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Topic of the Day

27.01.2012

Weighed down by heavy snow, Bulgaria woke up on January 27 2012 to closed roads, snow drifts of up to two metres and 121 villages without electricity. The situation in Rousse remained severe, Bulgarian National Television said. Efforts were being made to restore traffic access for lorries bound for Romania while at border crossings with Greece and Turkey, lorries were being held at parking bays. States of emergency had been declared on January 26 in Svoge, Lovech, Ivanovo, Lisichevo, Batak, Velingrad and Popovo, The Sofia Echo wrote.

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Politics

27.01.2012

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy vowed to try to convince the Dutch government to reverse a negative stance on Bulgaria's Schengen entry. Thursday Plevneliev met Rompuy in his Brussels roundtrip, the first international visit since assuming office Sunday. Rompuy expressed satisfaction at Bulgaria's Schengen progress and assured that EU institutions are in favor of Bulgaria and Romania's swift accession to the Schengen Agreement, Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) wrote.

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Economy

27.01.2012

The EU commission has unveiled a single EU-wide law on internet privacy that could see overseas firms hit with multi-million-euro fines. EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding told press at the launch event in Brussels on Wednesday (25 January) that "personal data is the currency of the digital market and it must be stable and trustworthy." She also called data protection "a fundamental right for all Europeans." The draft regulation updates an old law from 1995 and comes at a time when 250 million EU citizens log on every day, EU Observer wrote.

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Business

27.01.2012

The Sofia subway will reach the airport in 2014, according to the promise of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov. The new deadline is ahead of the previous schedule, after it became clear at the end of 2011 that the segment between the main Sofia thoroughfare "Tsarigradsko Shosse" boulevard and the airport will be included in the current program period of the EU operational program "Transport" and a public procurement tender for a construction contractor was announced, Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) wrote.

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International

27.01.2012

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has announced a 17% rise in profits in the last three months of 2011, as smartphone sales boosted earnings. Net profit for the quarter was $3.6bn, up from 3.42tn won in the same period the previous year, Samsung said. However, for the whole of 2011 net income was down 15% compared with 2010. Samsung's parent group is planning $42bn in capital investment this year, BBC wrote.

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