new regulation issued in the Official Gazette.

The new regulation has brought about new changes to the rules of construction in cities and was released by the ministry on June 14.

The UN refugee agency called on the authorities to ensure that people who fled Kosovo during the 1998-99 war have places to live and security if they choose to return home.

NIS - A Day Care Centre for the Elderly opened in Nis on Thursday and the official opening ceremony was attended by U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Michael Kirby.