Disaster

No Bulgarian citizens, who are currently in Nepal, expressed interest to evacuate from the earthquake-stricken country with the airplane, which has been provided for the purpose by the Foreign Ministry.

This was announced by the ministry's spokesperson Betina Zhoteva in an interview for private NOVA TV on Wednesday.

The Air Traffic Safety Electronic Engineers Association on Tuesday called a three-hour “warning work stoppage” for Thursday, April 30, to protest staff and equipment shortages. The stoppage is to take place between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on April 30.

Nepalese riot police battled April 29 to contain anger among survivors of an earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people as rescuers raced against time to find anyone else alive in the rubble of the capital Kathmandu.

Nepal declared a three-day national mourning for the more than 5000 victims of the disastrous earthquake, which hit the country on Saturday.

Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said that the government was doing all it could, but was overwhelmed by the scale of the natural disaster, the BBC reports.

BELGRADE - Over 1,000 tons of hazardous waste will be disposed in Serbia by the end of the year, Head of Waste Management Department in the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Radmila Serovic announced on Tuesday.

The US company Uber is coming to Zagreb, Belgrade and other bigger cities in the region - but the application that enables people to get cheap rides is causing dismay among local taxi drivers.

The application enables ordinary people to register as drivers who are then contacted by the nearest passengers seeking transport.

The suspects in Turkey's worst-ever mine disaster denied responsibility for the 2014 accident during the fifth hearing on April 20, precipitating anger among the families of the 301 victims in the courthouse.

Serbia receives EUR 60.2mn from EU Solidarity Fund

BELGRADE -- Serbia has been granted EUR 60.2 million worth of funds from the EU Solidarity Fund "for repair of flood consequences," Tanjug has reported.

The agency quoted Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of EU integration Jadranka Joksimovic.

BELGRADE - The Special Court in Belgrade Wednesday sentenced 20 members of a "traffic mafia" to between five months and seven and a half years in prison for causing huge losses to insurance providers by defrauding them with false insurance claims.

Slobodan Knezic, organizer of the criminal group, was given a concurrent sentence of seven years and six months in prison.

Fighting in Ukraine "intensifies" - OSCE

DONETSK -- Fighting has intensified in eastern Ukraine after more than a month of relative calm, AP is quoting OSCE observers in the region.

Observers on Sunday reported that they heard "intense mortar fire outside the village of Shyrokyne for about three hours as well as machine gun engagement."