International relations

A seven-month investigation into child pornography by police in 32 countries has traced 78 people believed to have been trading in hardcore material including three suspects in Greece – two Greeks, aged 25 and 34, and a 47-year-old Bulgarian national – according to a police statement issued on Thursday.

NATO needs to have a larger presence in eastern Europe in light of the crisis in Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday, quoted by The New York Times.

Tusk is in the Slovak capital Bratislava, to attend the session titled "Visegrad Up: Finding Common Grounds in Times of Crisis" at the 2014 GLOBSEC Security Forum. 

Bulgaria's Interior Ministry is planning to open eight new border crossing points by 2017, reports Sega daily. 

The checkpoints will be at the borders with Greece – one, Serbia – two, FYROM – three and Romania – two, shows a ministry plan, entitled Strategy for integrated border management. 

Six complaints from five prisoners have been united in one trial, Neshkov et al. against Bulgaria, which indicates that the Strasbourg court intends to review Bulgaria's poor prison conditions as a systemic problem, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

On several occasions during the course of the crisis Greece found itself very close to exiting the euro. This has been confirmed by an increasing number of publications abroad, as well as testimonies from the protagonists of the Greek and European crises.

The 30km border fence between Bulgaria and Turkey will be completed by June, assured Bulgaria's Defense Minister Angel Naydenov.

"Inflation within target limits, GDP growth 1 percent"

BELGRADE -- The inflation has been within the limits of the target rate since October 2013, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Jorgovanka Tabaković has said.

Power distributors operating in Bulgaria committed 2690 infringements, as the national energy watchdog DKEVR's audit revealed Wednesday.

Czech-based CEZ and Energo-Pro and Austrian-based were also accused by DKEVR of having provided false accounts of their revenues, with the latter being "millions of BGN" more than reported, according to Dariknews.

Bulgaria's workforce was 2.22 million in March 2014, up 0.4% (8500 people) from the same month last year, the National Statistics Institute has revealed.

The biggest increase has been observed in the agricultural sector (6.6%), professional activities and research (3.1%) and information production (2.9%).

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg is preparing a new pilot-judgment procedure, the third in a row, against Bulgaria over poor prison conditions.