On Track
Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev attended the commissioning of an automatic locomotive signaling system in Plovdiv, which is being implemented in conjunction with Austria's Alcatel and is being financed under the European Union PHARE programme.
The project includes the supply, assembly and commissioning of the system at the Plovdiv and Stara Zagora-Bourgas sections of track. According to the Transport Ministry, the system will increase the safety of rail traffic several times over.

On the Wind
Bulgaria hopes to build the highest altitude wind park in Europe and is seeking investors for the project, drafted by the energy efficiency centre of the Stara Zagora trade and industry chamber.
If the project goes ahead, 13 turbines with a capacity of 10.4 megawatts will be set up at a 2000 m altitude in the Pirin mountain region. According to Oleg Stoilov, the head of the trade and industry chamber, Austria's Energy Efficiency Agency was the first to state its interest in the project. Stoilov, accompanied by Stara Zagora municipal officials, visited Austria to study wind farms and eco energy facilities.

Feeling Unsafe
Only 5.4 per cent of Bulgarian children feel safe in Bulgaria, according to a poll done by the Regional Youth Council in Stara Zagora among 1000 pupils aged from 14 to 19.
Forty-nine per cent of those polled said that they most feared paedophiles and pimps. The credibility rating that they gave to police was zero, and to their teachers, 1.4 per cent. If something bad happened to them, or if they witnessed a crime, they would not tell anyone, said participants in the poll.

Trafficking Bust
Four men from Stara Zagora were arrested on March 9 for trafficking women and forcing them to become sex workers.
According to police, the four men, ranging in ages from 26 to 48, ran a ring recruiting and transporting dozens of young women from the area. About 17 women who had been victims of the ring were questioned by police.

Criticism of EU
NGOs Bankwatch and Friends of the Earth have criticised 22 projects planned for Eastern Europe that they say are environmentally or socially damaging, including a planned hazardous waste incinerator in the already heavily polluted region of Stara Zagora.
The EU is to spend 157 billion euro on infrastructure in Eastern Europe through its structural and cohesion funds. Of this, six billion euro will be spent on investments that are in contradiction with the EU's goals, according to the NGOs.
Some of the projects were simply unnecessary, while there were better alternatives in all cases, according to Martin Konecny of Friends of the Earth Europe.