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Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s Cabinet unveils its plan to take Bulgaria’s economy out of crisis

Offline: Social fever

Only for someone who has lived under a rock for the past year, would it be news that social networks have really, really exploded

The epic Koncheto Ridge - do you dare? Picture gallery

Possibly the most dramatic and epic stretch of mountain, anywhere in Bulgaria. Enjoy

Past and future present in The Sofia Echo

A preview of The Sofia Echo newspaper appearing on May 29 2009

Bulgaria is among 27 European Union member states that will have to come into line with the Blue Card employment scheme for highly-skilled foreign employees, approved by the European Council. The Sofia Echo has full details on the issue published on May 29 2009.

Randall Baker launches Bulgariana

Book launch sees high turnout at Sofia's Military Club

Signs and wonders

In restaurants, on signposts and in all meanderings around Bulgaria, there is always the enchantment of being lost in translation, or is that mistransliteration?

Sofia Echo Media office move

Sofia Echo Media, publisher of The Sofia Echo and sofiaecho.com, will be moving to new offices.

Maps on Sofiaecho.com updated

Today we rolled out a new version of map links in articles. A cleaned up, tighter design, but with more room to scroll inside the map.

Location maps on The Sofia Echo

Sofiaecho.com introduces location maps, to give users a better understanding of where the news we report takes place.

Grand designs

After months of work, The Sofia Echo launches its redesigned website. A quick guide to what’s new, what’s different.

Welcome to the new sofiaecho.com

Welcome to the redesigned sofiaecho.com. After many months of work, the new design was launched late on February 1 2009.

Bulgarian property developments in limbo - The Sofia Echo reports

A glimpse at the stories to look forward to in this week's newspaper

Are the real estate and construction businesses in Bulgaria hitting a brick wall?

The Sofia Echo development blog

Find out what is keeping us busy, what's new, what's different and what to expect from The Sofia Echo online.

The passion of the hunter-president, or about our rams

Website fergana.ru writes about Bulgarian President's hunting exploits abroad

Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov has been accused by a Russian-language Central Asia news website to have shot a protected species animal while visiting Uzbekistan in November. The report has caused outrage among Bulgarian opposition parties, who have compared Purvanov to communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, himself an avid hunter. The unabridged text of the report, written by reporter Sergei Naumov, follows.

Legal Alien: Shake, rattle and droll

It was 1969, and I was lying abed in a country hotel, running a fever. Suddenly, the symptoms seemed to get out of hand as my bed started bucking and leaping, cartoon-style, apparently at its own volition. I had experienced my first earth tremor.

Credit crunch: The G20 summit's main resolutions - and reactions

Leaders of the G20 group of the world's major developed and developing economies, meeting in Washington on November 15 2008, approved a wide range of general principles and specific measures to prevent the global financial crisis worsening and to come up with reforms - including of multilateral financial institutions - to forestall a recurrence of such a crisis.

Bulgaria switches to winter time on October 26

Bulgaria changes to winter time at 4am on October 26 2008, meaning that clocks should be put an hour back, to 3am.

TO THE EDITOR: Secret service

Sir So the retired general Nikola Kolev thinks that security services should have a free hand and be able to investigate anyone they choose (article on sofiaecho.com, October 1 2008). I really wonder how such an individual could be appointed to a politically sensitive post like head of the President's office. His comments show that he has learned

Fenerite/Die alte Lampe

Bierstube away from home

The glories of German cuisine can really only be properly experienced in an authentic Bierstube, but when 1100km separate here and there, Die alte Lampe/Fenerite offers a good alternative. As an interpretation of the beer hall, the restaurant pays due respect to its German roots, while not forgetting its Bulgarian host. Cream-coloured walls are broken up with brick accents, and with

Man arrested after Bulgarian hotel worker found murdered in Greece - update

A man has been arrested after the body of a 31-year-old woman, said by Greek police to have been a Bulgarian who had been employed at a hotel, was discovered on September 27 in Olynthos near Halkidiki. Greek and Bulgarian media reports said that the body of the woman, who had been severely beaten, had been covered with grass in an apparent attempt to conceal it. The body was discovered by hunting dogs, reports said.

Offline: Bulgaria's Sarah Palin

In a bid to outsmart legislation on access to information, which includes e-mail correspondence, some American politicians have moved to using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. One such politician is vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who had her two Yahoo! accounts hacked and their content published on wikileaks.org (1).

Finding American voters in the thicket of foreign cities

You know that they are out there: Americans enrolled in year-abroad programs, on sabbatical or relocated with US-based firms. Many may not know that they are able to vote while away from home. With the absentee ballot registration deadline looming, it's a race against time to find these Americans and tell them that, yes, you can vote from abroad. Here in Bulgaria, efforts to find and register Americans to vote in November have already gotten underway.

Weekend blog: Fighting organised crime - Bulgarian style

Ok, so I was wrong. Just when I thought that the joke of the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security (SANS) could not possibly get any more ridiculous, it did.

Architectural-Museum Reserve Tsarevets /Царевец/

Just as a trip to Athens would be incomplete without visiting the Acropolis, so the hike up to Tsarevets is an integral part of the Veliko Turnovo experience. The medieval fortress that watches over the city may not be as beautiful as its Greek counterpart, but it is steeped in history and well worth a look. Fortified as a Byzantine stronghold since the fourth century CE, it was taken in the 12th century and became the centre of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom

To our readers - from The Sofia Echo

For several hours on August 22 2008, our web hosting server was unable to provide access to sofiaecho.com and to propertywisebulgaria.com, and we apologise to readers for the inconvenience. The problem has been addressed and we are confident that service will continue uninterrupted in the future. Our thanks to all those involved in restoring the websites - especially given the sites' ever-growing popularity, and our gratitude to our readers who contacted us to inquire why they could not get to their favourite read.

Lidl buys plot in Pazardjik for supermarket

The local unit of German retailer Lidl has won a competition for a 4892 sq m plot of municipal land in Pazardjik, southern Bulgaria. The company plans for the supermarket to have a built-up area of 1500 sq m and 70 parking spaces. Lidl Bulgaria upped its bid on the plot to 1.722 million leva from the initial offer of 1.5 million leva. The company is to build the supermarket in nine months. As part of the deal, Lidl Bulgaria has undertaken to invest 350 000 leva in renovating the sporting venues of the nearby Hebar complex.

Prosecutors raid State Fund Agriculture offices

Bulgarian prosecutors searched the offices of State Fund Agriculture on July 7 2008, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported, quoting sources familiar with the investigation. The prosecutors seized paperwork filed for projects under European Union pre-accession aid programme Sapard, filed by a company whose name was not disclosed, the agency said.

Army warehouse blasts shake Sofia -report

A series of strong explosions at a warehouse full of military shells began at about 6.30am in Chelopechene village, east of Sofia. The explosions are still going on and can still be heard in the area. A large cloud covers the sky. A woman living in Chepintsi village near Chelopechene said that she saw a large smoke cloud mushroom into the sky after the first blast. "It was terrible, pieces of doors, windows and everything was all around me," she told private broadcaster Nova TV. The extent of the damage is still to be evaluated, but TV reports showed houses that have been seriously damaged.

President, Prime Minister set to clear the air

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will meet President Georgi Purvanov on June 23 2008 at 4pm, the Government's press service said. The statement did not say what would be the subject of conversation between the two of them. The meeting, however, comes a week after Purvanov gave two interviews for Bulgarian media on the subject of Stanishev's policies.

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