Regret and defiance in Europe’s vaccine-shy east as COVID-19 rages
Riga, Latvia/Sofia, Bulgaria Reuters As Latvia goes into lockdown and hospitals in Bulgaria and Romania buckle under a COVID-19 surge while Poland sells surplus vaccine doses, many central and eastern Europeans are torn between defiance and regret over not getting inoculated. The region has the European Union’s lowest vaccination rates, an unwelcome distinction in which both […]
Protest parties surge in Bulgaria election, threatening Prime Minister Borissov
Sofia, BulgariaReuters Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov will have difficulty holding onto power, after a surge of votes in an election on Sunday for anti-establishment and anti-corruption parties that want him out. Parallel count of the vote by pollsters forecast his centre-right GERB party to remain the largest grouping in parliament, but with only 25.2 […]
EU countries agree to share ‘solidarity vaccines’ with states in need
Brussels, BelgiumReuters Most European Union member states on Thursday agreed to share part of their upcoming vaccine deliveries with the five EU countries they said need them most. The EU’s vaccine doses are usually distributed between the bloc’s 27 countries based on population size. Vials with Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine labels […]
Pictures – Epiphany celebrations marked by pandemic
Kalofer, BulgariaAP Christians on Wednesday marked Epiphany in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which constrained celebrations in many places but didn’t stop some defying warnings to keep to traditions. Orthodox Christians celebrate Jesus’ baptism during Epiphany. In Bulgaria, thousands of worshippers ignored health authorities’ warnings to refrain from mass gatherings, braving icy waters to retrieve crucifixes […]
Record numbers of coronavirus cases in every global region – Reuters tally
Reuters Almost 40 countries have reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the past week, around double the number that did so the previous week, according to a Reuters tally showing a pick-up in the pandemic in every region of the world. The rate of cases has been increasing not only in countries like […]
Roma across Europe seen as police target in lockdown
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Roma communities across Europe have become a police target in lockdown, a report found on Wednesday, amid a sharpening global focus on racial equality and law enforcement. The report by Amnesty International, a human rights organisation, said Roma communities had faced tougher quarantines than citizens who posed a greater health risk. […]
Bulgaria urged to stop locking up stateless people by detained heart doctor
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation A cardiac specialist, who was locked up in Bulgaria for six weeks because he has no nationality, has called on the government to stop treating stateless people like criminals. Sager Al-Anezi, who is from a large stateless population in Kuwait called the Bidoon, qualified as a doctor after moving to Bulgaria in […]
World Evangelical Alliance raises concerns over “discriminatory” proposals to amend Religious Denominations Act in Bulgaria
The World Evangelical Alliance has expressed concern over proposed amendments to Bulgaria’s Religious Denominations Act which it says threatens to force the closure of evangelical churches and institutions or see them face “unbearable and discriminatory administrative burdens”. The WEA said in a statement that the draft law, first read in Parliament on 11th October, “has […]
SNAPSHOT: SOFIA, BULGARIA
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