International relations

At least BGN 200M higher levels of cash flow were recorded on Bulgaria's property market by the end of June and the beginning of July, 2014.

EU and the Balkans co-operate against human trafficking

Germany and France have agreed to establish joint expert working groups with Albania and Serbia.

The EU is engaging Balkan countries to slow the tide of human trafficking from the Middle East, Africa and Asia by providing additional support for refugees who legally arrive in Union states.

By Angelos Stangos

Greeces state privatisation fund is to be overhauled for the fifth time in two years, the finance ministry said on Monday, as it announced plans to seek new management.

The ministry said the terms of the chairman and managing director at the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) would not be renewed and it would seek new candidates.

Bulgaria on Monday warned its citizens against all travel to Libya due to escalating tensions in the North African country.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry in Sofia also strongly recommended Bulgarians currently in Libya to leave immediately.

Two blasts by female suicide bombers killed three people and injured 13 in Nigeria's Kano city on Monday, bringing the number of attacks this week in the area to five and overshadowing festivities marking the end of Ramadan.
      

A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a petrol station in northern Nigeria's biggest city of Kano on Monday, killing one other person, a military source said.
   
The source gave no other details about the attack. It was the third bomb attack in Kano in just 24 hours.
   

BELGRADE - Serbia can have a very positive role in regional stability in the Western Balkans, in reforms in the process of European integration, as well as during its OSCE chairmanship, and the West is setting no ultimatums regarding the country's position on Russia, British Ambassador to Serbia Denis Keefe has said.

23.3% of households in Bulgaria live below the poverty threshold, according to Nikolay Nenkov from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB).

Nenkov gave a press conference Monday to present a report on the cost of living in June 2014.

Bulgaria is to spend BGN 937.9 M on innovations in 2015, including public spending and the expenses of the business sector.

The sum is nearly double the amount earmarked in 2011, when the expenses for research and development amounted to BGN 429.6 M.